The Showstopping Picnic Table Upgrade You Need To DIY Before Summer Hits

Summer calls for barbecues on the weekends, where you invite your friends and family over to hang out and spend time together. However, before the fun starts, you need to prepare your home to host all the summer parties. Dust off your picnic table and pull it out of storage. Then, give it a small upgrade by adding a drink trough to the center of the table. Instead of lugging around a heavy cooler full of soda, juice, or alcoholic beverages, the trough stores your drinks and keeps them cold for when someone needs a refill. You can add more ice and beverages throughout the day if you're running low. Best of all, it's a straightforward DIY that anyone can do.

Simply, remove the middle board from your picnic table, add a rain gutter, and fill it with ice and drinks. When you're done using the picnic table, return the middle board to its place to cover and protect the trough from damage. You might find most of the materials needed for this DIY in your garage, so it's the perfect budget-friendly project to prepare for summer. You'll need a drill gun, a saw, a measuring tape, a rafter angle square, two 2-by-4-inch wood pieces, a 5-inch rain gutter, two rain gutter end caps, a handful of 2 ½-inch screws, and two 2-by-2-inch wood pieces from Ace Hardware. You can buy everything for less than $20, considering you only need the wood, rain gutter, and end caps.

Flip your picnic table upside down and remove the two diagonal boards holding the legs and table and set them aside. Under the table, you'll see a small cleat attached to all the wood boards; measure and mark the cleat 1 ½-inches from the top and bottom to cut out the middle piece. Use a saw blade measured at 1 ½-inches to cut the cleat where you made your marks and remove the centerpiece. The middle board of the table's surface will be exposed. 

Next, stack the 2 x 4s horizontally at the end of the table and the 2 x 2s vertically between the 2 x 4s and the cleat's gap. Attach the 2 x 4s and the 2 x 2s to the adjacent planks with 2 ½-inch screws, avoiding the middle board. Once the planks are secure, flip the table right side up and remove the middle board. Measure the length of the exposed 2 x 4s and add an inch. Take the measurements and cut the ends from the middle board. Then, reattach the ends to the table to cover the 2 x 4s. You'll have a gap in the center of the table, so measure the gap and cut the rain gutter to size, including the end caps. Caulk the end caps to the rain gutter's sides and put it in the gap, attaching it to the 2 x 2s with metal sheet screws. Drill a drain hole in the gutter and reattach the diagonal boards. Finally, drill a ¾-inch finger hole into the leftover board so it's a removable trough cover.

Adding a drink trough to your picnic table makes it multi-functional, giving your friends and family easy access to drinks so they don't have to get up for refills. However, you can further elevate your table with a few extra accessories. For instance, add desk organizing trays to the table's sides to hold ketchup, mustard, relish, and other food condiments. Amazon sells a plastic organizing tray for $6.91.

When adding your tray to the picnic table, you can drill it directly into it for a permanent solution or make it removable and store it inside the trough when you're not using it. For removable trays, add slots to them to slide over screws. Simply drill a couple of holes inside the tray with a screw bit larger than the screws you'll drill into the table. Then, heat the screw with a blow torch and stick it into the hole you made but drag it upward to create a slot in the plastic. Repeat on the other side. Add your screws to the table by using the tray to mark where the screws will go. Drill the screws into the table, leaving them sticking out slightly, and slide the tray over the screws. Your picnic table will store all your necessities without any trouble, and you'll be able to enjoy time with your friends and family.