How to Successfully Strip and Stain a Wooden Tabletop
A client came to me with an outdated kitchen table and chair set. She wanted the legs painted an espresso color and the chair seats and tabletop stained a honey color. Here's how I easily and successfully updated the table.....
I removed the legs for this project amd just laid the table down on plastic. Take your stripper, I used jasco premium paint and epoxy stripper. Be sure to wear chemical proof gloves and a mask, this stuff burns if you get it on your skin. Spread a thick layer over the entire table using a cheap chip brush
Once you've covered the entire tabletop, go back to the area you first started and you'll be able to see it start to work. Tjis table had many layers of finish and it started to bubble almost immediately.
You'll want to wait aproximately 15 minutes for the chemicals to really loosen up any paint or finish. Then take your metal scraper and start scraping up the stripper. You want to do this in long even strokes being sure not to gouge the wood. Keep plenty of paper towels or disposable rags handy to scrape all of the stripper into
Once you've removed all of the stripper, pour some mineral spirits on the table and using paper towels or similar, and scrub the wood to remove any residue
Wipe off any remaining liquids and allow to dry several hours or overnight. Using 150-180 grit sandpaper, sand the wood so it's even and smooth
Wipe all the sawdust off with a dry, lint free cloth and apply some pre-stain wood conditioner using another cheap chip brush. I use minwax brand pre stain
After that has sat for 30 minutes to no more than 2 hours, wipe off any residual liquid and clean off any dust. Using a chip brush, apply your choice of wood stain according to the products instructions.
Allow to dry overnight and then apply your top coat. I chose minwax wipe on poly. It's almost foolproof with its application. Just pour a small amount of poly onto the tabletop. Using a lint free rag and long even strokes, wipe it evenly onto the tabletop in a thin layer, adding more poly as needed.
You can apply numerous coats of the wipe on poly. Typically for a tabletop, 3-5 coats is the magic number. Allow 4 hours dry time in between coats. You can sand in between coats using 220 grit sandpaper as well but it's not necessary. Here is the finished tabletop!
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Looks amazing. You did a great job. Love it.
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Wow, wow! This is an amazing tutorial, thank you!
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I learned something new....I never knew there was a wipe on polyurethane? Why did you choose it over a brush on one? What's the difference in the two products? Great job btw!