You may be like me and have a dining room set that you’ve had for years. I purchased mine back in the 80’s. It’s a beautiful set. It’s a solid oak, well made dining room table and chairs. I love the shape, the beautiful turn of the legs, the ladder back chairs and the carved details on all the legs. It’s the yellow oak color that I don’t love so much.
I refinished the chairs a couple of months ago and I was extremely pleased with how well they turned out! You can read all about how I did it here.
Before 
After
It’s been a few months and it’s time to stop dragging my feet and finally get this project finished! So I set a side a weekend to finally tackle the table.
I painted and recovered the seat cushions on the chairs so I wanted the table to coordinate with the chairs. I decided to spray paint the legs and the apron on the table the same color as the chairs. That just required using a 120 grit sandpaper to rough up the surface a bit so that the paint would stick.
I used 2 cans of paint for the table. 
Sanded & ready for paint. 
2 coats of paint.
Using spray paint gives you a nice smooth finish with no brush stoke marks. It is so much easier to do than getting a paint brush into all those nooks and crannies. Plus it takes so much less time and energy to spray paint a piece. Just be sure to do multiple thin coats instead of a thick heavy coat. You want to avoid drips. Nothing will ruin a paint job more than drips in the finish!
That’s the easy part. Refinishing the top of the table took a lot more time and effort! I decided to stain and then seal the top with a polyurethane for durability. Our dining room table gets a lot of use so I didn’t think a painted finish would hold up well.
25+ year old finish. 
Bare wood.
I like the darker color on the legs, it mimics the wrought iron finishes I have going on with other pieces of furniture in my home but I thought doing the entire surface of the table in the same color would be a bit much.
Instead of just sanding the top lightly with 120 grit sandpaper I had to sand the top all the way down to bare wood to ensure that the stain would go on evenly.
Sanding off the existing poly finish down to bare wood took me about 4 hours using a palm sander. I started with 120 grit paper to get the finish off and then went back over the entire surface with 220 grit sandpaper, going with the grain for a nice smooth finish.
I encourage you to really take your time and get this part right. If you don’t spend the time to completely remove the old finish and get a nice smooth surface all your work will be for naught. The stain will not adhere evenly and you will not be pleased with the results.
I know it’s a lot of work but if you decide to tackle a project like this you want to take your time and do it right. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts to this step. I wish there was! I was so happy to finally be done with all the sanding, and I know the neighbors probably were too!
The next step is to prepare the wood to accept the stain evenly. I used Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner. I just wiped it onto the raw wood surface of the table with a rag and them went back over the surface and wiped up any excess wood conditioner.
Once I treated the wood with the Pre-stain Wood Conditioner it was time to apply the stain. I chose another Minwax product, a penetrating stain in the color, English Chestnut. I wiped it on with a rag and wiped off any excess. This step went quite quickly, and it was very easy to do.
Don’t be like me though. Be sure to wear gloves to protect your hands. The stain is an oil based product and not easy to wash off your hands without turpentine, ugh! The stain needs to cure for a minimum of 8 hours before sealing with a Polyurethane.
I must say I am quite pleased with these products. They were easy to work with and produced a beautiful finish. I can definitely recommend these products.
I brought the table inside for the night since it needed to cure for several hours. I’m loving the color! It looks great with the color of my kitchen cabinets! It will look even richer once I get the poly finish on it; it will bring out the richness of the stain even more. I’m pretty excited with how this project is turning out so far!!!
The last step is to seal the table top with the polyurethane. I used a satin finish poly for this project and a 2 inch synthetic brush to apply the poly. Use long even strokes and apply the poly in a nice, even, thin layer. Allow it to dry overnight.
Using 400 grit sandpaper lightly sand the surface to smooth it out. This will get rid of any raised brush strokes in the poly finish. Wipe down with a damp towel to remove all dust.
Apply another coat of poly and allow it to dry overnight.
Allow the table to completely cure for at least 7-10 days before using it.
Before 
After
Now it’s time to sit back and admire all your hard work!
In total, this project took just under 2 weeks; 5 days to refinish the table and one week to allow it to completely cure.
- Day 1 – Sanding (6 hours of sanding); the least fun part of the project by far!
- Day 2 – Spray paint the legs and bottom of the table (2 coats). Condition and stain the table top.
- Day 3 – Apply a thin coat of polyurethane and allow it to dry overnight.
- Day 4 – Sand tabletop smooth. Remove dust with a damp rag. Apply another thin coat of polyurethane. Allow to dry.
- Day 5 – 12 Allow tabletop to completely cure and harden before use.
I’m not going to lie, this was a big job that took me several days to complete this project. My recommendation is to take your time and go slowly. Spend most of your effort on preparing the surface. If the surface is uneven and not perfectly smooth the finish will not look good.
You can do this! Take your time and don’t rush this project. If you follow my recommendations you will get excellent results and a professional looking, smooth as glass finish.
This project cost me less than $200 for all the supplies I needed, and that includes purchasing a new palm sander for the project. I strongly recommend using an electric palm sander for this project! I can’t imaging how long it would take if you tried to sand a piece like this by hand. I wouldn’t attempt a project like this without one. Even with the cost of the sander it was much less expensive to refinish my dining room set than purchasing a new table and chairs!
I’m thrilled with how the table turned out! It’s received a second lease on life. I’m going to love it again for many years to come.