Dining table for $12.50

Right before Christmas 2010, during my first thrift shop experience, I spied a lonely dining table in the corner, I took a look at the price tag which said $25. The thrift store was taking off 50% of all furniture, so that brought the table down to $12.50. I could have sworn they forgot a zero in there...but who am I to argue with a bargain and a half!?!! We really needed a new dining table big enough to fit some dinner guests. This table also came with a leaf! PERFECT SIZE to finally replace our 4 top tiny table.






I saw the potential right away for a barn/farm style makeover. I knew it needed some TLC, it needed to be stripped and re-stained, maybe even painted. I let it sit in our dining room like this for a couple of weeks until I could decide the details of it's face lift. Lucky for me, hubby was eager to get the project started, so he rushed me a little and together we chose to re-stain the top, and paint the bottom half black for a two-toned farm style look.
We stripped and stained the top, sanded it down and applied a Bombay Mahogany stain.
Next we spray painted the bottom half with black satin, let it dry, and I went around the table with my drummel to add some distressed details. The chairs were already ours from our previous dining table, so all I did was prime the chairs and spray paint them with the black satin paint used on the table.
I really like this idea from Sunny Days for the chairs, but haven't gotten that far yet!
Here is our "after" photo






I also went ahead and painted the two drawer fronts of our old IKEA shelving unit with the black satin. They use to be a dark gray color. Here is a shot of the whole dining room