Hi kristinekr,

That's a beautiful set!

As someone who knows diddly-squat about refinishing wood, but has been doing hit-&-miss finishes in ORB and Espresso for her own home for the last 4, 5 years, I can tell you what I have done in this same situation.

Just last month.....
We created a DIY frame and door for our mailbox slot. Our mail gets put into the outside slot and falls through the wall (a metal encasement) into a our kitchen at an opening in the wall. There was a metal door there, but over the last 58 years it had rusted through in some spots.

Without the little door there, the cold at night came rushing through into the kitchen.

The mail slot door/frame was obviously too old because we couldn't find anything to replace our old one inside the house.
Hubby created a cute frame complete with little door and knob that matches the knobs on our kitchen cabs.

Naturally there was no way I was going to match the wood to our kitchen cabinets so decided I'd do an almost as dark as espresso finish on the mail frame/door hoping it would coordinate with the eat-in-kitchen table and 2 chairs that were purchased with the espresso finish.
Make it all look like it was intended. :)

Well, somehow I ended up with a really, and I mean really dark mail slot frame/door.
The door looked carbon black against all the other faux espresso accessories in the room.
A little too much Java Stain in the Cherry Stain maybe? lol

I tried all kinds of 'fixes' and had just accepted the fact that I would have to sand the whole thing down and then try and bleach out most of the rest of the color.

I accidentally picked up my sanding sponge with the finest grit.
The first two passes and out popped the slight red tones!

I continued sanding by hand, gentle passes over the wood but not over the whole frame/door. Just certain areas where I wanted the red to pop through more than in other areas. With each pass the layer of super dark, lightened up enough that I now had 'depth'.

I used a tack cloth to wipe up the sanding dust, held my breath and added a light coat of Satin finish Poly.

That brought out even more of the 'depth'.

I'm not saying for you to go at this willy-nilly because what was a happy accident for me might be a disaster for you....but I hope not! :)

But if you have a spot on the chair or table that isn't too visable where you can try out the sanding technique, give it a try.
You really won't see as much 'depth' until you add the clear coat over the top....for me it was the satin poly.

Amity- can you show us, please? Just spent the weekend redoing our set too and the table came out very dark...

Hi Loribee,

Sorry it took so long.
I tried as hard as I could to take a decent pic of the mailbox frame/door but it's in the dark corner of the kitchen. The light from the window beams straight ahead and light fixture overhead washed it out.
I lightened the most decent of all the pics hoping you'll be able to see where I sanded and the lighter tones that came through the really too dark stain.

I know this isn't what would normally be on the wall for a mail drop but this was Mr.Amity's surprise to me a few Saturdays ago....his contribution to our very eclectic and 'unusual' kitchen.
He matched the mail drop frame to the door and window frames around our house.....little wood squares at each corner. lol

See how dark the corner is on the right...that dark square is the mail drop. I've lightened this pic as much as possible.

A close-up that I've lightened:

looks great amity--that is what i wanted--I can see the undercoat peeking out.

I took your advice and lightly sanded, which helped. I also remembered I had some red paint, so wiped some of that on and off and also wiped black paint on and off. I think it helped some. I am hoping the poly coat will also help.

Thanks so much, Amity...and Kristinekr for letting me hyjack this thread. I'm glad this helped you- I will have to work on mine this weekend. :)