DIY Wood Patio Table with Drink Storage

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Last month was my birthday (they just aren't as exciting as they used to be... a sign of getting old I'm sure) but I was sooooo pumped when my husband surprised me with a new patio table for my birthday! He MADE it which was even more awesome. I am so lucky he is talented and handy and sweet. :)

We had a small patio set that I purchased a couple years back at the end of the season for deep discount. It was a square table with a glass insert and 4 chair with faded, torn cushions so it was well past it's prime but we weren't making plans to replace it yet because there were other things on our list.... until.... one day the wind blew the table over. This broke the glass and we suddenly felt more inclined to replace the set.

There was a table on Domestic Engineer's site that I saw a few months back that I sent to my husband telling him that should be our next patio table because it was awesome. There was storage in the table for beer/wine/drinks which was neat and would surely be useful for us.

My husband naturally looked for a short cut and put his touch on this project and it turned out great! The beer/wine/drink storage uses two planter boxes and for our table they are removable (to wash and ensure water doesn't gather in the box when not in use). Here are two pictures, one of the underside and one of the planter box in the inset space. You can follow the directions from Domestic Engineer and instead of making the slatted wood boxes for the planters just use two 2x1s across the underside to create a ledge for the planter to sit on inset in the table.

These were taken before we stained it. I sanded it starting with a really coarse paper to a very fine paper. I used about 5-6 papers and it took around three hours.

We used red cedar wood and the stain was a semi-transparent stain so we could still see the wood grain but that it would be a little darker to go with our chairs better. We did one coat it beads the water so it is perfect. The stain is supposed to last about 3 years. If the water beads it's still good, if it does not bead then you know it's time to stain/protect it again. This table will last us a loooong time! I love it.

By the way, the new chairs we bought are metal and mesh so we do not have to worry about soggy cushions but they are still surprisingly comfortable. The chairs were at Menards on sale for $19 and came with a $7 rebate and that is the best deal we have ever seen for solid patio chairs. We bought eight because three can fit on each side plus two on the ends. They stack nicely too. :)

What do you think? Is this something you could use in your backyard??

<-Kassy->