Patriotic Coffee Table

Jared hinted to me a while back that he wanted a coffee table similar to this, thought it was a good enough plan for a birthday present. I actually used some scrap wood from a deck my mom's neighbor took down that they let me have. I was going off of a similar table someone submitted on Ana White's website.

DAY 1

#1 The drive to my dad's shop scared me and probably most of the drivers behind me. Although I tied it all down, it always makes me nervous when I can hear the highway breeze going down the road.

First thing was to get the old rusty nails out of the boards.

Then I cut them all down to size. The 3 boards I brought were extremely long and I was trying to keep the dimensions about the same as my coffee table but it turned out a little bigger.

Don't be scared of that green moss or whatever that is, remember they're used...don't worry I'll sand them all down and make them look brand new again.

I used the Kregg jig to put all the pieces together and to attache the legs. The table ended up being 22" tall.

Seriously, this jig is awesome. (those holes are a booger to stain though) Tried to do the rest at home but I needed to do some more cutting, so back over to dad's workshop I went. Not too shabby for a days work, eh?

Later on that night, probably 11 or so I started to paint the top. I just used a white spray paint that didn't cover all that well...but after two coats I thought it looked alright. Then I stained the rest of it using dark walnut from Minwax, I know...surprise, surprise.

DAY 2

This morning, after getting a little sleep I decided to try and tackle the top. I started by using painters tape and taping off the stripes. I also taped around the edge of the top because I wanted that to be stained instead of painted.

Talk about scary. With every project I have a moment where I say, "oh my gosh, what did I just do?!?". This was one of those moments. IT'S SO BRIGHT! Not the look I'm going for obviously so hold tight everyone...I do have a plan to tone it down a bit, so don't be too alarmed.

Removed the tape and used a stamp I got from Joann's to do the stars. I got this wooden star that was much larger that would have looked so cute...but I know that probably would have bothered Jared having a table with an American flag on it that didn't have the correct amount of stars.