If you can’t afford it, make it.

When my husband and I moved to the North Loop in Minneapolis, we found ourselves with over 1700sqft of empty loft space and nothing to put in it. I vied to have a dining room table worthy of such a bright and beautiful space, but after buying our first home, our bank accounts were running low. We came across a Craigslist posting and found a couple that had recently inherited a mill outside of the city. They were selling raw, live-edge black walnut slabs for pretty much nothing. During our visit, we picked out a 10 foot Y-cut slab and sent it off to the kiln. 9 months later, the slab was dry enough to begin millwork.

We cut the slab down the middle, squared it off, and flipped the sides. We then milled a space where we could lay a long piece of glass down the middle—increasing the width of the table and reconnecting the slab. For the legs, we found a Turkish welder on Etsy that was able to create a custom order.

All-in-all, we spent less that $1,000 and created a one-of-a-kind work of art for our new home.