Dining room table from drift wood

I've been looking around for some stuff to post on my newly minted blog and came across these pics of a dining room table myself and my girlfriend, Caroline built for her mom. We found the wood for the legs one day whilst walking up the beach, not too sure what type of wood it is but it had a strange smell to it once cut, almost like a coconut husk. We did hear stories of a cargo ship that lost some timber in rough seas not far from where we were but couldn't confirm it. Someone had tried to make a fire with the one end, no doubt a fisherman trying to keep warm on a cold night.

Caroline getting stuck in

Me doing my bit

The day we carried it back home we bumped into one of the local residents who said that she had also spotted that same piece of wood and was trying to figure out a way to retrieve it. Luckily we picked it up first, although it wasn't easy carrying a whole friggin tree trunk 2 kilometers down the beach and back to Caroline's moms house. I used some scrap 2 x 4 planks for the frame and Caroline's mom bought 2 boards of pine for 300 bucks that we use for the table top.

Was a bit of a mission trying to cut the legs so that they all stood level considering that the trunk was bent to one side. I used a piece of string to measure the length from top to bottom and tried cutting it as square as possible. Turned out pretty sturdy in the end. I didn't use any Mortise or Tenon joints, bolted the legs to the frame and screwed the table top down. The holes for the screws were countersunk and filled with wood filler.
We sanded it down and varnished it with a clear coat. Only took us a couple of hours from start to finish and I think it turned out really nice.

Our driftwood dining room table in all it's glory