Mid-Century modern hairpin leg table and benches Pine and steel

Okay. This was my biggest project in woodworking so far. After a year of eating on the couch, my wife and I needed a dining room table and with our new apartment we had the space for it. We looked around the internet and found a style that we liked and I went to work. My first stop was Home Depot. I ended up buying about $80 worth of pine. Being in New York with no car always presents its challenges, especially when doing an activity like ‘hauling.’  Does anyone even know that word here in New York City?  Thank goodness for Zipcar.

I bought some pre-fabricated hairpin legs for about $25 each from tablelegs.com. They shipped within a few days. Back in the wood shop I first cut the board pieces to size. I wanted roughly a 5′ x 30″ table. I ran the boards through the planer and cut the rounded edges on the table saw. Now for the gluing process. I used dowels to join the three pieces to make the table top and reinforced it with three oak strips drilled to the bottom. After drying it was a long time with the belt sander to even out the surface. Then I rounded the edges of the tabletop with the router. Attaching the legs was easy enough with a hand drill. Then I stained the surface with Minwax wood stain, Provincial 230. I then made pretty basic benches to go with the table.