Outdoor Console Table

Last summer I bought a folding closet door set from the thrift store for $10.00.  The first $5.00 hollow closet door became my sewing table in the craft room/ office.

So I finally got around to using the other hollow door and made pretty much the same table again, but added the slatted lower shelf.

This table fits right against our house on the patio by the back door.  I plan on using it as a buffet when we eat outside, and also a potting table when I need it, and all around backyard table.  It's long and narrow, so it's pretty light if you need to move it for an event or something.  

We don't have many parties to host, so it most likely will stay there most of the time.

The legs are just 2x4s and the aprons and support are 1x3s.  This time around I was smarter and planned the base support under the hollow door to be the same dimensions.  The first craft table I built I made it smaller to have a little overhang on the sides, but it made it a lot harder to attach the hollow door to the frame because it's obviously hollow.  

This second time around, I could screw the frame into the door edge where it's solid.  I'd say the 1" border on the edge of the door is solid and sturdy, past that you get to the hollow weak stuff.

For the bottom shelf, I used 2x2s, so their narrow enough water or mud can go through and not puddle, but thick enough to hold things.  I sanded and painted all the 2x2s separately, than used a nail gun to secure them when everything was all painted.  This made it easier to paint the long skinny pieces rather than trying to jam a paint brush between them once their close together as a bottom shelf.

I primed the table with oil based primer, then rolled two coats of Glidden exterior latex paint: semi-gloss and the color is swan white.  After all the paint coats dried overnight, I applied an outdoor polyurethane, so I hope being outside the exterior paint and poly will protect it.

It's nice to have the bottom shelf to store things we use all the time in gardening and all our Wellington boots.

I've been loving having the buffet table outside.  When we grill, we never had a place to put all the fixings and it's nice to get all the serving dishes off the little patio table so we have room to eat.  It's also good for dessert too.

I've never shared recipes on this blog, it seems weird to me to mix sewing/ crafts/ furniture with food.  (Also there are amazing foodie blogs out there so why try)  Craft blogs are just kind of an odd place to have food...like eating a tube of cookie dough in a theater while watching a play like I did in college.  But I do love food as much as I enjoy making junk.  So here's an awkward recipe thrown in the middle of a furniture building post.

So this is my mom's recipe for banana cream pie.  

One of my favorites.  

She makes a coconut crust and if you omit the 1 T of flour, the whole pie can be gluten free.  I also added in the link my own orange/ berry variation that was good at Christmas time. 

(If you can believe it, I actually was one of four winners in a holiday recipe contest a few years ago and had my picture in a magazine.  I'm holding my pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and I call the photo the "troll behind the rolls"...it's pretty funny and I did get $50 to a nice local restaurant though)

Well I can't believe summer is gone.  It went to fast for me.