Let’s Refinish the Antique Dining Table!

Our dining table used to belong to mom & dad. It was our family’s dining table in my childhood days. If I recall correctly, mom said it was stored in a barn along with a buffet when it was given to them. Mom estimated the set was about 100 years old when they got it. When I got married, I inherited the table, chairs, and buffet. I say ‘inherited’, but they gave it to us because they bought a new dining set. The table had 6 chairs, 2 captain’s chairs (chairs with arms), and 4 regular chairs. Since we were moving out of state when she gave the set to us and because some of the chairs needed repairing, we chose to take just 2 of the regular chairs with us. When we moved back, we stored those 2 chairs with the others that mom had been storing for us.

Table history

Mom & dad used the set for about 25 years. When they got the table & buffet, they had been dyed black with what I was told was India Ink. I was also told that since different woods were used to make furniture ‘back in the day’, the pieces were dyed so they could be sold as a matching set. When I was a teen, mom decided to paint the set with the new ‘antiquing’ technique. The base paint color was a light red that was then covered with an antiquing medium.

Over the past 40+ years that the set (with the exception of the chairs which mom is still storing) has been in my possession, they have been moved from California to Oklahoma, Oklahoma to Florida, Florida back to California, and California to Idaho where it was been moved to 4 different houses. Needless to say, this set has been around!

When we moved back to California a little over 40 years ago, we decided to refinish the table & buffet. The paint came off easily but we were having a hard time removing the ink so we paid a professional $100 – which was a lot in 1978 – to dip the two pieces to remove the finish. With the finish removed, we could see the different types & colors of the wood. The tabletop was red oak; I’m not sure what the legs and skirting were made of, and the buffet was white oak with red oak on the side panels. We chose to use an oak stain on the buffet and a dark walnut stain on the table. This meant that the two were no longer matching but at age 20, that didn’t bother me.

Time to refinish

For years, I covered the tabletop with a tablecloth but for the last several years, I have left it bare to enjoy the wood. Last year, I took a good look at the finish and realized that it really needed to be refinished! There were scratches, paint, indentions from a Stryrograph from when the now-grown kids were small. Yes, it was time to refinish the table!

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Step 1 – clean

The first step in the project was to take off the legs, disconnect one side of the table from the sliders then move the table to the garage. When I flipped the table upside down, I was shocked to see the underside! I’m sure we never cleaned it! How can I be so sure? Because the white that you can see looks to be dried stripper from the refinishing over 40 years ago. There were also a couple of areas that had pencil scribbles. I don’t know if the scribbles were made by my sisters and me or by my kids. Regardless, I wanted to keep them so I decided to clean the wood as opposed to sanding it. I used several Mr. Clean Magic Erasers on the wood and am sure I could have used more. I actually feel like there was 100+ years of dust on the underside of the table!

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Step 2 – Sanding the tabletop

After the leaf was down to bare wood, I focused on each 1/2 of the tabletop. It was slow going, but eventually, all the finish was sanded off. There was still black ink in the groove around the tabletop. I considered leaving it but then decided I would try to remove it. I couldn’t use the sander without risking losing the groove so I started with a piece of sandpaper. I sanded for a bit but realized that it wasn’t working. I then used my 9 in 1 tool to scratch out the old finish. It worked really well but I found that I had to move slowly or it would jump out of the groove and scratch the tabletop.

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Step 3 – Stripping the legs

Because the legs are curved, I decided to use a stripper to remove the finish then sand them after most of the finish had been removed. Using a paintbrush, I applied CitriStrip to all 4 legs and the center leg piece. After allowing the stripper to work for a couple of hours, I removed the stripper using a piece of steel wool dipped in mineral spirits. I use gloves for this process to protect my hands. It is a messy way to remove the finish but is effective so I’ll use it when I can’t sand the piece of furniture that I am refinishing.

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Step 4 – Sanding the legs

After the legs were stripped and the wood was dry, I sanded them with my orbital sander and 220 grit sandpaper. For the extra curvy areas, I used a sanding block to remove any leftover finish and to smooth the wood. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of doing this when I applied the stripper, but I realized that I could set the legs back into the tabletop to hold them while doing the sanding. You can see that there is some green marker that did not come out of the wood with the stripper. I am ok with this because I am trying to preserve some of the history of what the table has been through. There are places where the old black ink shows, some of the deep scratches are still visible, and there are places where the red paint mom used is still there.

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Step 5 – Bleaching the wood

The process of using the DIY bleaching technique is to prepare the ingredients, apply the solution, rinse wood. Below are the directions from the website I used along with notes on what I did differently. The link is here.

• Important: When handling or working with lye, you should always wear gloves and eye protection. Also, never pour water into the lye and don’t pour a bunch of lye into the water at one time.
  • Fill a plastic container with 1 qt of water. It’s important that you use plastic and not metal. And if you are doing a lot of wood, you might want to make a gallon
    • I made smaller batches, using 2 cups water & 1/2 the amount of lye
  • Slowly add 3 tablespoons of lye to the water, stirring the water slowly between each tablespoon
  • Once the lye solution is made and ready to go, set it aside and pour the hydrogen peroxide on the red oak
    • I used a foam brush to apply the hydrogen peroxide on areas that were not flat
  • Spread it with a foam brush to make sure the entire surface is covered
  • Using a foam brush, spread on the lye solution thoroughly over the entire surface
  • Let dry completely – it’s helpful if you can do this process in the sun
  • After the wood has completely dried, using water, rinse the surface of the wood and wipe it dry with a towel. If you are outside, the sun will dry it.
    • I used a mixture of 1/2 water & 1/2 vinegar
  • Then let it completely dry again
  • You can repeat steps 2 – 4 until you are happy with the color

I applied the hydrogen peroxide to a section of the piece I was bleaching, then applied the lye & water mixture while the hydrogen peroxide was still wet. Since I was working in the sun, I applied the 2 products in sections to prevent the wood from drying too quickly. It took 4 applications to remove most of the red. There was still a little red remaining and since I liked that, I left it. When I was happy with the color, I rinsed the wood with vinegar & water (mixed 1/2 and 1/2) by applying it with a rag. The wood on the skirting around the tabletop is not red oak so I bleached that section only 3 times. Once the tabletop was bleached, I was surprised to see that the leaf was now too dark. I used the same bleaching process on the leaf but only applied the solution 3 times. The wood on the legs is different than the tabletop or skirting but with the color variation on the top, they looked like they would blend nicely together so I did not bleach them.

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Step 5 – More sanding

I let the tabletop & leaf dry overnight, then gave the pieces another sanding with my orbital sander using 220 grit sandpaper. Once all the pieces had been sanded, I used a tack cloth to remove all the sawdust in preparation for sealing the wood.

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Step 6 – Sealing the wood

To seal the wood, I applied 3 coats of Varathane water-based polyurethane in satin on the skirting & legs using a 1 1/2″ angled paintbrush. I allowed 4 hours between coats for drying time. For the tabletop, I used Minwax Spar Urethane in satin. I applied 3 coats using a 2 1/2″ paintbrush. Between coats 1 & 2, I allowed a drying time of 4 hrs. I allowed the 2nd coat to cure overnight before applying the last coat. Before applying the next coat of either the water-based or oil-based sealers, I lightly sanded the surface using a 220 grit sanding block. Once the last coat had been applied, I left the table in the garage for 2 days to cure to help reduce the oil-based sealer fumes.

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Using an 80 grit sanding block, I sanded the rust off of the metal footings that go on the bottom of the legs. I was able to unscrew the metal pieces from the 4 main legs but the two on the center support would not come off so I sanded those while they were in place. Once the pieces were as clean as I could get them, I sprayed them with a clear Rustoleum sealer and screwed them back to the bottom of the legs.

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Step 8 – Assembling the table

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Finished project

When I started this refinishing project, I didn’t quite know what to expect as far as the color of the wood. As I was bleaching the tabletop, I thought the color was going to match the buffet. However, once it was completed and we had the table in the dining room, it was obvious that the buffet was much more golden than the new table color. The top of the buffet has water damage and it is also on my list of projects for this year….so….we’ll see what it looks like once the old finish has been removed. I may need to do a little more bleaching……

Hubby and I are enjoying this new, lighter color! I’m so happy that the deep scratches & bits of craft paint are gone but the character from years of use remains.

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Supplies Used

• Orbital sander
• 120, 150, 220 grit sandpaper
• CitriStrip
• Minwax water-based polyurethane
• Minwax oil-based Spar Urethane
• 1 1/2″ & 2 1/2″ paintbrushes
• Foam paintbrushes
• Lye
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Vinegar & water
• N95 mask
• Goggles
• Gloves
• Tack cloth
• Steel Wool
• Mineral Spirits
• Mr Clean Magic Erasers

Instructions

• Remove finish
  • With sander & 120/150 grit sandpaper
    • and/or
  • CitriStrip
• Remove CitriStrip with steel wool dipped in mineral spirits
• Once wood is dry, sand with 220 grit
• Remove sawdust with soft cloth then tack cloth
• Bleach wood by applying
  • Hydrogen Peroxide using a foam brush
    • then
  • Lye mixture
    • Allow to dry in the sun
• Reapply bleaching solution until desired color is acheived
• Rinse wood with water or water/vinegar mix
  • Allow to dry in the sun
• Once wood is thoroughly dry, sand with 220 grit
• Remove sawdust with soft cloth then tack cloth
• Apply two to three coats of spar urethane to tabletop
• Apply two to three coats of water-based polyurethane to skirting & legs
• Attach tabletop to legs

For your convenience

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