A Bigger Top For Our Table

The table that we have was given to us by friends when we lived in Las Vegas and not only do I love the legs, but it has sentimental value. It also fits really well into our tiny dining area. It has functioned pretty well over the years but the problem now is that my kids are not so little. My man child is over 6 feet tall and the next boy is trying his best to catch  up. Our table is so narrow that they have to sit kind of sideways so their knees don't constantly bump.

The original table top is so pretty (especially since I refinished it) and I didn't want to replace it. I just needed a bigger top to fit over the top of it.

As a reminder of the table top before, and to illustrate how narrow it was, here is a shot from several years ago. When it comes to centerpieces, I was very limited. Here I was only able to have a line of leaves. If you look at the top right corner, you can see how I had to be tricky and move the plates so they kind of would hang off the table. This made it look like I had a little more room than I actually did. Otherwise, I couldn't have had a centerpiece at all.

The new table top added 9 inches to the depth and 4 inches to the length. That may not seem like a whole lot, but keep in mind that I couldn't increase the size of the space or the legs of the table. I still needed it to be the right scale, just slightly bigger. Now you can see I can fit a larger centerpiece (like my winter tablesetting) and I don't have to push the plates to the edge.

I used 1x6 boards for the top and 1x4 boards for the sides. A little glue and some metal straps held the top together just fine.

Glue, pocket holes and some screws attached the sides. I added some of that rubber shelving liner to protect the existing table top from getting scratched or dinged from the screws and metal straps. I was going to add some wood to the inside of the new top to prevent it from shifting around but the weight of the top plus the rubber keep in in place pretty well. If I change my mind, it would be super easy to add some 2x4 pieces to make it fit more snugly to the original table top.

I stained the top first with Early American from Minwax, and then painted it a flat black. I did this because of one photo. Do you ever see a picture and base a whole room around it? Well, I was at an event and a photo flashed on the screen of a plate of food on a black distressed table and even though it was only on the screen for a few seconds, I knew that was what I wanted my new table top to look like.

At first I wasn't going to seal it, but I like how it looks when it is wet after being wiped down better than when it is dry so I think I am going to add some poly. I am not one for having an overload of distressed items in a space, so I will probably paint the bench. If you have any suggestions on a color, let me know. I am stumped! Black would be too much, blue would be over kill too due to the door, gray would be to matchy matchy to the chairs, all white is a maybe, but would show everything. Like I said, stumped. Maybe I will just move it to the backside so it doesn't show as much!

What about you? Are you happy with the size of your table? Or do you secretly wish you had a huge table so you have have people over more?

Next week I am going to show how I decorated my new tabletop for Valentine's Day!