Ode to the Mess Hall

Back when we first bought John's grandfather's house, there was a secondary building on the property. This structure was originally built as the mess hall for the divinity school (which also used to to be on the property). 

Unfortunately, we could not save the building as the backside was falling out. We did however discover many long, beautiful, cedar support beams running under the house. These we kept!

With a little inspiration from House Beautiful magazine, we decided to make the beams into a dining table for our covered back porch. Since the wood was taken from the divinity school's kitchen and dining hall, it only made sense that the wood be made into a table for eating. Our family loves spending time outside in warm months so a large outdoor table would be the perfect addition to our new home!

The table was finished just before our five year anniversary. We figured this was a very fitting anniversary gift for ourselves as this was our "wood" year! We cannot wait to eat around this table with our family and friends.

(picture shows table just before it was finished)

Big thanks to Bret MacFadyen at the Art and Invention Gallery in East Nashville for creating this beautiful table for us!!!