The Table

My dad is a wonderful carpenter.  I am not.  But I do like to dabble in it now and then.  When my sister in law needed her table refinished, I offered to do it for her.  She was nice enough to let me try.

It’s a beautiful, old piece of oak, but it had lived many years, and the finish was worn off in many places.  I stripped it down.

Here are the two leaves, one stripped and one with the old finish.

After stripping, it looked like this.  Still pretty bad, right?

So, I sanded it … and it looked much better.

Ahhhhhh!  Isn’t that just pretty?!  Doesn’t that make you itch to stain it?

Then I made a rookie mistake.  See this nice little canister?  See how perfectly the little splotch on the front matches the color of the legs (which I didn’t refinish)? 

See how the stain inside the can looks nothing like the little sample on the outside of the can?!  (Honestly, I didn’t even let the stain sit 5 min like recommended, it was pretty much on and right back off.  And since I’m being honest, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color.)

But do you see how it doesn’t match the legs?  And yes, that’s right, I did do all four pieces until I thought of that.  Like I said, this is my first go-round.

So, try again.

This time with a little more smarts and scientific method.  I got a spare piece of oak from Home Depot, sectioned it off and tested new stains for  1) applying over the first stain 2) stripping the first stain and then applying a second stain and 3) if I had to, I could sand the whole thing back down to raw wood again and start from scratch.

Three new colors.

And varying results …

A fourth new color …

Trying to figure out what to do and staring at it so long my eyes hurt …

Then finally going with my gut and just picking one … and the immense satisfaction that I picked the right one, and the top matched the legs again!

Then came the fun part.  My dad made my mom a table when I was a kid.  I asked him what he used to finish it and he told me he’d done a tung oil finish because he’d wanted it to last.  Well, I was sure my sister in law wanted hers to last, too.  Also, I thought it would be fun, as I’d never done it before.

I really liked it.  Okay, okay, it’s much more labor intensive than poly.  Sure.  You have to paint it on, let it sit for 10 min, then buff it back off (I learned a few coats too late to be VERY CAREFUL to buff all the extra finish off or you get shiny spots).

But it’s fun because … well, look at the table while it has a coat of finish on it.  It’s so pretty and shiny!  Also, you just keep putting coats on until you get the luster you’re looking for.  It gets a little more shiny after each coat.

And this is what it looked like after eight coats.  Rich, shiny, pretty.  (And the top matched the legs … well, well enough.)

Now I’ve got it in my head to make my own dining room table next summer when my dad comes to visit.