Our dining room table is around 13 years old. It was our first purchase for our starter home back in 2004. Even though we technically didn’t have a dining room, I insisted that we have a table. It ended up working out because we had a bi-level home and the family room was in the lower level so we put the dining room in the upper level where I guess you would have had a 2nd living area?? It was a weird floor plan, but I digress.
So I love this table. We’ve always gotten compliments on it until recently. Probably because styles have changed and because it’s seen better days. The finish was wearing off pretty badly on the top of the table to the point that I would take varnish off if I rubbed to hard when cleaning it. Ugh.
That’s when I decided I needed to refinish the top of the table. And no time like and upcoming holiday to get my butt into gear. Here are some of the before pictures.
Huge weird crack that popped up a year or so after we bought the table.
As you can see this table has been well loved. We not only eat here, but it serves as our art table, race track, game table, and anything else you can think of.
So, let the varnish stripping begin! I googled best furniture stipper and this is what came up. I liked it because it’s non-toxic and has no harsh fumes which meant that I didn’t have to disassemble my table and take it into the garage! Yay!
This is what it looked like after I applied the first coat.
I let it set for 30 minutes per the directions and then started slowly stripping back the gel with a plastic scraper. Here’s a short video of the process and for those of you who watch these kinds of videos on You Tube, it’s highly satisfying! HA!
After I had scraped all of the stripper off, I had to use a wire brush to get in all of the crevices to basically dig out any residual varnish.
AFTER…
Now on to staining the table. I used Minwax Polyshades in Mission Oak satin. It was the closest I could get to the stain on the bench and chairs and I just crossed my fingers that it would match. 
And…it was a match!!! Yay!!!
There is one problem though. I didn’t work fast enough with my stain and the edges were dry when I went to apply again which created this big stain on one side of the table!
That weird minecraft-looking thing is the reflection of the light above.
So I’m kind of bummed, but my sister has a power sander and we’re just going to sand it down after Thanksgiving and give it another coat of stain and it should be fine…let’s hope!
Here’s how the good side of the table matched up to the original stain on the bench. Table is on left, bench on right. The darkness you see on the right is from a shadow. They’re pretty much a perfect match!
So, the dining room table saga continues. Hopefully, I’ll have another update for you after Thanksgiving with no large spot on the table!
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