We rearranged our living room and I loved the new layout but one thing that was missing was that perfect entry table to separate the living room from the hallway. After spending countless hours online searching for a table that would both be the right size and match the rest of our decor I gave up and decided to build my own DIY custom entry table. I’ll show you how you can do the same and build YOUR own custom entry table!
I wanted my entry table to fit behind the IKEA Ektorp loveseat, so the size of the table ended up being 4 ft wide, 2 ft tall and 9 in deep. You can definitely adjust the measurements I’ll use below if you want to create a smaller or larger version of this!
Here’s How I Built our Custom Entry Table:
Materials
- 2 pine boards (1 in x 2 in x 8ft)
- 1 pine board (1 in x 3 in x 8ft)
- 1 birch board (9 in x 4 ft)
- 1 birch board (6 in x 4 ft)
- wood screws
- wood glue
- wood filler
- paint of choice
- stain of choice
Tools
- miter saw
- drill
- pocket hole jig
- sander or sand paper
- nail gun (optional)
Step 1: Lay out your wood
Step 2: Measure and cut your wood
Cut each of your 1 in x 2 in x 8ft boards down to:
- 2 small 2 in boards
- 2 longer 38 in boards
Cut your 1 in x 3 in x 8 ft board down to:
- 4 2 ft boards (Note: Make sure these are all exactly the same length as they will become the legs and your table will wobble if there is even the slightest difference in length)
Step 3: Drill your pocket holes
You’ll need to drill a total of 12 pocket holes and I marked the spots in the picture above!
Step 4: Drill 4 holes
Pick 2 of your 38 in boards and pre-drill 2 holes in each of them. These will help secure the table top later.
Step 5: Sand
It’s time to sand all of your surfaces! I also sanded all of the edges down to create softer corners. The picture below shows how sharp the corners were before sanding them down.
Step 6: Attach your boards with screws
You’ll need a total of 12 and I used 1 1/2 in screws. Here’s a picture of how to attach your boards.
Step 7: Attach the two sides
Because this table is so narrow and I knew I wouldn’t have enough room to drive the screws in with both sides attached, I decided to use a cabinet screw instead. Don’t worry, we will fill the holes with wood filler in the next step!
First, put the side of the table that was on the right side in the previous picture on top of the side that was over on the left. Next, find the spots you’ll need to drive the screws into to attach the two:
I really like those cabinet screws, they go in so fast and don’t split the wood.
You should end up with something like this:
Step 9: Fill the screw holes with wood filler, let them dry and sand
Yay, now it’s starting to look like a table!
Step 10: Cut your 6 in x 9 in into 16 2 1/2 in pieces to cover the lower tier table top of the table
Time saving tip: You can mark the 2 1/2 in spot on your miter saw with a pencil so you won’t have to measure every time and this will help ensure that all of the pieces are exactly the same width.
Take 2 of your 16 pieces and cut them from 6 in down to 4 in. These will be your pieces that will go on the right and left side.
Step 11: Paint your wood table
This is what the bottom part looked like after the first coat:
Almost there! Another time saving tip: don’t worry about painting the parts that won’t show 🙂 I was going for more of a beachy imperfect look for this table and so I felt comfortable skipping the primer.
I went a little crazy on the color combo for my table top and lower tier table top:
- Mixed walnut stain 50%/50% with mineral spirits
- Mixed weathered gray stain 50%/50% with mineral spirits
- Applied a few coats of each and let it dry in between
- Mixed Sherwin Williams Pure White 50%/50% with water
- I applied the white carefully and wiped off any excess
- I also used a little bit of Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray (one of my favorite colors!) on this. Again, carefully as less is more in this case!
Step 12: Attach your table top
Step 13: Attach the lower tier table top
I attached the pieces on the right and left side using a nail gun and used wood glue for the rest. Also, a pencil turned out to be perfect to space out the individual wood pieces evenly!
Step 14: Enjoy your new DIY custom wood table!
I hope you enjoyed this step by step guide for how to build a custom entry table!
Tina
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