Wood dining table

[3littlebears]

We need a proper dining table - there are 5 of us, but we may need to seat around 8-10 about once a month. I would like a reclaimed or rustic wooden table, as I have 3 boys and need something that can take a bit of a battering. Anything I see in magazines which looks right is a one off, or been in the family for years, or found in a skip or just something they stumbled upon in a little local shop.pah! Any ideas where a normal person can find that kind of table please?

Have you tried local auction houses? I see some gorgeous tables in the window of ours.

Have a look on Salvo
Local reclamation yards/warehouses or antiques auctions

Friends of mine years ago, bought trestle legs from Ikea and he then made a take down and store table out of floorboards to go on top of the legs. It was brilliant and very rustic and practical too! I'm sure this would be very simple to make even with permanent legs on it.

Where are you?
There are several farmhouse table type shops in the cotswolds that have them, but they are expensive.
They sell scrubbed old pine.

We have a scrubbed wood table, it was being throw away, it looked like a varnished pine table, in that horrible orangey pine. We took it and I planned it down with an electric sander. We didn't wax it or stain it, we just use it bare. It is a lovely pale colour under all the orange varnish. it takes anything, you can wash most things off, and I take a scrubbing brush to it a couple of times a year to get the finish back.

varnished orange pine tables are often sold off cheaply, because no-one likes the look. Very different once sanded down

Agree with SteppeMum. We got our 10 seater (12 at a push) solid oak table off Ebay and have sanded it down from the dark brown varnish finish. It looks fab! We paid £170 for it.

Church antiques in W London will make a table to your specification using reclaimed timber.

We have a lovely quite dark oak table and chairs we bought off a couple locally, via ebay for the princely sum of £70! That's obviously no help, but they originally bought it from www.simplydutch.co.uk/

I gave away a full dining set and another dining table (used for my sewing) on Freecycle and I was given a solid pine table and 6 chairs from someone on Freecycle too. They were originally from Ikea. Lovely!