Antique Table

Leesa Osborne
by Leesa Osborne
2 Materials
$100
1 Month
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A friend of our family found an antique table at a great price And It needed a make over. I had the honor of making it over. It took me a good month to get her beautiful again. Lots of tears and sweat but I think my customer was happy.


Does your dining room table need a makeover? If you're in the Houston area, you can Team Up with me to redo it together. Just click here to go to my profile page and message me to get started!

it had a ton of built up wax from over the years and it was still beautiful it just needed a little work, Or so I thought, I think I just worried to much that it wasnt going to be what my customer had pictured. I started with denatured alcohol and scraped with a credit card to strip the old wax off. It was working but extremely tedious. I kept googling how to get this crud off. Well after a ton of steel wool and denatured alcohol I was making progress.

a few deep knicks in the top of the table, most of them sanded right Out. after I realized this denatured alcohol stuff just wasnt getting the job done Very quick It did take forever.i decided to strip it. This was my first real piece of trying to keep it as close to the original finish it originally had. Boy I had my hands full.

i finally gave in after a week of scraping and bought stripper in a spray can Klean strip premium stripper to be exact. It was amazing and took the old finish right off. I went through about 6 cans of it. I sanded the table and chairs smooth with 280 grit sandpaper and started staining again.

filled in the knicks with wood puddy and wiped with mineral spirits and it matched perfectly once I restained the entire table. Mind you I’ve stripped and sanded this about 5 different times because it just wasnt looking right. Well I had totally forgot a step and that was to condition the wood. So I restripped my stain and left it over night When I used the wood conditioner I was still worried about them being blotchy. See blotchy chairs below.

i was getting so frustrated but eventually it all worked out. I then restained after using the wood conditioner and that’s all it took. I did have to do several coats of mini wax red mahogany stain but it ended up Turning out almost like the original color. Once I finished the table I started on the chairs. Boy was it a job, there were pieces of wood missing and I used wood filler to fix those.

Once I got to the chairs I removed the seats and sat them aside. I knew that they shouldn’t be to difficult to recover, So I did that last.

filled these spots with wood filler and sanded them down

Original photo of table when I got it

see the build up of old wax

I removed all the old material from the original cushions and replaced them with 2 “ foam cushions and material.

Here she is all finished and ready to go home. I did question myself alot with this project. I learned a great deal from other diyers thank you to those that gave me tips.

This is when my anxiety kicked in it just wasn’t going like I wanted. My photos are out of order. I’m trying squeeze in as many photos as allowed.

Here she is back at her home looking Beautiful.


What do you think? Love the look? If you're in the Houston area, you can Team Up with me to get help redoing your dining room table.  Just click here to go to my profile page and message me to get started!

Suggested materials:
  • 280 grit sand paper Kleen strip stripper mini wax in red mahogany denatured alcohol steel wool   (Walmart amazon homedepot)
  • Steel wool sander sandpaper denatured alcohol stripper stain
Frequently asked questions
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3 of 9 questions
  • Dee12246608 Dee12246608 on Jul 18, 2018

    How did Red Mahogany turn out black?

  • Sherry Sherry on Aug 28, 2018

    I have this same set that has been passed down. Can you tell me what kind of wood this is? Mine needs refinished but I’m not sure I’m up to the job you did. It turned out gorgeous.

  • Eva Conrace Eva Conrace on Sep 09, 2018

    I have an almost identical table. The top of mine is in bad shape, but the leaf that goes in the middle is OK. Did you refinish the legs?

Comments
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2 of 49 comments
  • Judy Judy on Sep 08, 2018

    this table is definately not Oak! Mohagany for sure. I have one just exactly like this. You did a very nice job of refinishing.


  • Leesa Osborne Leesa Osborne on Sep 09, 2018

    Your right it’s not oak !! I don’t know where or why I said that. Lol it’s definitely mahogany.

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