Oak Dining Table is Stained OVER Existing Finish

Table before

This round oak table had been refinished by the former owner so there was no need to strip, sand and restain BUT with a new gel stain from Fusion Mineral Paint I knew I could update the color without doing all that work. Here are many other dining table tutorials that were stripped and or painted and this handy how to refinish a dining table guide.

First step scrub clean!

1 vs 2 coats

Here is one coat of Fusion's double espresso gel stain on the left and a coat of ebony going over on the right.

Tip if you have bubbles

Now if you get some bubbles dried after a coat, I use a razor to carefully cut them off, lightly sand with a sanding sponge and move on to the next coat. A light sponge sand between coats helps too.

Brush on the gel stain

Be sure to brush slowly to avoid creating air bubbles which require the above tip to resolve. I use a cheap 2" chip brush.

3rd coat

Here is the third coat I believe on and sitting to dry. I put on 4 coats total only because I had the bubble issues. If you can avoid them you can save a coat or two.

All coats dry

Here are all the coats dry, the sheen is lovely, not to glossy.

Paint the table base

Moving onto the table base I chose Fusion Mineral Paint in Sterling, a soft grey using the Fusion 2" synthetic paint brush. Two coats were brushed on then black wax was added. In depth tutorial details are linked at the end for this makeover.

Top

As you can see the top is stunning.

Pop over to my blog for more free home decor and furniture tutorials.

Base

And the dark waxed sterling base pops.

Table at smallest diameter

This table is perfect to go from sweet round to more seating oval all updated in a fresh new finish.