Benchright Table and Bench

My wife and I just purchased a new home with our first dining room. While debating the expense of buying new dining room furniture we decided that we should try a do-it-yourself project and were lucky enough to stumble on Ana's website. While we had never done any real woodworking (we made a cat tree once), Ana's plans and the accompanying comments were easy to follow and proved that even beginners can make cool furniture!

We built the bench first and managed to complete it in one weekend without much trouble. This helped us learn the basics of the tools we were using, especially the miter saw. The table followed.

We wanted a slightly larger table and bench than those in the plans so that we could host more people and fill out the room. Our table is 78" x 38.5".
Increasing the width required adding an additional 1" x 6" on the table top. The only other change that we made was to extend the 2" x 2" on the side of the table the entire length of the table as is required in the bench instructions. We thought that this provided more stability for the bread boards. We used a threaded rods and turnbuckles on both the table and bench for the accent piece between the legs.

While we certainly had hiccups along the way, but we really enjoyed the process, and love the dining room set that we built. It was a really rewarding experience and now we're looking forward to building most of our furniture!

Special thanks the Ana for her plans and website. We couldn't have done it without her.