How To Make A Dining Room Table

By Murray Anderson

Wouldn't it be fantastic to build an elegant dining room table that not only would look great in your dining room and be so well built it could be passed on to future generations?  Unfortunately, not many have that kind of skill level or maybe the money necessary to buy the tools and materials to build such a table. However, in spite of those limitations, most of us do need a dining room table we can use for dinner parties and family gatherings. Here are some ideas on how you can go about building a functional, practical and inexpensive dining room table for yourself.

Start with the top.

• When you think about it, a dining room table is really just a large flat surface with enough room for people to sit around the outside. Depending on the shape of your room and your personal tastes it can be rectangular, square, oval round or even some other shape you like. So, you've got a number of options for your dining room tabletop. 
   
• A 4' x 8' sheet of ¾" plywood or MDF can make a great tabletop. You can easily cut it to size, cut or round off the corners, or simply round over the edges of the boards. At ¾" thick it will be substantial enough  to hold a family sized dinner without any worry about the middle sagging under the weight. 
   
• Another alternative is a solid or even a hollow core door. Standard doors are available in lengths/heights ranging from 78 to 80 to 82 inches and in standard widths of 32, 34 and 36 inches. Here again, depending on the size of your room and your personal preferences you can put together a table as wide or as long as you want. 
   
• If you're thinking about using a door as your tabletop (particularly a hollow core door), consider building a frame or box out of lumber the same thickness the door. Miter the corners to get a smooth joint and attach the frame all around the perimeter of the door.  This box will effectively add 3" to the width and length of your door/table top while providing additional support for your dining surface. 
   

How do you hold it up?

• Turned spindles intended to be used as newel or corner posts for stairs are commonly available at home stores. It's best to get the larger posts (not the thinner stair spindles) for both appearance and strength. You can attach them to the underside of the table using screws or construction adhesive. 
   
• Alternatively, you may be able to reuse material to support your dining table. Cable reels (the large round wooden reels that lengths of electrical cables are shipped on) are strong and just the right height when placed on their side. You may be able to get two of them at an electrical wholesaler for at minimal cost or even free they often have stacks of them outside their warehouse. You want two reels that are 29" wide to provide the proper height for your table. Simply lay your tabletop on top of the reels and screw or glue it in place. 
   
• Paint or stain your table top and attached legs or simply cover it with a large tablecloth. Once the chairs are place around the outside most people won't even notice your table isn't a piece of finely crafted furniture.

 
Murray Anderson is an experienced freelance writer over 500 articles published on the web as well as in print magazines and newspapers in both the United States and Canada. He writes on a wide range of topics and is a regular contributor to DoItYourself.com. He can be contacted at murand@lycos.com.