DIY Outdoor Buffet Table

There is another side to being a DIYer that may not get the attention or respect that other aspects of this pastime enjoy.  What is that, you may ask?  It’s taking found items or seemingly old and worn out objects about the house and repurposing them.  Keeping bulk out of landfills by finding ways to salvage various items is something we should all consider before consigning that old chair or table to the dump.

Karla Holley of www.moderatehome.com recently discovered the value of this idea when it came to an old table that had been in her family for a long time. The tall and narrow table had been built by her grandfather to hold the tools of his trade.  He had been a butcher and put together the table out of 2 x 4s, a quarter-round trimmed plywood board top, and a pressboard bottom shelf.

Karla associated fond memories of her granddad,  of seeing the table at his home and was delighted, when her grandparents’ home sold, to be allowed to claim the table as her own.

The table wasn’t in the best of shape; the legs had holes and uneven areas, the top was stained and discolored..  An auction house had turned it down as unsalable and no one else in the family seemed to know what to do with it.  Karla however, with her experience of living on a tight budget and her practical imagination, could see the potential that old disrespected table had as a buffet table for her patio.

She went to her local Lowe’s store and obtained paint samples, trying several out on the table sides and legs.  She finally decided on a shade called Safe Harbor by Olympic. It was a self-priming paint, but Karla ended up using a primer coat anyway, due to the fact that the holes and uneven spots needed to be filled prior to the final coat of paint and she wanted the best possible adhesion. She removed the old pressboard bottom shelf completely, then concentrated on refinishing the plywood top.

For this phase of the project she chose Minwax Wood Finish in English Chestnut. Once the finish cured, she then sealed it with Helmsman Indoor-Outdoor Spar Urethane.  Because the table would be sitting outside of the house on the patio year-round, the spar urethane was an excellent choice  and also gave the tabletop a great shine. She placed the table against the exterior wall of the house on the patio nearest the outdoor grill.

For more patio ideas click here.

Having refinished the table, Karla was not yet done! She had an old framed mirror in her basement she’d picked up for all of $5.00  she decided to transform into a chalkboard!

To accomplish this end she used a product called INSL-X SXA110099-04 Waterborne Bonding Primer to paint the surface of the mirror.  It provides, as the name implies, a bonding surface for finishing paint treatments. It dries very quickly so she had to be just as fast in applying it. Karla chose chalkboard paint by Benjamin Moore to finish the mirror conversion. She painted the frame of the mirror in the Safe Harbor paint to match the table. She placed the finished chalkboard on top of the table.

All that was left were finishing touches. She added a towel bar to the front of the table and hooks to the sides of the table to hang grilling tools from. She also placed a small wicker trunk (with lid) underneath the table as extra storage to hold additional grilling implements. The look was completed with a set of pretty towels and some decorative elements.