Table Re-do (free!) Part ONE

Because I have nothing better to do (insert light sarcasm here), I thought I would re-do some furniture this summer for our new house. Okay, maybe rather because I want a cute house, but am cheap (er... thrifty?) and have a rather frugal budget to work with:). I am learning as I go, making copious mistakes and leaning heavily on the wisdom gleaned from cher Google and my parents. So far, it has been more fun than I thought, and some things have turned out rather nicely to boot!

Here is the dining room table we picked up off Craigslist for free. After lots of sanding, varnish and poly, we are looking more and more like an "after". I still have a run to Hobby Lobby (not my favorite place) to make to get more chalk paint for the chairs, and then we'll be in business. In the mean time, here is the progress:

One sander later (sorry dad!), I have a lovely, smooth-ish table top.

Here are the legs, well half of them.  This is before the sanding and varnish

Legs, after varnish...lookin' hot ladies!

Freshly varnished and poly-ed table top, waiting to meet its long lost legs

Creamy-colored chalky painted chair.  Still needs a wax coat and I need to pick out fabric to re-do the seat.  I have two of these chairs and four totally different ones that match each other. 

So there you have it...my progress toward a cute, rustic table for almost free (I paid $5 for the two matching chairs and another $20 in supplies so far).