How to refinish a Dark Wooden Table to Light Natural Wood Finish

When we first moved in to our new home, there were so many expenses to deal with. We made a downpayment for our new home, we were renovating it, we were paying for the mortgage, and we were still renting while the contractor was renovating our apartment. After we moved in, the expenses did not stop because we were furnishing our apartment and completing it with our necessities: small kitchen appliances, placemats, chargers, towels, and other little things here and there.

We received some hand me down items from my husband’s family members. One of the hand-me-down items was an extendable dining table and a matching set of 5 chairs. One of my husband’s brothers had an apartment that was rented, and the new renter had his own furniture, so my brother-in-law had to dispose of the dining table and chairs. My husband was not going to say no to free stuff, considering we had so many expenses already, so we took it.

Initially, I was disappointed because there was already a dining table that I was crushing on in one of the furniture websites. But I wasn’t going to argue about it, so we put it in storage until after the contractor renovated our apartment. As soon as our apartment was bare bones finished, we had it delivered, and I, together with my two little Filipino angel helpers/handymen, started fixing our apartment, i.e., installing shelves, assembling furniture, and DIYing the dining table.

In the end, I loved our dining table. I’m very very thankful that we received it. It’s made of real wood (and not laminate covered like the ones you see now), it’s extendable, and it just looks amazing. We managed to take it out of its 19th century color and bring it to a more modern look.

Tools:

• Orbital sander
• Sanding paper (100 and 180 grit)
• Paint/varnish remover
• Paint brush
• Putty knife
• Lightest wood stain I could find
• Colorless varnish
• White paint (I used Dulux, but you could use Rustoleum)
• Gray Rustoleum chalk paint (I used Anthracite, but in the US, it’s called Country Gray)
• Rustoleum topcoat 

Directions:

1. Generously spread your paint/varnish stripper on the table. 
2. After five to ten minutes (make sure the paint stripper is still wet), start scraping the varnish from the table off with the putty knife. It should easily be removed. If not, you need to put more paint stripper.
3. Once all the varnish is removed from the table, sand it with an orbital sander. Start with 100 grit, then move to 180 grit. 
4. Dust off from the table the wood particles from sanding.
5. Stain with the lightest wood stain. Mine would be similar to Varathane Sunbleached or Honey Maple wood stain. 
6. After the wood stain dries, brush on colorless varnish. I did a colorless polyurethane varnish three times, allowing each coat to dry every time before starting a new one.
7. Once I finished with the table, I painted the table trunk and legs white, and topped it off with a topcoat.
8. I also stripped the paint off the seats on the chairs using the same method above. I painted the legs and chair backs with Rustoleum chalk paint in gray, topped with topcoat. I usually do three topcoats.

Now that renovation is finished and we’re more or less complete with all the house accessories, even if I had the money and was given the option to purchase another dining table, I wouldn’t. I’m super in love with this one. Not only does it carry sentimental value because it came from my husband’s brother, the extendable feature is very useful. I can entertain up to 12 people using this table. Win!