DIY RAZORBACK TABLE FROM AN OLD CABLE SPOOL

Childhood memories.

A few years ago, a friend gave me a wooden cable spool. It immediately took me back to when I was a little girl. My grandparents lived on a small farm in the country. I loved spending time there and stayed with them every chance that I could.

One summer at my grandparents, the phone company came to replace the area phone lines. The party line that my grandparents had for years was being phased out and replaced with individual customer lines. If you’re unfamiliar with a party line, it’s a single phone line that runs to rural areas and shared by multiple customers.

This meant if your neighbor was using their phone to talk to someone, you could pick up your phone and immediately join in on the call. It also meant that you couldn’t make a call out until your neighbor was finished with their phone call and the line was free to dial the number.

It was also a good way to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations. Hey, when you’re a kid stuck inside on a cold winter day, you had to find something to do!

Anyway, the new fiber optic cables were hauled in on trailers and wrapped around these large wooden spools. And after the new lines were in place, my grandparents ended up with a few of these spools left in their field. Naturally, me and my older brother made good use of them.

We used them to build forts and used them as pedestals to jump back and forth on. We would even turn them on their side, stand on the middle section, rock them back and forth with our feet to get them rolling, and race to see who could stay on the longest. They were a lot of fun!

And now that I had been given this one, I was super excited to do something with it! It was the perfect size to make into a table, but it couldn’t be just any table. Being from Arkansas, I had to pay tribute to my home state and even in Southern Missouri where I live now, the Hogs are much loved. So, a Razorback themed table it was!

Getting Started

Supplies.

I picked up some acrylic paint 1-permanent black, 1-titanium white, and 2-crimson along with alphabet stencils from Hobby Lobby to do the lettering on the top of the table. The price of this paint has almost doubled since I purchased it 5 years ago.

With paint, there are so many options available. You may have to shop around for what works for you, but with little DIY projects I try to just have FUN!

I also picked up a Minwax oil-based stain in the color Jacobean and an angled brush from Lowes. I liked the handle and shape of this particular brush especially when working on vertical surfaces. You may also need some smaller acrylic paintbrushes if you plan to paint any detailed images. I had a set of brushes that I got from Hobby Lobby a while back. I used the “one stroke brush” from the set for the stenciled lettering too.

Prep work.

Once I determined which side would be the top of the table, I started sanding it down using my orbital sander and 220-grit sandpaper. When sanding, you want to move in the direction of the wood grain. It will give the smoothest finish and takes less time to sand this way.

Once I had a nice smooth finish on the top, I continued sanding down the rest of the table. When I finished sanding, I wiped the entire piece down with a lint free rag to remove any dust. You can use an old cotton t-shirt for this. It works just as well.

Stain.

I started by staining the middle and base of the table. I opened the Jacobean stain and gave it a good stir. Don’t shake your stain it will give you many unwanted air bubbles when it dries. Then, I took my angled brush and applied the stain to the wood moving in the direction of the wood grain.

I let it sit about 10 min and then wiped off the excess with a lint free cloth. Making sure to wipe in the direction of the wood grain. If you desire a darker shade after the first application, then you can reapply after 4 hours.

This stain is one of the darker stains and I picked it for that reason; however, the wood of this spool was so dry that it really soaked in the stain and gave a much darker color than I expected.

If I had used a wood conditioner first, it would have saturated the wood prior to staining and the stain wouldn’t have been so dark with the first application. I was still pleased with the end results, but it’s something to think about when staining wood.

Paint.

I used Master’s Touch Acrylic Paint in Crimson for the whole tabletop and edge. I applied the paint using the same angled brush that I used for the stain. If you’re like me and use the same brush for multiple projects, make sure that your brushes are cleaned very well in between uses so that you don’t have issues with colors mixing. I’ve been there and it’s no fun!

Once that was dry, I used the stencil set to place the “Razorbacks” on the top of the table. I used a one stroke brush from the acrylic paintbrush set and Master’s Touch Acrylic Paint in Permanent Black for the letters.

Once the lettering was finished, I wanted to place a logo on the top as well. Y’all, I tried to free hand the Razorback “A”, but I just couldn’t get it. Maybe it was the texture of the wood or the spaces in between that kept tripping me up, but where there’s a will there’s a way…and I found a way!

Since that didn’t go as planned, I had to get super creative. After all, this was my first spool table, and I really didn’t know what I was doing. So, next I used my computer and printed the “A” onto printer paper. I cut it out and hung it from the ceiling fan chain. Yes, you read that right, the ceiling fan chain!

Then, I placed my phone above it on a ceiling fan blade with the flashlight on. In other words, I made a makeshift projector that cast the perfect “A” over the table for me to trace. I know…it’s kind of silly, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do!

Now that I finally had that part finished, I had my oldest daughter, Taylor help with the painting. We used the Master’s Touch Acrylic Paint in Titanium White for this part.

More stenciling.

Next, I moved to stenciling the middle section and base of the table. I thought it would be cute to do something saying only Razorback fans could sit at the table.

So, I ended up stenciling “RESERVED” on the middle section of the barrel and “FANS ONLY” on the base using the titanium white for this as well.

Hog Fans Only.

After the stenciling, I still felt like it needed something extra. So, I decided to paint a Razorback below the “RESERVED” so that it would look like “Reserved. Hog fans only.” on the side.

It’s had been years since I hand painted anything, and I really wasn’t sure what I would end up with. It was certainly nerve-wracking, but I went for it, and it turned out great!

You never know if you don’t try, so don’t sell yourself short! This project really gave me the confidence to keep going and try other things and now I am blogging about it. Don’t let fear hold you back from trying something new or from picking something back up that you used to do years ago. You got this!

Table height is important.

I bought a couple of standard height bar stools to go with the table. However; the table was too short for them.

Luckily, there was a new house being built just down the road from ours and they had a large pile of scrap lumber outside. I stopped to see if I could take some off their hands. SCORE!!

They told me I could take whatever I needed. So, I got a square post from them and cut it into 3, 4-inch sections and screwed to the bottom of the table and then stained them to match.

Finishing the stools.

I got the stools from a local retail store, and they came very basic. I sanded them down using a 220-grit sanding block.

This was just to remove the finish to prep for the stain. The stools were stained with Jacobean stain, and the tops were painted to match the tabletop.

The stain on the bar stools came out a lot lighter in color than on the table, but again that was because I didn’t use a wood conditioner on the table and the wood was very dry. I did two coats on each stool, waiting 4 hours in between each coat.

All in all, I felt that this was a successful first project, and I was super happy with the results. It felt nice to do something creative with this old cable spool and see my vision come to life. It definitely sparked a fire in me to keep going and find new projects.

The Razorback Spool Table

Here is the finished table and stools. It was a neat project and one that I loved doing. I hope that this helps to inspire you to find your creative side. You can do whatever you put your mind to. I truly believe that! If you have any questions, leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!

With love- Lindsey