I have made a few of these tables over the past few years and I try and give each table a unique feature.  For this table, I wanted to add the Greek key design.  I first thought about getting a stencil made and adding the Greek key design around the border of the table.  But I could not find one that had more than one repeat which would take me forever to do, and I am not the most patient DIY.  So I turned to google for ideas and I found a design that made it look so simple.  This tutorial is not on how to make the wine barrel table but Just how to make the Greek key top.  For a wine barrel tutorial 

How to add a Greek key Design to a tabletop

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Prepare the tabletop

My tabletop was an old free table that I recycled. The surface of this table had lots of dents and scratches.  A great way to remove some of the dents is to use a wet cloth and a steam iron. You put the wet cloth over the dents and run the steam iron over the cloth.  The steam and the water will cause the dents to expand again. Once the wood is dry you can sand the surface smooth.

I prefer my wine barrel tables to have a thick tabletop, so it looks higher quality.   So, to do this on my tabletop I did the following.   My tabletop was 1300 mm x 830 mm x 20 mm thick.   I cut a 20 mm thick piece of plywood to 1290 mm x 820 mm.  You glue the plywood to the underneath section of the table leaving a 50 mm border around all the edges. I did it this way, so I did not waste a lot of good wood.

I used a table saw cut 4 strips of wood, 2 x for the length and 2 for the width 60mm wide x 20 mm thick to fill in the gaps, this left a 10 mm overhang.  To give the tabletop a softer look you can use a wood router and remove all the corners. You will need to do the bottom layer before you glue it into place. 

Stain the wood

You have to stain the wood before you cut the design to get the two-toned colour.  Trying to stain the wood after you have cut the design does not work, the stain bleeds into the grooves.  This was the image I found on google that I used as a guide.  This is not my image. Image from Dorsey Designs

Make your template

I changed the measurements to suit my table, making the 14″ one longer according to the length of my table.  The squares I kept them in proportion.  I cut a piece of Kraft Paper to the size of my top 1290 mm x 820 mm which leaves a 50 mm border all the way around the edge.  The design is very easy to draw because it is all straight lines.   So, all you need is a long straight piece of wood (I don’t have a ruler long enough) and a tape measure and pencil. I marked out my pattern in pencil first because I drew the pencil lines straight across, so I knew the design was straight. You can then go over the lines that need to be routered out using a sharpie pen.  It can get confusing when you start cutting out the lines, they all blur in together.

Once the design was all drawn up on the paper. I centred the design on the table and taped it to the surface to make sure the paper did not move. Because the design was all straight lines, I set up a fence which was a straight piece of wood.  I used clamps to hold the wood in place so I could push the router along the fence and have nice straight lines. I do have a large router but found I had more control using my small one.  The little square base plate made it easy to line the router up with the fence to keep the lines straight.  I used a round groove router bit to cut the grooves.

Just to be sure I did not cut out the wrong sections I added a piece of masking tape to the sections that needed to stay.

Cut to the greek key design

I do not have much experience using a router in this way and I don’t have a steady hand.  So, the fence allowed me easily to cut all the straight lines. I lined the router bit up with the start of the first line and clamped my wood down on both sides.  The image below is how the fence and router base plate works together to keep the lines straight.

I followed the same steps until all the lines had been cut out. Because I was lifting the router to do the lines, I did not have the continuous line around the corners.  So, some of the corners needed to be tidy up.  I did this using a hammer and chisel to remove the wood and smoothing them over with sandpaper. Below is how the tabletop looked after I was finished.

Seal the tabletop

It looked so nice with the two colours on the top.  I was not impressed with the two-toned legs, so I stained them. From past experience staining a groove like this, I have had problems with the dark stain running into the grooves and spoiling the light colour.  To prevent this from happening I use a foam paint roller and used oil-based gloss varnish and added a thin coat first. I moved the foam roller lightly over the dark stain to avoid having excess varnish going into the grooves.  Once the first coat was dry, I used a fine paintbrush to varnish just the groove. Once that was dry, I used 240grit sandpaper and lightly sanded the surface ready for the next coat.

 To get a great finish on my tabletops, I use an old tent that I set up the day before. I vacuumed the inside and left my tabletop inside for a few hours.  Every 30 minutes or so I wiped down the tabletop with a tack cloth to remove any dust that had settled.  This is a bit long-winded, but I end up with a far better finish on my projects.  I added another 3 coats of varnish to get a nice gloss finish.

More wine Barrel projects

Personalised wine barrel table with family logo added and seal in liquid glass.

wine barrel table

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