Weekend Recap: new product introduction

Whew...what a busy weekend! The past few days have been a whirlwind of home improvement projects around here. My back may be aching today, but my house is thanking me. It's amazing what a little elbow grease and a few tired muscles can produce.

Two out of three projects are completed and today I'd like to share one of them. It isn't a spectacular piece. Actually, it's quite pitiful. However, I purposely selected a table that was headed to Goodwill fairly soon so I could test out a new product. Unfortunately, my beautiful plan to show Before and After pictures isn't going to happen. I took several "before" pictures and deleted some to narrow down my choices. Well, today when I took the "after" photo, I realized that I had accidently deleted ALL of my "before" shots. UGH! Oh well, I think I can give you an idea of what I was working with when I started. Many of you have been to my house and already know the orange-y oak I have in so many areas. If you haven't, just imagine an outdated, golden oak. Yuck! I desperately wanted a new modern, dark wood look without breaking the bank. So you can imagine my delight when I found this product:

It's a stain and polyurathane in one! There's no sanding or priming needed before you start. Just a good cleaning and you are ready to go! Best of all, this product is water-based so there's no stinky odor. Like I said, I started with a medium-tone, orange-y golden oak table. After about 5 or 6 thin coats of Cabot PolyStain in Dark Oak (their darkest color), I got this:

YIPPEE!!!! I love it this color! I foresee the disappearance of ALL of my orange-y oak in the coming future!