I have a funny story about French Provincial. I had a dealer friend send two high powered buyers to an antique furniture store I used operate. The couple bought quite a lot of expensive furniture from me. I stopped by the dealerÂs store to offer him five hundred cash as a token of my appreciation. The dealer refused the money so I simply picked out what I thought was a nice piece of 50's 60's FP for $500.00. It was a nice half moon server with a marble top but not worth anywhere near that much money. I decided to strip it to get rid of the off-white paint. I figured I could stain or whitewash what ever wood was underneath. Underneath the paint I discovered a fabulous inlaid scene of a guy playing a violin for his girl.. It had in fact been a much older French piece that someone had tried at some time to update to F.P. There's no luck like dumb luck. IÂve found many pleasant surprises under paint. This table unfortunately does not look like itÂs worth stripping unless you simply enjoy doing that kind of thing. ItÂs a great feeling you get from restoring an old quality piece and turning it back into something useable.

Don't feel bad. What you're trying to do does require a lot of finesse and without the experience it's a learning process for sure. If you can figure it out you'll definitely save some money. It's especially fun when you can go to a second hand store and find a great piece of furniture that's cheap and unwanted because the finish is in bad shape. Okay, so you're at the point of over sanding and cutting into the underlying stain. I'm assuming the color is different and it's not just the white haze caused by sanding on varnish? It's probably still possible to blend the lighter spots back in but I'm not sure you'd want to purchase the supplies to try the techniques out. I sometimes use touch up markers from a commercial finish supplier or raw pigments and dyes mixed with thinned shellac. You'd have to invest $50+ in supplies to attempt a technique that is difficult even for a pro and may fail and the supplies will likely go to waste afterwards. Now if I were working on that table, I'm guessing I'd be swinging into full strip and refinish mode. The reason is that you say your husband's poly is cloudy in spots. If that was there before you started sanding then it could be water damage. Otherwise, it's almost certainly an indication that the finish has separated from the surface below. Trying to finish over the top of that would be a waste of time. No, you don't have to sand all the finish off. It's also really difficult to sand off an old finish and end up with nice, even coloring afterwards. Using chemical strippers is a lot easier but also a little intimidating if you've not done it before. For starters, you need to do it outside because you don't have the equipment to ventilate the fumes. Secondly, you'll need to invest in $30 of gloves, scrapers, brushes and other supplies if you don't have them already. This will also remove most of the stain and require matching the new finish to the chairs. Your best bet is to first see if there's a reputable shop in your area that is setup with a flow-over strip system, outsource the stripping but do the refinish yourself. Chances are, it'll cost you almost as much to get supplies to get started with the chemicals as it will to pay a professional to do that part. If you do that job yourself, you'll need plastic drop cloth, heavy nitrile or neoprene gloves (probably multiple pairs unless you find the good ones), some scrub brushes, plastic putty knives and half a dozen pieces of Scotch Brite. That's in addition to the stripper and the solvent required to wash away the residue. I use methylene chloride stripper but it's potent stuff. Breathing it is bad and it will burn skin within seconds of contact. Plenty of ventilation is a must when using that and since some companies add flammable solvent to the mix, explosion-proof ventilation is a must. That means work outdoors or own professional finishing equipment. The citrus-based and soy based strippers work fine but are slower and in my experience, more expensive. 3M Safest Stripper is very slow but effective when used properly and can be used indoors. Downsides are water content will make the wood moist and it was more expensive than the others the last time I checked. If after reading that, you prefer the hard, dusty work of sanding, then my approach would be to get good coated (minimizes clogging) sandpaper from an automotive finish supplier and start with 80 grit on flat surfaces. Don't bear down on the paper, just use even, smooth strokes and let the paper do the cutting. Stop using the 80 as soon as the wood starts showing through and move to 100 to get most of the remainder off. 120 is good for cleaning off the last residue and you can jump to 220 to prepare for stain. Always sand with the grain of the wood. For profiles and other details, I'd not start below 150 grit. Be careful sanding on that top though. It may be a thin veneer so avoid removing any wood. and that's another reason I use chemicals instead of sandpaper.

It only takes one stray grit particle from a coarse paper to ruin the sanding when using a ROS. For pine it's usually not an issue, but on cherry (in particular) it can be a disaster. To fix it, I'd start with a cabinet scraper which will get the swirls out faster than sanding. Then block sand, by hand, with the grain, with 220. A cabinet scraper does require a learning curve for both sharpening and usage, but it's a miraculous little device. Casey

You did a fantastic job on your first big project, the worry factor is often the biggest obstacle, and proper research helps to overcome this issue...you did great asking the right questions and perhaps you are well on your way to becoming a seasoned weekend refinisher. There is a great sense of satisfaction in being able to "resurrect" old furniture pieces, many can been had cheaply because they're so ughhh! So here are a few extra hints to helps with the next project... 1). Use the powerful, nasty strippers, with methylene chloride, they just get the job done so much better than citrus strippers...gloves n goggles n good ventilation are important, you will love the fast results, use a green scotchbrite pad, rough steel wool, a stiff brush, etc. 2).strip the whole piece, never mind taping off areas unless the finish is pristine...chances are you will been able to do a much nicer job if you take the whole piece down to bare, especially once you learn how to seal, glaze n tone....shellac n stain powders/glazes are your friends... 3).automotive dewaxers are great, like ditzler/ppg # dx330....a big helps in cleaning up after stripping n neutralizing....helps to avoid contaminants like fisheye"silicone" and lets your get a look at the grain and possible spots, problem areas before your stain or seal the piece. 4).while your can always re-strip, sand or undo your work, try to think ahead and prepare...ie, test stain/finish underneath a tabletop first, dont stain or finish in the sun or winds at 90 degrees, read up , but only from truly problem sources, like mike dresdner, etc.. 4).have fun and dont be afraid, we all had to learn to walk and talk. There is great satisfaction in learning how to finish/refinish....drying times, dust free and stain/finish compatibility are the biggies, so dont worry, ask a lot of ??? And dont believe everything your hear.... 5).cheers, holla at me if ya want...veryspecialprojects@gmail.com....I only have three decades of finishing wood under my belt, but I'll try to help if I can....aloha