June 15, 2020

DIY: Moveable Outdoor Dining Table Tutorial

Our family has been hunkered down at home since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. We’ve nixxed our annual family vacation to Michigan, and instead are focusing on turning our Backyard into a “Stay at Home Vacation Retreat.” One-by-one, all of the “Some Day” projects are getting checked off the list. I mean, we’re actually home every weekend now… what else do we have going on?

This DIY Table was a SUPER impulsive and quick little build I did one evening while I was getting dinner prepped. We’ve recently discovered that our weekly 2 Ingredient Pizza Dough works wonderfully on a pizza stone on the grill. (More on this to come soon… it’s a GAME-CHANGER) Last week, I was getting ready to start mixing dough, but didn’t want to come inside and mess up my already cleaned kitchen. My solution? Build an outdoor work/eat space.

This table was built with scrap lumber we had in the Barn, so the cut list for this one is a bit weird. I knew I wanted the table to fit the outdoor sectional we have on the patio, so I measured the space out and settled on 40(ish)” x 28″ with an overall height of 26″.

I searched around the barn for some pieces of 1″ wood at various widths and laid them out till I got a table top I liked that was near 40 inches long. The pieces I selected ended up being 42″ when they were laid side by side. I cut them all to be 28″ long.

To secure the pieces of the table top together, I cut a piece of 1″x3″ Furring Strip to 36 inches and screwed it into the back of the boards. I cut this brace 3″ smaller on either side to ensure it would fit into the bottom piece (this will make sense later on… I promise).

For the bottom piece, I took some smaller pieces of trim to make a “Skirt” to hold the legs in place. I cut four pieces of the 1″x.5″ trim so I had two lengths of 40″ and two lengths of 26″. For the legs, I cut four pieces of 4″x4″ to 24″.

I screwed these “skirt” pieces to the end of the legs and flipped them over to stand them up. I wanted to double-check that there was no wobble (aka, a messed up measurement… it happens pretty often when I’m measuring and chasing a toddler at the same time) before I attached the top to the bottom.

I laid the Table Top face down on the ground and centered the bottom piece onto the table top. By making the the brace a little smaller and the skirt perimeter a little smaller than the table top, I had a little bit of wiggle room to center things out without worrying about matching up edges exactly.

I drilled outdoor 1.75″ screws through the skirt and into the table top to secure the top to the bottom. Once the pieces were all secured, I added the rolling casters to the bottom of each leg and turned it right side up.

Behold! A 45 Minute Table!

I sanded and stained the table to match our raised Garden Bed (another exciting project I’m anxious to share!) and we have barely been back indoors since. The stain is cedar toned and since it is a waterproof deck stain, I can simply hose the table off to clean it. How great is that?

I love that this table is mobile so I can wheel it in and out for eating at the sectional, gardening on the patio, or playing hide and go seek with the kiddo. It’s not perfectly squared out and the boards are all a little warped, but, making a piece of furniture for the price of four casters was a pretty great deal.

Come back soon to learn more about the “Faux Paver” project we recently completed on the Concrete Slab and the entire Garden Project that’s been underway here at Rolling Richmond Homestead.