Monday, April 21, 2014

Happy Easter 2014

I hope you all enjoyed a nice Easter with family and friends. We had some family come over for a late lunch I was happy to host as we haven't done a family get together for a while now. I was able to extend out our kitchen table a little into the family room to accommodate more people than our daily crew. My table however wasn't big enough to seat the 10 people properly with the two leaves...so I had to come up with a solution. I thought I could add a card table but they just were not the right width to match up with my table, so I kept searching for a better solution. Then it occurred to me, I could attach metal support to the under side of the table top and add a leaf at the end, so that's what I did. It was a gamble but I thought it was worth trying even if it was on the day before our gathering.
(just pretend you don't see the drill)

 I was able to use the white slip covered chairs I got for Christmas finally. I love the mix of chairs it makes for a pretty casual mix. The table cloth is from Target.
 My lovely sister in law made these adorable egg shaped krispie treats, so adorable.
 I baked up a little pineapple cake, it was so moist and yummy and not too sweet. find the recipe here http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pineapple-cake , I used coconut milk and butter in the cake instead of oil and water as well as one extra egg.
 I made some pulled pork which I have made before it always turns out delicious find the recipe here http://www.cbc.ca/stevenandchris/food/pulled-pork
 Now that is some fluffy light frosting, Cool whip a pkg of vanilla pudding mix and drained crushed  pineapple.

 So finally back to the table extension I fashioned... it took 30 minutes or so to pull together.I bought  2 8ft 2x6 select pine boards and had them cut into 40" wide to match up with the width of my table. I attached them together with some scrap pine I had at home with some screws leaving some of the scrap strapping overhanging on one end.
I used my orbital sander to smooth everything out and to soften the edges.
 I attached these metal shelf supports to the underside of the table, my table is thick solid pine so it didn't cause any damage besides to the underside of the table and I was al-right with that.

 After it was installed with just the supports it was a little heavier than I had anticipated because of the thickness of the wood and because I opted for adding 4 boards instead of three so I added a little support leg which made it as solid as a rock. I covered the extra long table with two matching table cloths and it was a big success for me.
I removed the extension this morning and attached all the components together to store in the basement until the next time we need it. It definitely an out of the box idea but it worked for me. Now if I had a fine expensive table I'm sure this wouldn't be a good solution but for me with this solid pine heavy table it worked out perfectly.

There we go a lovely Easter and a little DIY project that sounds about right to me.

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