My attraction to making farm tables probably started 12 to 13 years ago when I cut down a walnut tree at our Louisville home. Walnut is by far my favorite hardwood for its deep brown color and rich grain. It was massive for a city tree, and I couldn’t let it go to waste. I had it milled up and stacked to dry in our urban barn.

Fast forward to the present, and I found myself remodeling our South Fork Farmhouse, I realized that we needed to furnish it and I started with kitchen. After searching for tables to buy and coming up with nothing that seemed to be a good fit, I remembered my stack of wood and decided to take on another project. What is better for a farmhouse than a farm table, and if you are going to make one, why not make it extra special and make it out of walnut?

The farm table design design fits the character of the house and the Red River Gorge, but it is also a bonus to me because it doesn’t require me to make complex chairs. The bench design allows me to show off the long and beautiful walnut slabs.

I didn’t want to waste extra walnut on the table and bench legs where they won’t be seen or appreciated, so I turned to the aging tobacco barn for material, and pulled rough-sawn white oak boards and beams. Crafting mortise and tenon joints, I tightly fit the white oak to create the legs to support the table and benches.

I enjoyed making this table so much that I went on to make two more. I made a larger 8-foot farm table for our newest See Rocks Vista cabin. I used my widest slabs of wood for the table and benches for this one. The slabs were so large that I had to find a 22″ planer to clean them up. I also exposed the live edge on all four table corners.

For my third table, I was commissioned by an Airbnb guest who loved it so much that she wanted one for her home.