DIY Live Edge Table

One of my passions (other than photography) is woodworking. While I'm no master carpenter, I love to learn by experimenting. My parents had some trees cut down in their yard recently and I convinced my dad to cut me a slab out of out a pair of trees that had grown together at their base. I had seen a few versions of live edge tables on pinterest and boy, are they pricey! I decided that it couldn't be that hard to do it myself. So this is the starting point:

At first I was "OOOH PRETTY" (I get too excited about things like this) and then after leaving it in our garage for a few hours I returned to further examine my new project. To my surprise, I saw little ant-like creepy-crawlies moving all over it. Termites. This was the first roadblock. After 3 days and some termite spray I was finally ready to begin the project. Next I had to tackle removing the bark around the edge of the entire table. I was hoping to keep it intact but as you can see from the photo a lot of it fell off in the cutting process.

So after lots and lots of bark removal, learning how to plane, extreme sanding, filling termite holes with woody putty I made from sawdust, this is where I was at. All that was left to do was stain, seal, and add legs. And thanks to the Internet we can just skip all those steps and get to the pretty after pictures.

So Get Excited...

Here is a full shot to give you an idea of what it looks like with its' new legs and stain.

Now for one with it all gussied up! This is what lived on it for about a week. (I'm constantly moving stuff. Hoarding tendencies. I'm basically a Magpie. If it's shiny, glossy, or looks like it came from New Jersey I will own it. And then move it around my house.)

And I'll end this novel of a post with a gratuitous detail shot. So there it is! My DIY live edge table. The only tip I have is to let the wood dry out for approximately a year before you turn it into a table or you can find a friend with a kiln who can dry it for you. In the words of one Sweet Brown "Ain't Nobody got time for that". This project would also be great for making coffee tables, shelves for your wall, or foot stools!