This table was commissioned by a friend of mine who is an interior decorator.  With no plans or material in mind she sent me a few photos of tables her client liked.  I could have easily gone to Home Depot or Lowes and purchased a stack of wood and made something as close to a reclaimed wood table as brand new wood allowed.  Instead, while driving home from work I noticed that a barn was being refinished just down the street from my parents.  On a whim I stopped in to see if they would be interested in selling the wood.  To my delight they were actually paying their son to haul the wood to the dump one trip at a time.  Lucky for me, my dad had just bought a pickup truck and I was going to take advantage of the opportunity to acquire some rustic, free wood.  Like any normal person I spent the next 30 minutes, in a shirt and tie, loading up as much wood as I could before returning to work.  Before I left, the owner showed up and was very impressed that I was going to re-purpose the wood and that it was not merely going to the trash.  During the conversation it also came up that I had previously lived in Oxford, MS and his son had recently graduated from there.  The irony is that this now finished table is for a customer in Oxford.  It truly is a small world.  Rustic materials are wonderful to work with.  You get a unique finish that can never be duplicated.  The furniture also comes with a story of it own only to be added to by you and your family.

Another view of the table to show off the rustic metal brackets.

The top and frame were both built with rustic barn wood reclaimed from a barn in Brentwood, TN.  The challenge was getting table legs to match the the table top aged by mother nature.

These legs were purchased new from the local home improvement store.  This was an opportunity to try something I saw on HGTV.  After building an outdoor table the torched and sanded the wood to create a Tuscan look.  I knew that I would be painting the wood but I wanted an aged look to sand through.

This is the pile of material that I started with.  I couldn't be happier with the finished product.  Next I will be attempting a headboard and matching bedside tables made from the same barn wood material.

The beginning