Notice the highchair legs in relation to the sliding backdoor. Now, imagine a bleary-eyed mother of an infant stumbling coffee-less towards that exit to let the dog out. Shazam. BooBoo on the toe. I will say I liked our old high chair. It allowed our daughter to eat at the table with us as part of the family. I also liked the price. It was $2 at a garage sale. Granted, the lap belt was missing, and the zipper was operated with a paper clip. Yeah - it was definitely time to upgrade the highchair.
So why not upgrade the table too? :-) Are you ready for this? Are you really really ready? HERE IT IS IN ALL IT'S GLORY:
Do you see the best part of this picture? No highchair legs! Clear access to the backyard! YIPPEE! I was pleasantly surprised that putting a bigger table (38" x 72") in the space actually made the dining room look bigger! Our old table was 48" round and once you added the chairs, it took up the whole space. Not to mention when we had more than 3 guests, somebody had to sit at the kitchen counter "stadium seats". Bad hostessing, that!
The side chairs were part of our old dining set. Once I'm allowed back in the workshop, I'll consider building new ones. Or I'll just keep craigslisting until I find ones I like. At that point, the old table and chair set will be sold.
The cane back captain's chair and it's mate on the other side were a craiglist find. I paid $65 for the pair, cleaned them, painted them, and reupholstered them with some leftover Restoration Hardware fabric I had laying around. (I buy curtain panels at the RH Outlet --- cheapest way to get on average 3 yards of high quality fabric for $10)
One of my goals with this table's finishing was to match our existing furniture. The china cabinet in the background there was our first antique! We bought it at the Tacoma Antique Mall when we first got to WA. It's in a bit of a rough shape now that it's survived two moves and 9 months in storage, but I just call that more character. I am thinking a little rehab is in order there. I should probably replace the glass with plexiglass soon before E gets mobile.
Now for some detail shots:
Notice the leg brackets. This was one of the areas that changed from the original designs. When I got out in the shop, I decided using just a single layer of 2x6 made the brackets too small looking. So I dug into our leftover wood supply and doubled the size of each bracket, making them a chunky 2 1/2" thick.
The beading detail I stole from New Yankee Workshop was repeated in the leg beam, stretcher, and apron. I think it gives the table a subtle bit of fanciness without losing it's rustic aesthetic.
All in all, I'm really proud of this one! It's not perfect, but it was a very fun and educational build. And because it is made of just construction grade pine, it cost $90 to build. That's it. Meaning if I messed up a piece during the construction it was a $6 mistake (cost of one board). I can't tell you how much that knowledge freed me to do this mostly on my own. Had it been made of a solid walnut, there would have been a lot of steps that I wouldn't have tackled on my own. I think my husband is probably even happier about the pine than I am for this reason alone.
Another perk of the pine? It is allowed to get beat up. It's not a precious wood, so my precious little girl can smack it with her spoon as she learns to feed herself. She can scratch at the finish (it's just shellac) and I won't worry. She can hang off of it and I know it's solid enough to hold her weight. In all, I think she likes it:
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