The Recycled Barn Trestle Table – Seating for 14

Our Barn Trestle Table made from our left over barn wood. 12′ long = 45″ wide

Nothing will quite make you finish up projects like hosting a party.

The barn table project has been on the “to-do” list for sometime and was one of our “TOP 30 GOALS” to accomplish for the farm this year. So, with our first barn party scheduled for this weekend, and needing some extra sitting and eating areas for the guests – this was the week to tackle the project.

We wanted a big long table that could seat at least 12 – so we made it 12′ long and 45″ wide. Eventually we will make matching benches to go down each side – which will seat 6 to a side.  If we  added a chair to each end –  it would give us a total of 14.

The old 2×4 barn rafters we had saved for this and a few other projects.

We started by building the trestle out of the old 2 x 4″‘s barn roof rafter pieces from the Cardington Barn we took down last summer. Not your typical 2×4′s – these boards are made from old growth solid red oak, and unlike today’s lumber – actually measure 2 x 4″. I just used a sawzall and cut them smooth – leaving all of the character of the old nails holes and dents of the wood in tact. Grey and weathered – they made the perfect base material for the table.

The trestle base. We had to pre-drill every hole to get the screws in because of how hard the old wood was!

We made the trestle base 9′ long – with angled 2 x4′s supplying all of the strength needed to hold up the 12′ top piece.

For the top piece – we just simply used alternating 2x8x12 and 2x10x12 pine boards and glued them together to make a large table top. We used ratchet straps in place of clamps (I didn’t have any that long!) to hold it together while it dried.

2 coats of rubbed on stain and 3 coats of polyurethane to the top.

After that, Mary took over and applied 2 coats of stain with a rag – and then finished it off with 3 coats of polyurethane to make it strong and tough.  We also added some 1 x 4′s underneath and screwed  them into the underside of the table top to secure it all together.

It should be great for the barn party this weekend to give plenty of seating.  One more thing to mark off the list!

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The Barn Trestle Table set in place. Once the brick floor goes down in the barn – it should look complete!

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49 thoughts on “The Recycled Barn Trestle Table – Seating for 14

  1. I love the table! Just beautiful…..no wonder it was on your top 30 things to do list this year! Thanks so much for linking up to “The Ole’ Saturday Homesteading Trading Post” I saw your post caught my husband’s eye….maybe he will tuck this one away for future reference ;)

    • Holly! Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments! We are so glad your a follower now and look forward to your All Star Block Party again this week!
      Jim and Mary

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  4. Hi Jim & Mary, thank you so much for sharing your tressle table at Project Queen!!! It’s amazing and I LOVE IT! I always tell my husband we need to have a party… that way we get a ton of stuff done :-) . I will be featuring your table tomorrow night (Monday) at the Highlight Party. I’m a new follower. Can’t wait to see what project you do next!

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