IKEA Farmhouse Table Hack

Today we’re going to share a little story of the table that could : ) From straight out of the box to an Ikea farmhouse table!

Back in college I took an IKEA trip and came home with a table and 4 chairs for an amazing price of $80 total. It traveled with me through multiple moves and cities (& states!) and it’s last hurrah was at our first rental home in our kitchen (old photo below!)

Although it worked for the time being, I’ve really had fun discovering what “my style” is lately, and the pastels and delicate glass don’t exactly fit anymore. Lately I am more attracted to farmhouse and industrial, mostly because of their use of woods, metals and all things reclaimed. So, instead of replacing what I have, I decided to give it a little transformation!

First, the original silver frame got cleaned and a light sanding, followed by a few coats of ORB spray paint, to mimic those gorgeous pipe tables that are taking blogland by storm.

The 2nd part to the makeover was the new wood top! We wanted the table to be about 35″ x 51″ and cut the pieces accordingly. The first step was cutting the 7 2×6’s to 41″ and planing the sides. Originally we put the table together without planing first, but the cracks and their amazing crumb-catching-ability ended up driving me crazy, so we took everything apart and planed all of our edges. It was a lot of work, but I love the clean lines now! (We shared this pic on Instagram a little while ago of M in action!)

After measuring the width of the newly planed boards (35″), we cut two breadboards for the ends. After multiple pocket holes were drilled, (3 & 2 alternating for each long board, and 6 for each breadboard) we laid everything out and started to assemble the pieces!

A long clamp ended up being our best friend during this project. And, as you can see, this project was done last summer when it was nice and warm and green out… I’m just about over winter and ready to be able to work all day in our garage again! (It was also originally gray but we were not in love- so not only did we put the table together twice, we also stained it two different times. Hence why it took so long to share!)

Once all the boards were together, we planed the 4 edges of the table to make sure everything was nice and square, and added a little 45 degree angle to the top and bottom edges to finish it off. The top of the table got one coat of Minwax’s Special Walnut and 3 coats of polyurethane in clear satin, and it was ready for dinner : )

Right now the table is “wedged” in the frame by a scrap 1×4 that we screwed to the bottom of the table top, but we may explore other options to connect the two later on. For now it’s heavy enough that it’s definitely not going anywhere!

These chairs were a clearance steal from Target for $15 a piece, and they are perfect for the space! A little on the smaller side, but with a smaller table like this where we love having open sight lines from the kitchen to the family room, we’re beyond happy with them and use them daily!

AND just because I’m too excited about the progress happening right behind the table to keep my mouth shut, we are about one trim piece away from having a finished kitchen (just ignore all of the coffee cups and screws on the counter for right now ha!) We started the process right around Christmas, and have been slowly working on the finishing touches over the last few weeks. I’ll be sharing all of the details soon, so get ready for some kitchen posts to be taking over Sypsie : )

And that’s how a little old IKEA table grew up to be a farmhouse/industrial inspired charmer. The end.

: )

PS. Want more Sypsie? Follow us by email (top of the right sidebar!) or any of our social pages!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin