If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that I am spoiled in quite a few ways. One of those is that I usually hire others to do what I prefer to avoid (like housekeeping and lawn care) and hire myself out for things that I like to do that other people dislike (like ad negotiating and blog commenting). This also usually means that I sell what I want to replace or give away broken things and buy new or used stuff instead. But every once in a while, a frugal idea is just too perfect and Mr. BFS and I follow through on it.
Breakfast Table Set
Our new house has a breakfast nook right off the kitchen. We already had a 6 person butcher’s block table with a light wood top and white legs. The problems is that our new kitchen has espresso cabinets and a darker granite, so the table sort of stuck out as very country in a contemporary environment…
This is the breakfast nook space that our table was put into…
This is the best picture I can find of our breakfast table before we changed it. And yes, that is Mr. Pug hiding in his new corner, lol.
Given that this table is very well built and is perfect for a bunch of our boardgames when we play with a small group, we wanted to keep it. But we also wanted it to fit in better with the rest of the area. Enter the Espresso Stain/Polyurethane combo. 
Our New Table
After 30 minutes of sanding with hubby’s grandpa’s hand sander and 3 coats of espresso stain over 2 days, it’s like we have a brand new table! Here was exactly what we did:
- Detached the legs of the table.
- Picked up the (super heavy) top and set it in the driveway face up.
- Sanded it down for about half an hour.
- Dusted it off and wiped it down with damp paper towels to get it cleaned off.
- Moved the table top to my car space in the garage.
- Applied first coat of stain/polyurethane at 4pm – took about an hour.
- Waited 6-7 hours.
- Applied second coat at 11:30pm – took about 30 minutes.
- Waited until the next morning.
- Applied third coat at 11am – took about 30 minutes.
- Reattached the legs and set up the super heavy table back into the breakfast nook.
Voilà!!! Take a look at how it looks now! 
This is the same table in Espresso.
“New” Table Cost
- Quart of Polyshades Espresso/Polurethane – $12.87
- Medium Sanding Sheets – $3.47
- Fine Sanding Sheets – $3.97
- 2″ Utility Brush – $2.97
- Paper towels – $1
- Total = Less Than $25.00
Not too shabby! I couldn’t find another table I liked any better for less than $200, so woot!!!
Now to get the chairs I really want…but hey, baby steps…
These are the front runners for our new chairs ($45 each), but we are still looking around…
Have you ever refinished/stained something to get it to fit in?
I have some good intentions to stain a few items of furniture to get them to fit in. Right now I just accept my house looks a little mismatched. Given my present stage in life as a young mother very little in my life looks pretty. If a chair holds me up it can stay for the time being!
The two be new chairs look like a great buy @45 each. Where are they from?
This is something that we’ve been wanting to do!
My dad used to do a lot f staining but I haven’t had to refinish and furniture yet as we haven’t had any that long. We may do it eventually though.
That turned out really well!! Well done
My aunt refinishes things all the time http://www.creatingathome.com. It’s pretty impressive. I have never really refinished things, just built them from scratch to fit spaces.
Awesome job on the table. That looks really good and what a small investment.
I love redoing furniture.
You did a really nice job, and the table looks awesome in its place now
BTW, could you please recommend a template for a budget? I would like one that is flexible, so that I can add or change categories. I’m having trouble finding exactly what I want
Thanks!
I love the new look! If you had bought that table new it would have been several hundred dollars!
Those chairs will look great with it and are a great price, I say buy them before they disappear!
Love the DIY stuff. Given we bought a bit of a fixer upper, we definitely look for these types of opportunities. I have reupholsterd an antique rocking chair (cost $38 for material and padding – results priceless as it has been in the family for over 100 years). Bought fleck stone paint and re-surfaced the door of an in-wall medicine cabinet (cost $13.95 – results huge as it was a custom size that I couldn’t replace without going custom again). Love the pictures of your house and of course Mr. Pug.
@Mandy, that’s exactly how we were in our last house for 5 years. I am using my motivation as long as I have it.
@Rohit, a third party selling on Amazon.
@Michelle, if we can do it, anybody can. Really.
@Lance, I wouldn’t take this up as a hobby, but I will definitely consider it for any pieces that I would like to keep.
@Anne, “just built from scratch”, hahahaha. I would be like “Check out this perfect, ingenious book case that I spent all week building from scratch!!! Aren’t I amazing?!” LOL
@Sean, thanks!
@Carmen, I know I emailed you directly, but for anybody else that wanted the answer – I use an Excel sheet with 3 columns – one for the category, one for the budgeted amount, and one that keeps up with all of the spending in that category.
@Savvy Financial Latina, thank you!
@Jenn, you are not helping my self control, lol.
@Leslie, wow, congrats on being a DIY’er already! And yeah, Mr. Pug is a cutie pants…
Polyurethane – gooood stuff. There’s some shelves we’ve been wanting to do (already have the polyurethane, just need to light a fire and do it.
Looks nice!
BTW … enjoyed last weekend and seeing the new home. Beautiful.
That looks amazing! I think we have the same table…
I haven’t done much, but I was blessed by a friend with four new chairs that match my table. Now we have enough for guests!
I used to refinish antique furniture. I love that feeling of accomplishment when you turn an old piece of junk into something beautiful.
I really like the cabinets in your kitchen. What color is that, if you don’t mind me asking?
Thanks,
Pam
I haven’t stained anything, but have sanded stain to paint. I have redone an old antique type chair to make it more modern for our house. I also painted a book case and dresser that were stained into red and blue for our daughter’s Dr. Seuss room. Can’t beat the cost.
Great job it looks great and quite a saving in the long run. A little muscle work can come in handy:)
You guys did a great job on that table; I love the darker stain much better.
P.S. I think the wall paint is an exact match to our repainted kitchen!
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[...] @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff writes Sometimes a Little Stain Goes a Long Way! – Our new house has a breakfast nook right off the kitchen. Our old table doesn’t fit [...]
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