DIY Oval Tabletop — Hartley Home

The round table was very cute but we kind of outgrew it as the kids got bigger.

I love my tulip table. It was the first “designer-ish” (does that make sense?? lol) piece of furniture I ever bought and I felt SO COOL having it in my home. I still feel kind of cool having it. Mix that with my wishbones chairs and I am basically a rock star! Kidding of course. But as our girls got bigger, the table got smaller. We eat our meals here every day and it doesn’t leave much room when the four of us have large plates. So I decided I’d make an oval top!

I needed to make it because all of the sizes I could find online for purchase were too large for my space. Also, this kind of table can get very $$. This similar one is about $3,000!) Mine ended up costing about $200 to make after all of the wood, conditioner, stain, topcoat, rags, brushes etc.

This is the underside of my piece of birch.

I wanted to use oak, and may still go that route if I could “turn back tiiiimeeee” like Cher. Oak is easier to stain and I’m more comfortable with it as I’ve used it many times. But the stores were out of 3/4” oak plywood so I got birch instead! It was around $80 for a 4x8 piece of this plywood. Lumber prices are CrAzY right now. It’s also a hardwood, and actually ended up staining beautifully with the right steps.

Showing the nail placement before I tied on the string.

Let’s get to how I cut an oval, shall we? I watched this video MULTIPLE times before I began. It was very helpful and worked perfectly! But basically you divide your rectangle into 4 parts. Use easy math to find intersections, hammer in some nails, tie a string, and draw your oval. (you need to watch the video hah) I measured my rectangle to 60” long and 36” wide, knowing it would fall shy of that from the video. My table ended up being 58 1/2” x 33 7/8”. I have a 7’ long bench seat with more walking room on the side and this size is great for here!

To cut my oval I used this jigsaw. We just bought it because our old plug in was not the best. I love this thing so much!! If you don’t have a jigsaw in your collection, I do recommend this one. I used the saw blade that came with it to cut my wood and it seemed to work well!

But after gluing it back on and sanding it looked good as new!

Once the oval was cut, I sanded the edges with a 150 grit paper. Be careful as the wood will splinter and go into your fingers and palm of your hand. Ask me how I know. Grr. Also, when it splinters it can take off the top layer of your pretty veneer which is a bummer. But you can fix it! Use a minimal amount of wood glue to push it back down, a 320 grit sandpaper in the direction of the seam/rip, and it all but disappears! Just be careful with the glue getting on the wood as it doesn’t want to take stain.

There is a technique called water popping your wood. This is when you spray your wood with water, let it dry, and then sand off the little “fur” that pops up. The grain will raise when water is added so this is an important step to a smooth finish. My board was already really furry, (it must have gotten wet at some point) so I was able to skip this and just sand with my 320 paper in the direction of the grain. Nice and smooth!

The left is without wood conditioner. You can see how muddy the stain looks. The right is with.

Since this is birch, I added wood conditioner to my plywood before staining. Follow the directions on your can. You need to get oil based if you are using oil based stain, and water based for water based stain. Make sure its the right one. This step was important to keep the stain from looking muddy and uneven. Birch is really absorbent so please do this step for your sanity.

I got this birch edge trim at 3/4” width and applied the wood conditioner and stain to it before the table top. I hung it to dry so when it’s time to add it and finish the table its ready to go!

Then I used this oil based stain in Kona. I got this from a local paint and stain shop that’s usually for the pro woodworkers and painters. But the shop owner was very helpful and didn’t make me feel like a poser which was nice. ;) I like a rag application for stain but this time I used a staining pad which I liked and then wiped the excess immediately with a staining rag. The color is DARK and soaked in fast so I wanted to be sure I got it off right away to get the perfect color I wanted.

In love with this grain and stain color!!

Now it was time to add that edge trim. It comes pre pasted so you use an iron to activate the glue and press it on as you go. It’s pretty great stuff! Since my wood is 3/4” and so was the trim, I didn’t need to cut this but you most certainly can if needed.

For the topcoat I used an oil based poly in satin. I applied this with a high quality soft bristled brush. Be sure not to skimp on the brush or you will have bristles in your topcoat and get VERY angry. Trust me. After the first coat dried, I sanded lightly with a 320 grit, and wiped it clean. I ended up doing two more coats because I want this table super protected from my animals…I mean children.

I let the table dry overnight before attaching it to my base. I’m not going to get into detail about this part because how to attach your top will depend on what kind of base you have or build.

And now I have a beautiful oval kitchen table for my nook that I LOVE!!!!! I’m really proud of this project and it was a lot easier than I thought. If you make an oval top please share it with me! I’d love to see it! And you can follow along @hartley_home in instagram for more projects and home decor ideas!