How can I make over a black table to match a white cabinet (pics)?
+5
This huge black table is made from what I have always called ‘horse fence.’ I want to match it to the much lighter, faux weathered cabinet but I’m not sure where to start because this table is around eight feet long and it’s basically a mess but we love it anyway. Any ideas would be very appreciated. Thanks!!
Hello Sabrina! Please add a picture to your question!
I think you can begin by sanding off the black from the table. You can find a stain that matches the brown colors in the grain of cabinet, apply and then quickly wipe off as much as possible. You could use a bit of mineral spirits on a rag to get most of the stain off to show only the grain like your cabinet. Once you are happy with the color you can use a waterbased poly to finish the job.
Nice table. The only problem I see with sanding it is that you will flatten out all the character of the wood. If you want to keep it the way it is, you will have a tedious time using paint remover to get the paint off.
To keep the existing character of the wood you can first use CitriStrip to remove anything that's on the surface. Then, get some wood bleach to take out the remainder of the black and go back with a stain that matches the cabinets.
fyi - please confirm this with a woodworking store re the bleaching
Um, yeah. I always use CitriStrip (and the safety equipment that goes along with stripper) on wood surfaces. If you need to go lighter - once you get to the surface - definitely keep that piece outside for the second application. I'm betting that it will almost match the cabinet after the CitriStrip treatment. Definitely give the wood a nice light sanding and then hit it with some sealer (I love both spray or paint-on polyurethane for this part. You get to choose your finish - I personally love satin for tabletops). If that hardware in the pic is screws, I'd remove them before treating the wood. If you can't remove the hardware, do your best to work around it.
Using Citristrip stripper is the best solution. Sanding will take forever with the rough surface and you would be smoothing out the surface. Bleahing won't work because it's used to lighten wood not wood that has a finish.