Restored and Refinished Entry Table
by
Dus17403359
12 Materials
19.25 Hours
Medium
This piece has been with me through many many journeys! This was first a piece in my parents home. They gave it to me to furnish in my various places of living in college. I've held onto it ever since and it has traveled from place to place with me always providing its services, never letting me down. I decided to return a little gratitude!
I always start with a good cleaning! A little soapy water can go a long way on these old beauties! A good cleaning also makes all of your other products work to their optimum potential!
After fully dry, I started in on stripping!
I don't recall which stripping product I used on this piece, but I never use anything less than industrial strength. You better have on those think black or blue chemical gloves or things are going to get warm fast! 
I only stripped in the places I knew I would refinish. I decided I was going to refinish everything but the legs. Therefore, the legs didn't need stripped. After a good lacquer thinner cleaning, I let that dry and proceeded to sand! Now, you have to be very careful when refinishing furniture. Many times, more often than not, you are probably dealing with veneer on top of plywood or another cheaper wood that's probably not nearly as pretty as the veneer. You want to be pretty darn certain of what you are dealing with before you just start in with your palm sander and some 100! It could be quite devastating. I knew this was veneer before I started, which is also why I chose to strip it. Veneer is very delicate. Which is also why I chose to start with grit, by hand. I moved to and finished up with on the top only. Normally, I wouldn't skip that much grit, from to , but I felt comfortable with the way the piece was sanding out.
I only stripped in the places I knew I would refinish. I decided I was going to refinish everything but the legs. Therefore, the legs didn't need stripped. After a good lacquer thinner cleaning, I let that dry and proceeded to sand! Now, you have to be very careful when refinishing furniture. Many times, more often than not, you are probably dealing with veneer on top of plywood or another cheaper wood that's probably not nearly as pretty as the veneer. You want to be pretty darn certain of what you are dealing with before you just start in with your palm sander and some 100! It could be quite devastating. I knew this was veneer before I started, which is also why I chose to strip it. Veneer is very delicate. Which is also why I chose to start with grit, by hand. I moved to and finished up with on the top only. Normally, I wouldn't skip that much grit, from to , but I felt comfortable with the way the piece was sanding out. 
After all that sanding, I could tell the old gal could use a little thirst quencher. I decided to give her a little pick me up with some Howard's Feed n Wax. A wonderful wonderful wonderful product!!! As you can see, it soaked right in and gave a glorious satin sheen and just made that grain pop right out!
Now, feed n wax does contain wax (duh, right?), so es-sensually, I could have stopped there. However, I really wanted to give this piece a bit of a statement. I then gave a bit of a wipe down with mineral spirits to help remove any wax. This did not affect the veneer in any way.
Time to stain!!
I initially stained the whole piece (aside from the legs) in the reddish tint you see on top of the scallops. However, to my eye, that was a bit more statement than I anticipated. I toned it down and added some black onyx right on top, but left the red edging. I fell in love immediately!
So it was time to tackle those spindles! Primed first with 2 coats and then a couple layers of base coat!
Topped of with a brilliant teal, distressed, and glazed with black.
For that soft and lustrous finish I decided to go back to the feed n wax! It turned out brilliantly!
No more heavy use and disrespect for this old bird! She's always been beautiful to me, but now she really shines!
Resources for this project:
Citri-Strip QCG731 Paint and Varnish Stripping Gel, 1-Quart
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Comments
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2 of 58 comments
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This is absolutely lovely. I don't like to paint wood pieces most of the time. I love how you just accented with paint and left the rest natural. You have a beautiful eye for color and complimentary use of color with natural wood. Great job!
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I use the Howard's wax for everything. Love how it makes the wood glow and it gives chalk paint a wonderful finish as well. Love your table!
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I really like the blue luster finish. What paints do you use to acquire the luster?