DIY Modern Farmhouse Work Table

In 2021, we decided to expand our brand and with that, we needed a new workspace. I wrote in a previous blog about reorganizing our garage and painting our 1970s paneling to accommodate our new workspace and this weekend we tackled another task on our list to get our garage up and running.

We built a work table with a modern farmhouse vibe! Now, keep in mind, this was for our garage, so I wouldn’t say that its 100% perfect, but I am IN LOVE.

On Friday we gathered the crew (myself, Troy, & Colton), and headed on down to Lowes. We new what we were picturing, and had done a few little drawings, so that’s what we used to determine our supplies list.

This work table needed to serve a few purposes.

1. A durable and large workspace on top for project creation and shipping.

2. Space underneath for shipping supplies and small things as well.

3. Be functional AND beautiful.

So with that, we decided to create a butcher block top for the work table and put it on wheels to make it versatile. We also decided to make both ends a cabinet, to hold some of the smaller things.

This is our supply list-

1. Two (2) - 24-in W x 30-in H x 12-in D Natural Unfinished Door Wall Stock Cabinet.

2. One (1) - 8-ft Natural Straight Butcher Block Birch Kitchen Countertop

3. Eight-Ten (8-10) - 2-in x 4-in x 8-ft Southern Yellow Pine Lumber (We used about 8, but I like to get extra to be safe.)

4. Three-Four (3-4) -1-in x 8-in x 8-ft Square Unfinished Spruce Pine Fir Board (Depending on what type of shelving you want/need, you may need more or less.)

5. Screws - We picked up a few different sizing for the different stages - 1.5”, 3” and 4”.

6. Four (4) - 4” Swivel Casters with Break (Weight Rating 250lbs)

7. One (1) - Quart Krylon Flat COLORmaxx Black Enamel Interior/Exterior Paint (1-Quart) (We already had painting supplies like brushes- so if you don’t you’ll need to pickup a brush as well.

If you don’t already have a circular saw, you may need one. That is what we used to cut our boards.

Our work table is not perfect, but its exactly what we needed for the shop. I wanted something long enough to have plenty of work space, but also help our storage issue. We are using our one car garage as a workshop, so space is limited.

So first thing we did is take our two upper kitchen cabinets and turn them side ways- the doors are facing outward from the sides. Our butcher block counter is 8 foot long, and each cabinet is a foot wide. We decided to give a 6” overhang on each side. So first, we cut two 7 foot boards that would support the bottom from the front of one cabinet, to the front of the other.

We were a little concerned that the cabinets wouldn’t be sturdy enough to just attach the boards to those, so we actually use a scrap piece of 2x4 INSIDE the cabinet on the bottom on the right and left sides to drill our 7 footers into from the outside. We knew this table would need to support a lot of weight, so we were being extra cautious.

We knew once we had the base on, the 7 footers would be great to add our wheels onto later.

Once we had the 7 footers attached, we flipped the table upright to start the upper supports. For the top, we did NOT want to 7 footers attached on top of the cabinets, so instead, we made a frame that would be in between the back side of the cabinets. To do this, we cut two 5 foot boards (the distance between the backs of the two cabinets) and then two 21” boards that would brace between the two 5 footers on the back of each cabinet.

On the bottom side, we laid the 7 footers flat, but on the top side we laid them upwards to create our sturdy frame. Once the upper frame was in place, we talked through what all the table would be used for to determine what we wanted to put in between the cabinets. We decided a shallow shelf on the very bottom to store some of the tissue paper and shopping bags and then two larger areas above that to stores other shipping supplies like boxes.

With our vision in place, we cut four 2x4 boards about 24” long. These two boards went along the bottom backside of the cabinets ON TOP of the 7 footers used to brace the bottom and two of the in the middle of the space. We also cut two 25” boards for the center braces that went up ways from the bottom to the top 5 footers (one on each side).

After adding the two 25” boards in the center, we cut our 1x8s into planks (24”) and screwed them in on both sides of the center beam (4 on each side) from front to back. Then, we added the 24” boards on the bottoms against the cabinet backs on top of our 1x8 planks and in the center against the two 25” beams. This helped us create the bottom shelf. We then cut the 1x8s into 29” planks and laid them the opposite way, from side to side. So now we have one thin small cubby that will some of the things we don’t use often like our shopping bags and tissue paper for markets.

Once we got that all put together, I started on my favorite part- painting! We used a matte black paint and I am IN LOVE. Like I said, this is a shop table so I wasn’t concerned with it being perfect like I would be if it was for inside the house, but it turned out beautiful. I painted all the cabinets and boards that were showing. You may need a paint roller to roll that inside cubby (or paint it before you add the top boards, but I didn’t think of that ahead of time).

Once you get everything painted, you can flip the table to add the wheels, and then attach the butcher block counter top to the whole thing (we havent attached the top yet, but we will either frame out the bottom to fit into the upper frame or use brackets).