Refinishing a Table Purchased at a Lawn Sale for $40

Great finds can be found at lawn sales. With a little elbow grease, you can save yourself a lot of money! And I am talking about hundreds of dollars saved.

Often the first step is the messy step in any remodeling and refinishing project. In this instance, that statement rings true. The table will need to be cleaned and sanded. I used an orbital sander that has a bag that collects some of the dust. This tool is worth the purchase. I have used it on a lot of projects.

This DeWALT orbital has worked wonderfully, but I am sure any brand will perform well.

My husband having a little bit of fun while I slave away... Just kidding, I had to ask him to stop his project to snap a few pics of me working.

If you can, it is a good idea to do this part of the project outside.

All sanded and looking better already!

Time to stain the table. I used a blend of Early American and Ebony Minwax. I brushed the stain on and then wiped it down with a rag.

The stain is drying.

After the stain dried, I put on three coats of Polyacrylic. Lightly sand between each coat.

Now all we have to do is wait for more bargain chairs. We ran into a sale at Marshall's. These two chairs were on sale for $25 each. They were normally $80. Yo can't see it, but I have a long bench on one side, which I got at a lawn sale for $5. We can also add one more leaf, so if we have a lot of people visiting, we can seat ten people at this table.

My purchase price was $40. I still had the stain and the polyacrylic left over from other projects that I have been doing at camp.  To give you an idea of what a new table costs I did a Google search and came up with a lot of choices. Below is a screen shot of one section of the search.