Redoing this beautiful antique dining table involved removing the old finish, prepping the wood and then applying a new durable finish. I finished the top with a different treatment than I did the base, so, I’m going to split the entire project into two separate posts. In today’s post, ‘Refinish Dining Table Top’, I will explain step-by-step how I refinished the top with a very durable oil finish. Then, next time I’ll show you how I finished the base of the table with a distressed milk paint and oil finish, (HERE’S that milk paint post).
This is a photo before I started. You can see some of the imperfections in the finish. there were some spots where the old finish, a type of varnish I’m guessing, was completely missing.
The old finish was so thin, and the top is solid wood, (not veneer) so I felt comfortable just sanding off the old finish, sparing myself from using chemical stripper.
My sander hooks up to my shop vac, so sanding inside the house is no problem as there is virtually no dust.
A couple of HUGE sanding tips:
When sanding for a painted finish, it’s not as important, but when the final finish is going to be a clear finish or a stained finish, the sanding flaws will show up if you don’t do it right! Especially those annoying swirl scratches so easily created when sanding. (Trust me, I’ve learned this from doing it the wrong way before!)
1: Change the sandpaper frequently as you’re sanding. In fact, pretty much as soon as it starts to get any gunk in it, change the paper. It feels wasteful, because there will still be areas on the sandpaper that can be used, but I have found it makes a big difference to change it out. Otherwise, that little bit of finish stuck in the sandpaper will actually wind up scratching the wood.
2: Don’t press the sander down very hard, like almost not at all. It’s really tempting to push it down hard, but don’t do it. Let the sander and the sandpaper do the work. Pressing down too hard will scratch swirls into the wood.
3: Work from a rougher sandpaper, (lower grit number) and slowly proceed up to a finer grain. I typically start with an 80 grit, then a 100 grit, then a 120 and finally to 150. Doing the entire piece with each grit before moving up to the next grit. I’ll go as high as a 220 grit or so, but the finer you go, you risk closing the grain of the wood and making it difficult to get it to absorb the finish. So, keep reading to see how to alleviate that issue.
After I was totally finished sanding, I vacuumed the table with a brush on the hose and then wiped it several times with clean rags until there was no sanding dust, preparing it for staining.
Here’s the tip I was telling you about: Before staining wood, I like to re-open the wood grain by wiping the table down with water. I find this works better than any ‘wood conditioner’ I’ve ever tried.
So, for this table, I thoroughly wet the rag with water and continued to re-wet it as I wiped the wood.
I was careful to wet the entire top evenly, and let it completely dry before moving on to the next step.
For the finish on my dining table top I chose Fusion Mineral Paint Stain and Finishing Oil, you can get HERE.
I love working with this product and I am super pleased with its durability. (I’ve use it on many projects)
This is a penetrating oil stain and would be very difficult to get the color back out of the wood if I didn’t like it. So, I tested the colors out on the BACK of the table leaf. (I landed on the Cappuccino pigmented stain for the first coat and Natural for the final 3 coats.)
A word of caution!
Though this product doesn’t have all the caustic ingredients of other oil stains and finished, it still is oil based and one MUST use common sense safety when using it. Have ventilation in the room and use proper practices for the disposal of rags and brushes. I prefer to immediately dispose of all the rags and chip brush in a ziploc bag filled with water, then into a metal container with a lid. Never leave them crumpled up to attend to later. Oil based products are combustible, and that is not to be taken lightly.
When I applied the pigmented oil finish, I worked on a section at a time.
I thoroughly brushed it on with a cheapo chip brush like THIS, let it sit on the wood for a few minutes until it has a chance to soak into wood.
Like most oil based stains it takes a long time to dry. So there is a fairly long ‘open’ time, when it is still wet before you have to worry about it drying before you get it wiped back.
Then, after it had soaked in a bit, I used a lint free rag to wipe it back, (I really prefer to use THESE blue shop towels). I wiped all the excess stain off the wood.
I mean ALL the excess. This may take a few rags and a few swipes over the same area.
By getting all the excess off, it prevents a streaked finish.
Here you can see all the leaves of the table top drying, this is after a single coat of the pigmented penetrating stain.
A couple of the leaves are newer and are still slightly different tones of wood, but that’s okay with me. Otherwise I could have applied another layer of stain to those two lighter colored leaves to darken them a little more if I had wanted to.
One coat of penetrating oil is not enough to protect a dining table top. But, I didn’t want to add more pigmented oil and make it darker, so, I added more layers of oil with the natural, (clear, non-pigmented) oil.
The first coat of the pigmented oil needed to totally dry before proceeding. Depending on humidity and temperature, drying time usually takes about a day, but could take longer.
Mine took overnight to dry.
Application of the clear version of the penetrating oil, (when ordering, it’s called ‘natural’ color) is same as the pigmented oil.
I generously brushed it onto the wood, let it soak in a few minutes and then with a lint free cloth, wiped off the excess.
Again, after it was dry overnight, I then repeated another coat of clear oil, soak in and wiped back.
And, one final layer the next day.
For a durable finish on a dining table, I like to do a few coats of the penetrating oil. A total of at least 3 or 4 coats.
This table top was 1 coat of pigmented oil and 3 coats of clear oil.
When the Stain and Finishing Oil is wet it looks shiny, but it dries to a lovely matte/satin finish.
The more coats applied, the greater the sheen.
Here you can see the soft sheen of the table top with 4 coats of penetrating oil.
This creates a very durable, totally sealed finish. But unlike varnish, it doesn’t sit on top of the wood, it actually penetrates into the wood and shows the grain of the wood better.
How it’s wearing:
I refinished the dining table top a few years ago and it’s our main table for eating. The table top is wearing beautifully! No stains or water rings. We do try to use placemats when we can, and don’t set super hot things on the table without a trivet under it. When I wipe it, I use dishwater and dry it with a towel.
Next time I’ll show you how I finished the base of this table with a distressed finish using milk paint and hemp oil. (HERE’S part 2 of this table redo: Milk Paint Base)
Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate you reading along.
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Sabrina Quairoli says
Wow, that looks great! I am scared to do that with our dining room table. Thanks for sharing your steps.
Liz says
Thank you for reading along! It’s not too scary, but if you’ve never done anything like a dining table top before I recommend starting with a small project to get the hang of sanding and such.
Roy Meddings says
I found this a very interesting article and some super tips.
Liz says
Thank you so much!