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Need help with table top refinishing

5 years ago

Hello all. My Stanley Furniture circa 1981 oak parquet dining room table needs refinishing. Since I am not looking for perfection, just "better" I'm attempting this myself. Here are before pictures where I used furniture pens and Restore a Finish to touch up blemishes but it just left it splotchy.

Here are pictures after sanding. There are two areas noticeably lighter.

So, how to proceed? Do I gently apply stain to the lighter areas and then poly? Do I need to strip it? Time to bite the bullet and pay a professional? I've looked at numerous YouTube tutorials but none addressed the problem of much lighter areas after sanding. Thank you for any information and suggestions.

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Comments (2)

PRO
retired
5 years ago
Wipe some mineral spirits on it and see what it looks like before you go fooling with stain.

If it looks good like that, you can just apply some brushing lacquer. Watco and Deft are two common brands. Lacquer is what is on there now if it's the factory finish and will bond perfectly with it. Believe it or not, not all clear finishes are poly just because that's what jams the shelves at the home centers.

If it does not look good wit the mineral spirits, get a chemical stripper and take it all off. Sanding off an old finish is a poor way to go. It will not get it all off and if the table top is veneer (and it looks like this is because of the different grain directions and edge banding), you risk sanding through the veneer and ruining it. Stripping is messy, but effective, less risky and it's over without gumming up 8 sheets of sandpaper.

But if it's ever had Pledge on it, it will likely "Fish-eye" The cure for this is to put on a coat or two of dewaxed shellac (SealCoat by Zinsser), then apply whatever finish you wish.
Joaniepoanie thanked retired
Joaniepoanie
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you so much for the information, really appreciate it!
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So I'm back where I started, with poly. That's what I'm going to do. But first I'll remove the old shellac with denatured alcohol then apply a thin coat of new shellac. A light sanding, then a few coats of poly. I'm guessing some of you will recommend against this. I've read in some places that poly won't adhere well to shellac, but I've read in enough other places that it works just fine. I love the look of the shellac so I'm willing to risk it. I just don't think I'll get that same look with poly alone. The problem with the glass idea is that I change the size of the table somewhat frequently. I have 12 leaves, so it can go from a small table for four to enough room to seat 14 adults comfortably. I really like being able to just pop in a couple of extra leaves if friends or family come for a meal, or take them all out if we need floor space. I can't thank you all enough for your help and advice. I've learned so much in this whole process! I'll post pictures when it's done. :)
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Sanding frees the lead into the dust---NOT GOOD. Stripping keeps the paint damp and cohesive---GOOD. (Unless the resulting goop dries out.) I can say fairly positively that wood is not poplar(poplar is listed as a hardwood---but is relatively soft and does not wear well under use.) I should have been more precise. The back woods do indeed look like pine, but the drawer fronts are mahoghany, IMHO. Mahoghany cut over 50 years ago(Old growth) had a much more dense grain than modern stuff(New growth).
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OOh, Allison, my table top looks almost identical to your "before" pic so you have given me hope! Thanks. Now, they made me a NEW "old" table. They did NOT use the maple top. Maple does not take stain very well and wouldn't get as dark as I wanted. busybee3, the places in the close up that look like "burn marks" are the gouges. They stained darker than the top of the wood. I don't remember what they used to seal, but it made a stink for a few days after. It was not a shiny finish - matte. I never use shiny. Our hardwood floors were finished with tung oil because I wanted no shine whatsoever. My island (antique pine) was finished with Good Stuff For Wood. Not sure why they didn't use it on the table too. I will take a better picture of the top, but I'm running late so I cant do it now.
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