The Steen Style

Happy Labor Day! This weekend has been anything but labor-free. We are project city around here with the extra day off of work and super cool temps (as in 80 degrees instead of 110. Praise the Lord!). This project was a fun and easy one since I worked with someone I’ve never DIY’d with before – my brother!

When he purchased his home back in May, he also bought this table off of Craigslist for $20. It sat and sat in our garage because he was in no rush to get it to his house and I was in no rush to refinish it in the 100 degree weather.

My mom found these chairs for him at her local Habitat Re-Store for $8/chair! What a deal. For the most part, they were in pretty good condition sans the stain that was wearing off. A little elbow grease, sanding and stain would definitely make them pretty again.

We sanded everything down by hand with a medium grit paper, except for the table top. I used my electric hand sander to really get the goo, grit and sticky off of the top. Once that was finished, we wiped it all down with a clean rag and went to town with the Minwax stain. We used the darkest they had – Dark Walnut.

The table top was super easy – wipe on, let it sit for 10 minutes, then wipe off the excess with a rag. The chairs were harder because of the nooks and crannies on the legs. We started with them upside down and using a foam brush, painted on the stain. We let these sit for about 15-20 minutes while we worked on the next set of chairs and then came back to wipe off the excess. There were some spots that needed touching up but for the most part we did really well the first time!

Here is the whole set, complete and put together in my brother’s house! We only used one coat of stain on both the table and chairs. Chris finished it off with some finishing wax to protect the stain from any future ‘oops’ that always happens. I think we did a pretty good job of darkening the table to match the chairs and evening out the stain on the chair seats!

Here is another view in his house, with his new place mats. We’re working on finding him a male-friendly centerpiece. I had a couple of options for him but they were too girly and not masculine enough. The gender barrier is hard to break when decorating for a bachelor pad!

Next up is another Craigslist project, this time painting a dresser and turning it into a TV console. I think Chris is attempting this one on his own – I love when my DIY excitement rubs off on my family! 🙂 He has the itch to keep going on his to-do list and is under strict orders to take before and after photos so hopefully I’ll be able to share that project with you soon.