You spin my head right round, right round...

Who doesn't LOVE a round table? I know I do! This little thrift store table has served our family well the last few years. I have loved gathering my family & friends around it for games and late night snacks. Unfortunately, we just outgrew it. After our last baby was born we could no longer squeeze and squinch around it anymore and eating in shifts is just madness!

We (as in me) decided this would be a great project for the hubs to do over Christmas holiday. (perks of being students)

We started with this table:

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Ignore the spray paint...Ralphie our elf on the shelf spray painted it with some friends one rowdy night. 

 It's "our song"...cute, right?!

First we decided how big we wanted the new top to be, we took measurements for the top and discussed ideas on a pattern.

We started by researching patterns of tables that we liked.

      

We decided on a chevron pattern. 

(If you can't tell from my fridge in the back ground...I LOVE the chevron patten!)

We made jigs (scrap pieces of wood that are identical in size and shape) to determine what angle we wanted the chevron pattern to take. We chose a 32.5 degree angle (the one on the far left) and then cut all the pieces. Half of them were cut with two right angles (one on each end) and the other half with two left angles.

Once the pieces were all cut we could lay them on the table to get a visual of how the knots would look together since the wood we chose was a Knotty Alder.

It was then time to stain the wood. We used two colors, Natural and Jacobean, both from Minwax.

The Natural we allowed to be absorbed by the wood but wiped the Jacobean with a dry clean cloth so as to not get too dark of a finish. I left the ends of the wood unstained so that if any of my joints didn't meet properly or needed a little sanding to be flush I could.

Once all the pieces were stained, we arranged them all on the table again and began by lining our center pieces up with our previous markings. They were each secured with at least two screws going by piece by piece and row by row.

We chose to secure them through the bottom with screws. That way if we had to replace a damaged piece we could unscrew it and replace it. ( We do have 6 monkeys using this table after all)

We pre-drilled all the screw holes through the top of the existing table. Make sure you use the correct length of screws or it will pierce through the wood.

Once all that was done, our holes drilled and pieces stained and ready. We laid out our first row of pattern and secured it. Starting with the two center pieces of the center row, working our way out on each side.

From there we worked our way up and out.

We made another jig of approximately 2x2 inches wide to make sure our outside pieces were long enough to cut the circular shape into.

Once we worked all the way up we started back at the center and worked all the way down. Doing the same thing we did to the top, working our way out.

*some pieces may end up being very small with you will have to glue to the other pieces to create an even look at the ends.

We used a high-end wood filler to fill any minor gaps at the joints. Once all pieces were secured to the table we sanded any wood fill and stained the ends.

Next we took another scrap piece of wood and made another jig approximately 3" by 3" with a hole drilled in the middle for a pencil. We then marked the underneath of the outer pieces where we would cut to give us our rounded shape of the table. We cut to the pencil mark in order to leave room for sanding the edges. Some of the outer pieces ended up being either very thin and or small. For those that were we used a high quality wood glue to attach them to the other pieces.

The table top was now complete minus the Polycrylic we used for the top coat and the skirt around the outer edge to finish out the ends.

We took a full length piece of the alder and ripped it into 3/16" strips and then soaked them in hot water to make them more malleable. (We used our tub to soak them in) We attached the thin strips of the skirt to the top by using a pneumatic staple gun. After it had fully dried we filled the holes with the same wood filler, sanded and stained using the Jacobean stain to match.

Now with the table fully built, we could apply the finish to beautify and protect the wood. We applied eight top coats with a light sanding in between each coat. I used the feather duster to clean all the fine dust before lightly wiping it off.

After the last coat was fully cured, we used Resin from a local hobby store to fill any of the knots so that nothing would get stuck in them.

Voila! There you have it. An awesome refurbished table that will now host a sitting area for millions of laughs and crazy fun memories!xoxo - Tiffany