the picnic table

We have long wanted a decent picnic table in the yard. For the last two years the kids have been using a plastic table that, while having the benefit of being easy to clean, was too small and unstable.

Our kids are the same as yours! If a table can be tipped over, or damaged in any way, they will do it.

Our kids cannot harm this table. It is big (71” x 36”), heavy and very stable. We looked around at the commercial offerings but couldn’t find anything that Natalie, or the weather wouldn’t reduce to firewood in a couple of years. Even at around $125, the tables we saw were poorly constructed, and required the purchasor to assemble and finish them.

So I built one. For the first time, in a furniture project, I used Pressure Treated Timber for the legs and seat supports. The table structural parts are *jointed* to each other and secured with substantial carriage bolts and lag screws. The *Flame Mahogany* Oil finish protects the Spruce and Fir used in the rest of the table, and evens out the colour of the PT timbers.

This table cannot be flat-packed, it is too heavy to ship. I am quite confident that, with the application of a decent finish once every two to three years, this table will last at least twenty years. So confident, that should it fail in that time, I’ll fix it.