What You Need
Materials
clean cotton cloth
foam brush
100 grit sandpaper
fine grade sanding pad (and sandpaper)
wood stain (I mixed two colors of Minwax to get the color I wanted)
fine steel wool (0000)
a crate or piece of styrofoam to prop the legs up while staining them
Tools
small orbital sander
Instructions
1. Clean off legs
2. Attach 100 grit sandpaper to your orbital sander and just sand the finish right off of each leg, rolling the leg while sanding so you don't sand out too much wood in one spot
3. Wipe off all the wood dust, see if any areas need extra work and re-sand if necessary
4.Use a fine sanding pad or sandpaper and smooth out each leg, always sanding with the direction of the grain
5.Wipe off all wood dust, clean up wood dust in your work area
6. With the clean foam brush, apply stain on each leg evenly, after 15 minutes wipe off the excess stain, repeat if you want the legs darker, remove excess again after 15 minutes
7.When the legs are completely dry and you're happy with the color, rub them all over with 0000 (fine) steel wool
8. Apply a coat of satin polyurethane on each leg if you want to, the stain I used comes with the sealer in the stain.
9. Attach metal furniture leg plates to your desired piece of furniture, ottoman, stool, bench or chair and screw in your fabulously refinished fifty cent legs that look like they cost you at least $25.00.
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I've done this. It's pretty easy and really makes a difference. I missed the steel wool step and wish I had been smart enough to think of using the crate, I had the legs still attached to the furniture of the ottoman (turned upside down) when i stained the legs. I was just extra careful not to get any excess stain on anything.
Sanding with a 100 isn't necessary if you have a random orbital. They make quicker work out of your sanding. With it you will be able to skip to 150 to sand off your original finish and then hand sand with 220.
Instead of using the crate you can also temporarily attach the metal pin plates onto a piece of scrap wood.
For a deeper (less obviously stained) wood tone, on top of the oil stain you can add a couple layers of gel stain. This will give you a richer color that is closer to the original manufactured finish.
this is a project i am going to do soon!
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1297665&kw=waddell&origkw=waddell&searchId=46943582593
7 sizes, 4" to 28" -- for everything from sofas to tables.
$2.99 to $8.99
Given my busy life, I can't see doing all that labor to save $25.00 for four legs!
You can also find these in stock at Lowes.
None of my local Ace stores carried those legs, but 3 lowes in my area all had a fairly large stock of them in store.
Oh, and great tutorial. I am about to do just this with some store bought legs, but this is very helpful.
@kimg924: Some people have less busy lives, and/or they care more about reducing/reusing/recycling than buying more new crap.
The legs that I refinished were hardwood vintage legs circa 1950-1960. You can't find them anywhere. I've searched and I've had someone take specs to see if they would make them for me. They will cost around $15.00 each to have them made. The Ace Hardware legs are good options, but if you can find original legs from that time period, buy them. There are many so so pieces of furniture out there with great legs. Keep yours eyes and mind open.
I wanted to replace some colonial style spindles on a banister. All of the stores I looked at had pretty much the exact same thing. I think ModHomeEcTeacher is right - if you want a specific look, you have to be creative. It's not just about the time savings.
ModHomeEcTeacher,
Tu-chez. You are missing the point, just as southwick did.
I am not certain that the legs in the photos are the same legs in the before & after photo. & Even if they are, you certainly sawed off a chunk in order to fit your need. (so much for the provenance argument.)
Take satisfaction in embarking on a project and being happy with the outcome. Taking the "green" argument is laughable.
Ps, you must be hot; that night stand should have gotten a higher price.
Krunkinator makes a good point. The photo of the table is not the exact one the legs were pulled from. I didn't get a photo of the first table the legs came from. I didn't want to sour the good deal by making a big deal of it when the guy was being so generous. I went back to the store and took a photo of a similar style. I apologize-I should have specified that it's tables that look like these where you'll find unexpectedly nice legs. I've found about eight sets of nice legs on old laminate tables.