Whiskey Barrel-Top End Tables

I got another custom order from the sweet girls at GordonDunning. I gotta admit I was a little bit panicked about this one,  but it ended up being so easy. The order was to use their client’s wedding guest book, two whiskey barrel tops, and turn them into end tables.

(Last names were quickly Photoshopped out of these images, please excuse.)

 Cate and Lathem  like to tell to their client’s story through design and they do it so well. I think this particular client originally wanted these two whiskey barrel tops to be hung on a wall in some sort of gallery situation, which would have been great, don’t get me wrong. But Cate and Lathem had this amazing idea and I kinda wish I could take credit for it.

So I mentioned that I had some anxiety about this one…  The girls sent me an inspiration image of the type of table base they wanted:

I got online and went crazy looking for some tables like this on Craigslist and Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade pages. I had a few good options but most of them were already stained a darker color than what they wanted and the thought of stripping and sanding two tables like this was not super appealing. I went down my list of options pretty quickly after comparing the size of the tops to the table bases, they just weren’t going to work. I started looking online at some other places to purchase the tables new and finally came across a website called Unfinished Furniture Expo.

Yahtzee!

I found this Cambria Unfinished Hardwood Side Table, emailed the owner, Mark, got a quick response and ordered a pair a few days later.

This is not a sponsored post, by any means – if I ever do a sponsored post, I will tell you straight up. Otherwise, I tell you about products I find and love because, well, I love them. These things arrived fairly quickly (even though Mark was on his honeymoon, Congratulations!) and were so dang easy to assemble. They came with the hardware/screws, an allen wrench and instructions – instructions with words, not just a blobby dude with pics and no explanation – you know what I’m talking about. I put one of them together and then took it apart to stain it. I didn’t even have to sand them -they were already super smooth and ready to take stain, so I got after it.

I used General Finishes Gel Stain in Antique Walnut and used Arm-R-Seal to top coat. I got my GF goods at Woodcraft but you can also order them from Unfinished Furniture Expo.

The underside of one of the barrels looked like this – The barrels are held together with a tongue in groove sorta thing but once removed from the barrel, they don’t really have anything to hold them together, so this piece of wood helps to keep it in one piece and is screwed into each little slat of the barrel top.

The piece of wood on the bottom was a little larger than I wanted it and you could really see it poking out from under the barrel top once it was sitting on the table base, even after it was stained.

The underside of the other barrel top looked like this:

There obviously wasn’t a level surface to attach the table base so I cut a round piece of wood using a jigsaw to the size I wanted and then cut down the other round piece as well and stained them both. As I was taking the unfinished wood off of the barrels, I snapped a pic and saved it on my phone to use in this post…. and then I played a really, hideously mean joke on these two girls that I love so much. I totally didn’t intend for it to be mean spirited but I felt so bad after their reactions … even though I’m still kinda laughing about it (Sorry Cate). I have to mention that these kind of pranks are in my blood, this comes straight from my Dad who has played an endless number of jokes on me – he’s really good at it and seriously hilarious.

But laughing keeps ya young, right?!

The undersides of the barrel tops looked stained, so I texted this:

Like, “Geez! Who wrote all over these table tops?!”

Ohmygoodness. They called immediately and were like, “Seriously?!?!”

“Yeah, that’s what you wanted, right?”

“Ohhhhhhno! Dena!!!”

I couldn’t let it go much longer than that – mostly because I was laughing and then my dog started throwing up – but I could almost feel them both having a coronary. I like to joke around (Hearts & Sharts… I’m sure you’ve noticed.) and this was hard to resist.

Cate and Lathem, I love you.

I attached the newly cut wood bottoms to the barrel tops and then attached the table bases.

Here they are all finished:

I also had some glass cut to sit on top of these little babes but left them off for the pics.

These haven’t been delivered yet but I am so excited to hear all about their client’s reactions. I mean, for a design duo that strives to tell their client’s story, this is a friggin’ home run….

…and the thought of these being handed down through years to children and grand children is just so special.

So, now I have the two table tops from the original table assembly. any suggestion as to what to do with them?