Decorating an Apartment: DIY Fluted Bistro Table

Hey friends!

It's been a little bit since I've made a post. I was celebrating the holidays, and the start of a new year is always busy with client projects. I've got so many fun things to share with you as I'm wrapping up some projects and starting some new ones!

Today is the first post in a new little series all about decorating an apartment (or a home you don't plan to renovate!). Vale and I recently moved into a rental, and we've had to start from scratch. When choosing furniture and decor for our apartment I've had to (1.) be very budget conscious as I don't have a lot of cash to spare, and (2.) select pieces that are both pretty and purposeful, and that i'll want to keep for a while. I think over the years I've taken for granted the ability to paint or make changes in a home. Decorating to best suit what you have is definitely more challenging, especially when you aren't the one who picked it. I believe your personal style can shine no matter what, and I'm blessed to live in a newly renovated, neutral apartment in a sea of places with yellow walls and brown carpets (haha). Thank the good Lord.

I started this decorating adventure with mood boards. I'm going to hold off on talking about my plans until I get a little further into the process, but I knew I wanted to do a small round table with two large chairs in the kitchen. The apartment is open concept, and the kitchen is an L shape that opens up to an area for dining. Since it's just Vale and I, I wanted to keep the table small and spend a bit more on substantial chairs. I started looking for 24"-36" tables and was immediately bummed out. Anything in my price range was composite crap with crummy reviews. That would be fine for a side table tucked out of the way, but for a dining table we were going to use regularly, I needed something of better quality. Unfortunately, I have caviar taste on a Mcdonald's budget.

This is what I wanted:

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Of course my favorites were all in the $2k-$3k price range and that's hard to swallow when little feet are going to be kicking at the sides daily. I scoured Facebook Marketplace and other local resale apps and there wasn't anything that would give me this look. Most of the tables were overpriced, with lots of damage, and the wrong shape. The next best option was to make it myself, but as I said before: we were starting from scratch. I didn't even have a Philips-head screwdriver. So, I specifically looked at tutorials that were damsel in distress friendly and I found a bunch. This is a compilation of those tutorials, + my own Macgyver brain power, + grandpa Charlie's tools (which I did need to make a table sturdy enough that it wouldn't crush the limbs of my child).

DIY Fluted Bistro Table

Materials:

1. 1- 36" Pine Round

2. 2- 18" Pine Rounds

3. 1- 2x4

4. 1- Box 2" Screws

5. 1- Tube Liquid Nails

6. 1- 16" concrete tube

7. 1- 16" pole wrap

8. 1- Can Stain

9. 1- Can Polyurethane, Warm Satin

10. Sandpaper (220 grit, and ultra fine grit)

Tools:

1. Pencil

2. Tape Measure

3. Caulk Gun

4. Level

5. Blue Tape

6. Miter Saw

7. Hand Saw

8. Utility Knife

9. Drill, Bits, and Drivers

10. Stain Brush

11. Cloth Rags

12. Drop Cloth

The plan:

Use 3 pieces of the 2x4 to anchor the two smaller rounds to one another (like a thimble). This is the structure of the base, and the concrete tube will create the round form we need. The pole wrap gets wrapped around the concrete tube and the large 36" round gets glued to the top. Easy Peasy(ish).

How-To:

• Cut the 2x4 into 3 to 27" pieces

• Cut the concrete tube at 27"

• Center the tube on one of the rounds and trace with pencil around the inside

• Evenly space the 2x4 pieces (in a sort of triangle) at the edges of the circle. Get them as tight to the circle you traced as possible so the tube will be held in place.

• Remove the tube, and drill the 2x4 pieces into the round (2 holes per 2x4). This requires two hands and is a pain in the royal ass. Good luck. If you cut the 2x4s straight and they aren't terribly bowed this should be nice and level.

• Flip the round with the 3 2x4s over and place the concrete tube around them.

• You won't be able to see where to drill the second round into the 2x4s, and they won't stay put (they'll lean) with the tube around them, so I used my blue tape to tape them to the tube.

• Tape the 2x4s to the concrete tube using a piece of blue tape in the center of each 2x4 down the sides of the tube so you can see the center mark when you go to drill.

• Drill the round into the 2x4s (2 holes per 2x4, on either side of each piece of tape).

** I am so mad at myself for not taking pictures of all these steps for you. This definitely requires two sets of hands so you don't become very, very mad at me.

It should look like this when it's assembled:

You like how I have no photos of the hard-to-explain stuff? I'm so good at my job.

• Cut the Pole Wrap at 27" and wrap it around the tube. Repeat this step until there are no gaps. We cut the wrap in a stack and then used a utility knife to cut down one of the seams.

• At this point I transported the base back to my house and attached the 36" round onto the top of the spindle-like base I made using liquid nails and a 15 lb sandbag weight to hold it in place while it dried (see above picture). I sort of positioned it where I wanted it, traced around the smaller round so I'd know where to put it after I applied the glue, and then removed it to glue. Keep your glue inside the mark you traced and wipe any excess after the top gets set down. You have some time to move it around before it begins to adhere.

• I began using liquid nails to attach the pole wrap, and secured it with painters tape while it dried. This was very easy as the pieces were already cut. Just sort of put it in place and then tighten everything as you apply the tape. Same with the table top you'll have some time to adjust before the glue starts to dry.

• Then next day, I removed the painters tape and the weight and began staining. Make sure your surface is nice and clean!

• I gently hand sanded after staining using 220 grit paper, and then sealed the piece using Polyurethane in a warm satin finish. I did three coats, sanding/cleaning in between.

• After the final coat I used an ultra fine sandpaper so the table top was smooth to the touch.

Here is what it looks like the morning after my last coat of Poly:

Note: be careful when working with the concrete tube. If you bend it, your shape will be off. If you look really closely you can see this happened to me and my round shape isn't perfect. I could care less as you'd have to get on your hands and knees and inspect the table to notice, but I would have preferred it didn't happen (lol). Don't look too closely at the floor -- my kid dragged a blanket and shed fuzz everywhere right when I put my vacuum away *dies inside*.

I can't wait to stage the table and show you it looking all fancy! It looks really beautiful in person, and much more expensive than it actually was. The project cost me just under $200 in total, and is super sturdy. One day, I can use it as an accent table if I decide to upgrade my dining furniture, but for now it's the perfect piece for our space.

Let me know if you would tackle a project like this, and stay tuned as I work to personalize this rental for me and my sweet Bunny girl!

xoxo

Alyssa