Buffet table - finally!

You might remember a few months back when I told you all about this beaut that I bought at a thrift store.  I'd been on the lookout for a buffet table for our dining room for a few months and waffled between getting something new (and paying a stupid amount of money for it), getting something already redone (and still paying a pretty penny for it) or just doing it all myself.  When I stumbled on this guy, 30% off the $40 price, I called Ryan, we hitched up the trailer and brought this baby home.

It took me a few hours of sanding, 4 coats of stain and 3 coats of poly, some new handles and a quick wipe of the lemon pledge (Ryan was very specific on that detail) and this is what we've got now!

Well, slap my knee and call me Sally, this baby is finally finished!

Complete with pictures of the family and an owl or two for good measure.

I'm really happy with how the color came out.  It's showing up a little redder here than it is in person, but it matches our dining room table and kitchen chairs almost perfectly. 

*Don't look at my lamp shade!  This project has been done for about a month now and I've been waiting to officially blog it "DONE" until I finished up my lamp shade project.  I wanted something bright and after looking everywhere I decided I'd just recover a plain lampshade with some fun fabric.  Well, it didn't turn out like I'd hoped, so I'll be re-doing (ie. just buying!) a new one here as soon as I find something I like. 

So, what do you think?  Do you love it as much as I do?  I swear, finding furniture pieces for less than $50 is hard to do these days.  With all the DIY blogs/shows out there now people are snapping these things up quick.  I was so excited when I found this guy AND Ryan agreed that it would work for our house.  We went through quite a few "nopes" before we got to this one.  And by a few I mean, like 100!