Jo and Marie can attest to my first failure (which I totally blame on terrible 'gel' stain that seemed like a good idea) I eventually decided to paint it and it turned out to be totally different color than I thought and was really ugly! I was also heavily pregnant at the time and I believe hormones played a large role in my poor decision making abilities ...ha ha...
On to attempt number 2-
I bought this table at an auction for 35 pounds. Nice, big, long, cheap table that we could ALL fit around. It was rough. Really ugly and loads of damage on the top. I however, was up to the challenge. Or so I thought....
All in all it hasn't turned out nearly as badly as my last attempt. I did some research before hand and had some good advice from the man at the farm and garden store in town. No gels this time... wood dye and varnish. The first thing I think is that it is way too orange. Had no idea how much it would darken with the varnish. And it is SOOOO shiny. Seriously, it rivals the sun (though you can't tell so much in the picture) I am not sure what to do with it at this point. How can I make it less shiny? I have 320 grit sand paper, but that is too rough. Could I rub it down with steel wool? Any ideas?
Burn it?
It needs a few more coats of varnish, but since i am thinking of sanding it down and starting again I don't want to bother.
OK - I would appreciate your advice!!
:-)
5 comments:
Jerry (my husband) has done a lot of staining in his day. He doesn't think that steel wool will really help. He said that if you used a stripper and could figure out exactly how long to leave it on to remove the varnish and not the stain, you could take off the top layer and then refinish it with a satin or matte finish polyurathane. However, he doesn't know how you would do that without getting the stain off, so it might not be a good idea.
He did say that if you used 000 or 0000 steel wool enough times, you could get it off. It would "take forever" though. At first it would just smooth it out.
For what it's worth, I think it looks nice in the picture. :)
Oh yeah it looks nice! What's with you and the tables?
LOL, our table refinish is real shiny too. Here's what I learned... use it. It stops being so shiny. second, in between layers of varnish you should lightly sand anyways, and the next coat you could move to matte finish. Or if you don't like how dark it looks, you could sand it back down and don't stain it, just finish with varnish and you will get the natural finish look.... that is what we do. Even with paint, you would have to strip it down again to bare wood - i think
Wow, from the picture I think it looks great! How much is 35 pounds in usa money? frogive me for my ignorance on that one! All in all I think you did a GREAT job and the kids all look so happy helping you!
Thanks guys~! I think I will leave it for now, and if the shine doesn't ease on it a bit I will put another coat of matte varnish.
35 pounds right now is about $56. Back when I bought the table it was closer to $70, but still a pretty good deal.
oh and for those that didn't notice... I only re-finished the top, not the sides and legs. They are in pretty good condition and I have better things to do with my life!
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