The Real Houswives of DIY: Jordan from Trailer Gypsy

OK so today I am so happy to feature a guest post from Jordan over at Trailer Gypsy.

Jordan and I have never officially met. We're online BFF's.

She's is probably one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet.

For example, I once posted on our family blog about my frustration with being poor and still being in school and not being able to afford a creative outlet. 

And do you know what she did?

She mailed me a box FULL of craft projects, books, and a sweet letter.

Just out of the blue and has never met me in real life.

I know, RIGHT?! 

Today she is sharing about a table that she built from scratch.

Enjoy!

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Hi, I'm Jordan and I blog over at Trailer Gypsy. I know Julia through her husband Jake. He and I went to high school together, and middle school, and I'm pretty sure elementary school but I don't remember much from elementary school so I may be wrong. I've never met Julia in person but I can tell through her blog and the photos on facebook that she is just the sweetest.

My boyfriend (also named Jake) and I recently got to work making a dining room table and benches. First, I browsed Ana-White.com until I found a table I liked. Ana-White is a great resource as the site features plans to help you build all kinds of furniture ranging from bed frames to desks to benches.

We don't own a saw so when I went to Home Depot, I had them cut the wood for me there. They don't charge for this service although, they didn't do the best job in the world either. Some boards were shorter than others, I think maybe the guy forgot to take into account the width of the saw blade? It all turned out okay in the end though. When purchasing your wood, be sure to go over every board yourself, to make sure there aren't large chunks missing out of the sides and that the boards are straight.

We had a lot of fun building this together. I did all of the sanding (you'll want an electric sander for sure) and jake did the drill work. Once you have everything sanded, assembling the table and benches goes really quickly and it was really fun to do this together.

The true color of the table is close to the second photo. It's difficult getting pictures with my little point and shoot camera to not turn out yellow in my yellow kitchen. I wanted to keep the table as close to the natural color of the wood so I used Minwax Wood Finish Stain in Golden Pecan. I applied one coat using a rag I made from a cut up t-shirt after having applied Minwax Wood Conditioner.

My favorite thing about this is the price. It was about $100 for all the materials for the table and benches, including the screws, wood conditioner, stain and wood putty. For a table and benches that seat 6-8 people, that's an amazing deal! It may not be the fanciest table but we sure love it.

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Thank you Jordan! 

Make sure to check out her blog...she's adorable. :)