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Awesome Ikea Hack of the Week: Low-budget, trendy rustic farmhouse table

I always thought I was a fan of the industrial/contemporary design styles until one day I woke up and realized that I totally loved shabby chic. Who knew?

Today’s hack is super cool because it meshes with all those styles, and more. The farmhouse table is pretty much a must-have for any stylish Toronto apartment or house. Plus, at about 120 bucks for the whole project, it’s totally affordable and easy to make yourself.

Here’s how.

  1. The parts. You’ll need

Ingo table x1 – $79.99

several 1×2″ pine planks (these will go horizontally across the top of the table, you choose the width)

several 2×8″ tabletop planks (these will go horizontally across the top of the table to cover the pine planks and make a new table top)

several 1×3″ pine planks

a drill

screws

sandpaper

stain

  1. Do it. First, you’ll need to make some decisions.

Beat it or sand it: Either take a hammer, blow torch, fork and other damaging tools to your tabletop planks to beat the crap out of it and make it look well-used, or keep the sandpaper aside for a smooth finish at the end. You can distress the tabletop planks before installing them or after the table is assembled.

Now, assemble the Ingo table as per the Ikea instructions. Screw several pine planks horizontally across the top. Make sure these pine planks get several screws in each so the tabletop, which goes on top, will be sturdy.

Next, lay the tabletop planks over the pine planks, lengthwise over the table. To attach them, flip the whole thing over and screw the planks in from underneath. Make sure the screws aren’t so long that they’ll poke through the top of the table.

To finish the table, you might want to use tabletop planks laying perpendicularly to the rest of the tabletop, to act as clean ends. Or, if you’re going for the rustic look, just leave the raw edges of each plank showing. You might want to sand off any slivers and sharp edges, regardless.

Now, measure out the 1×3″ pine planks to go around the table’s edges underneath the tabletop to hide the frame, so the bits and pieces aren’t exposed.

Lastly, the scrawny Ingo table legs just don’t look too farmhouse, do they? You can beef them up by measuring and attaching 1×3″ pine planks around them.

Stain the whole table, then seal it with polyurethane. Wait for it to dry before bringing it up into your apartment. Done! Time for a dinner party!

Erin Cardone: Born on the Prairies, Erin Cardone grew up knowing there was more to life than canola fields and AAA Alberta Angus. So she escaped, living in Europe and Australia, white-knuckling it through plates of calf brains and raw horse meat, and learning languages she can't remember anymore. After a stint as a jaded, skeptical journalist, she changed tack and began writing rather awesome blogs and showing businesses that advertising is dead, so long live social media, with her businesses Legendary Social Media. She now splits her time between various Canadian cities, Costa Rica and wherever else the wind blows.