Reclaimed wood table top

The subject of reclaimed wood has been covered several times in the pages of the magazine. This time we have chosen to present a project we made from reclaimed wood from pallets. It's a garden table top. Freight transport involves many pallets that are often used as firewood. But they can be a very good source of reclaimed wood. The garden table pictured below, with metal legs and metal framed top, was in need of repair. The cement and styrofoam filled top, clad with ceramic pieces, had deteriorated with each passing winter. That's how the idea of replacing it with a wooden one came about.

Project and materials needed

We started by doing the project to see what materials we needed. The table top being removable, it wasn't a problem to replace it. Being quite long - 1.8m long and 0.8m wide - a simple top with the planks knocked on top of two others laid perpendicularly would not have withstood the pressure and would have buckled. So we decided to first make a support for the countertop, a frame out of wooden cabinets left over from another job.

Initially, we wanted to open the pallets to recover the wood. But being class 1 European pallets, unpacking them proved very difficult. So the planks for the table were cut from the pallet using the wood between the side strength points.

Apart from the wood, we also needed 4 screws (8 mm) to fasten the countertop to the metal legs, glue (outdoor resistant adhesive), dowels (8 mm) and outdoor resistant finishing materials.

Execution of the countertop

Two 1.7 m long pieces of wood and four 0.7 m long pieces of wood laid perpendicularly were used for the table frame. We placed 4 perpendicular pieces of wood for extra strength of the table top in the middle of the table. The frame was glued from the 2 long and 2 short pieces, and the other 2 short pieces were laid parallel to the short sides of the frame, 0.4 m apart, in hand chiselled recesses.

I drilled holes for the set screws and because I didn't have any screws with buried heads, I made small recesses in the wood to "bury" the screw head.

On top of this frame were placed the planks recovered from the pallets, chosen to have the same thickness and width. The sides were planed to fit snugly together, without insisting on a rustic look. As the planks are shorter than the table, it was necessary to join them together.

The jointing was not done for all the planks in the centre of the table but alternately, following the pattern of floor jointing. The planks were fastened to the frame with dowels and aracet. First, we drilled the holes with the drill, then the dowels were hammered in. Finally, the countertop was straightened to size with the saw.

Antiqued sanding and finishing

After making the countertop we started the white preparation. For the antique look I was aiming for there were already dents, nail holes, scratches. I smoothed the edges a little more and then planed the entire surface, without insisting. White sanding was done with sandpaper with 150 and then 180 grit.

The completion was done in 2 stages, because some ideas changed along the way. Initially we thought it would be white washed and light antiqued. We started with the application of a layer of impregnating white for outside.

After the impregnator was dusted, I turned the countertop inside out and applied a full coat of clear exterior varnish in a crosswise pattern.

I went back over the face of the countertop and sanded off the white impregnation to remove it on some portions. Then applied 2 coats of clear varnish for the exterior, with sanding between layers.

We returned to the project after two weeks

After applying 2 coats of varnish we considered the project finished. But we were going to continue it after 2 weeks for two reasons. One because we all came to the conclusion that the back of the countertop needed sanding and another coat of varnish and the second reason, because we wanted to apply a patina darker to bring out the defects of the planks even better.

So, blatul has been re-sanded and sanded very well on the back, insisting on the frame and in the areas with fibre ends, where the surface is rougher. I then applied another coat of clear varnish resistant to the outside.

After sanding, I applied a coat of dark walnut patina diluted with industrial alcohol to the face of the countertop.

Being just after sanding, the patina caught quite well and had to be sanded with the sanding machine which, in the end, was a win.

The table has taken on a rustic look interesting, a mixture of all the intermediate layers - wood, white berry and patina with varying degrees of sanding. Over the sanded patina the clear lacquer coat for the exterior was applied.

The finishing materials I used are for industrial use, but you can find similar products in DIY stores.

In the end we have obtained a rustic table using reclaimed wood, which we can place next to therebuilt bank a long time ago.