My first refinishing project

I bought my first home last year, so I have been slowly decorating the place. My kitchen has an island counter with a small breakfast bar. Since I have a dining room table, I didn’t immediately go out to buy stools — I had other priorities and this wasn’t urgent.

But this summer I finally got around to dealing with the seatless breakfast bar. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on stools and I didn’t want to stools to take up a lot of space or detract from the rest of the decor — I wanted them to blend. By searching the web, I found a style I liked — saddle stool — but most were going to be at least $60 each and they didn’t come in the colors I liked. So I hit Craigslist and patiently searched for stools that I liked. It took over a month, but someone finally was selling the style I was looking for, but in the wrong color.

I decided to contact the seller anyway; although she was asking for $60 for the set, it was still a little too much for me since I knew I was going to strip and restain them. My next move is one that has to be done carefully and politely — I emailed the seller and said that if no one else was interested at the price she was asking, I’d be willing to buy the pair for $30. She was open to negotiation and we settled on $40 for the pair. For one year old bar stools that are worth $60 each, it was a reasonable deal.

Since my sister had completed a refinishing project a year ago, I used the last of her stain remover and supplies to strip the walnut color off the saddle stools. A quick stop at the hardware store for a $5 can of maple stain and I was ready to go.

$120 stools for $45…