Squatch Lodge Creations: Table and Benches

We are so excited to share that we have now over TRIPLED our seating capacity!! This weekend, Curtis was able to finish building both benches to go with his homemade farmhouse table, and we couldn’t be happier with our fancy new dining room set. It’s kind of hard to believe we now own such nice furniture when we started with all Craigslist and consignment store stuff. It’s also a relief that we no longer have to seat guests on plastic storage containers, or tell them to bring their own chairs!

The benches are made from grandis wood, just like the table, and have the same butcher block tops as well. Curtis made some slight adjustments so that they have almost the exact frame of the table, just smaller and so that they fit just perfectly underneath the table. All I could say as I watched him build them is how “cute” they looked – you know how smaller things are always so cute when you’re used to seeing bigger things? Haha well it’s true, these benches are cute! Curtis also designed them to break down into more manageable pieces for easy moving. Once again, we went with a hevea butcher block top from Lumber Liquidators. For the table, we needed 2 – 8′ x 25″ butcher block counter tops, but for the benches we ordered one 6′ x 3′ board and Curtis cut it in half lengthwise with a circular saw. So with the bench tops at 6′ x 18″, we can probably easily fit at least 8 people on both – maybe even 10 if everyone likes each other! 😉 Just like the table, the bases were finished with polyurethane, and the top was finished with a mineral oil (which we continue to use on all 3 butcher block tops to maintain them).

So why benches instead of chairs? Benches are easier to make, cheaper, less wood, take up less space, and can easily fit more people. I don’t think either of us have any problem with having only benches for now. Maybe someday we’ll add a chair to each end, but we are perfectly happy with this set up. It’s so inviting and spacious – I guess it’s only fitting to start hosting more parties. Now we only need the time! 🙂

Oh, and Charlotte gave her stamp of approval when she figured out she can jump up, walk across, get closer to our food, and sit comfortably on them. All the more reason for her to think she belongs next to us while we eat!

So I don’t have a lot of bench glamour shots to share – it’s been so dark and rainy around here since Curtis finished them – but I wanted to share this collection of phone pictures showing the progression of  our table and chairs, from start to finish. Just as a disclaimer, this is not a DIY easy tutorial. Curtis already had years and years of experience to give him the skills it took to build this. He based his designs from this table after lots of drawing, planning and just us thinking of what we wanted in our table. If you want to know more about what each of these steps are, check out #grandistable on Instagram where Curtis posted progress while he was working on these. And sorry, he isn’t taking orders quite yet, but if you hold out long enough until he has a lot more time on his hands then maybe he’ll start his own shop. 😉

They look amazing, Curtis! I so appreciate the many long hours that went into making these just perfect. Thank you for investing your time and energy into these projects that will serve our family for years and years to come. I LOVE YOU 🙂