Well, we don't have a table, but we DO have MDF counters that we sealed, painted twice, and finally poly'ed three times. They have been in since summer 2011 and the darn things are holding up so well that we are having trouble replacing them. The only bad places are by the sink where water can sit for a while if I haven't been keeping track of the family...

Thanks! That was just what I wanted to know.

I painted a veneered table (from the RH outlet) in just the manner you described, except I only did two coats of wipe-on polycrylic (Minwax's water-based product). The table has held up amazingly well for three years. Although we don't eat on it every night, it is the first horizontal surface when you walk in the door so sadly it is the landing zone for everything. It is abused. I brought a box home from work that unbeknownst to me had magenta printing press ink (I work at a place that does printing so there is lots of goopy ink around) all over the bottom of it and set it on my white table. There was a huge stain. I thought I would have to sand and repaint. Instead I let some 409 sit on it for a little bit and it cleaned up.

My only issue with it is that the polycrylic (like every other product I tested, which was more than five) yellowed the finish so my white table is very, very cream. I will repaint it some day and I may skip the sealer coat next time. Obviously that's not an issue on any color other than white.

You could just get a piece of glass for the top and then never have to worry about the eating surface. That's what I did with my previous table (black).

I have an old Ikea dining table whose veneer is in really sad shape. I was hoping to buy a new kitchen table for my midcentury mod kitchen, but that is clearly way beyond the budget for a few more years. So after reading this thread I think I'm going to strip and paint my veneered table. Am I nuts?