We have a dining room table!! This is something that we have (and by "we" I mean Darren) been working on since we moved out here in July. If you can remember back to when we lived in Idaho, we bought this beauty at the local DI:
Yea...not very beautiful. We knew we didn't want to keep it the nasty burgundy color it was, so we just had a tablecloth over it the whole time we were in Idaho. When we knew we'd be living at my parents' this past summer we decided that we would take advantage of their carport and re-do the table!
We spent way too many hours out in the heat with liquid paint stripper, gel paint stripper, and then finally an orbital sander, trying to get the layer of burgundy paint off, as well as the lime green layer that was underneath it. We learned way too late that the sander was definitely the way to go. It took us (again, Darren) until Thanksgiving break to finally get everything sanded off. We then went out and picked out a stain, only to find out that when applied to the wood it turned an ugly orange.
By this time we both felt totally defeated. My mom suggested putting a darker stain over it, but I didn't really want a dark table. We decided though, that that was probably the best bet. We went and got a VERY dark stain, but then decided to wipe it on instead of letting it just layer up. Hopefully that makes sense :) The end result is exactly what I wanted. Darren was able to finish staining while we were down for Christmas and we brought it all back up with us when we came back after New Years.
We still had to apply a clear coat to protect it, but that didn't take nearly as long and it's been mostly set up (we've somehow misplaced the screws...) and we both love it. I think Darren might a bit more, since he put the most sweat into it, but that's ok. Here it is!
Maybe Darren has a future in wood re-finishing...
