We had been looking for a hallway entry table for under the great picture shelves that I built and saw one that we loved for about $500, but it was only a 4 foot table. Way too short for what we wanted. So on Valentine's Day, while my wife went off to a swim meet with my daughter, I attempted to surprise her. Unfortunately, I didn't finish before she got back, but she got the table she wanted!

I used an 1x3's for all of the legs and edging. I started out by cutting all of the legs to the same height and sanding them to be interchangeable.

The bottom shelf is a 1"x8"x8'. No cutting required. I used 1"x3" pine boards for the legs and X design. That was fun trying to get the angle I wanted. I basically used the table saw to cut a slat half way through each board. Then I just slid them together with a little glue. I framed in the top of the X with a 1"x3" piece, the legs and the bottom shelf. The top of the X just has a little glue to keep it in place. The bottom has screws coming up through the bottom of the shelf, which I didn't attach until later (the picture is just a fit test. I used my favorite pocket hole jig to attach the legs and keep all of the screws out of site.

The top is a 1"x12"x8'. I didn't cut it down at all. I attached the leg assemblies to the top using screws straight through the underside of the leg assembly.

I then used 1"x3" pine to act as a skirt around the top shelf. I build a second matching table that is actually only 6 feet long for a second wall.

My wife is into the farm house look (thank you Chip and Joanne) so we stained the top dark and put a little stain on the rest of it. We then painted the entire bottom white. A little sand paper in strategic spots before the paint totally dried allowed the dark stain beneath the paint to show through. The whole project probably cost less than $300.

Project complete and decorated. Over the 8 foot table, you can see the Picture Shelves I built. I'm glad I didn't pay $500 for that 4 foot table!