Staining a Dining Room Table

It all started with this Ikea table that I wanted to stain.  It wasn’t horrible, but I wanted to update it and give it a fresh look.  I decided that staining it would be the best way to go.  It would freshen the dining room table without changing its look completely.

 

I had great success painting the chairs and base of the table white, and my plan was to give the top a darker finish with stain.

 

That dream quickly became a DIY nightmare, and I wrote all about that mishap here.

 

After a total of six hours of sanding, I was able to get the table down to its original bare birch wood.  I then stopped my project for a little while to figure out what to do next.  I even asked for suggestions on Facebook, and they were great.  Most people said paint the top a color.  I couldn’t get Yankee on board with that, so I decided to stain it again, and if that didn’t work, I was getting out the  paint.

 

 

The first thing I did differently this time around was use three coats of the Minwax Pre-Stain.  This is to help eliminate streaking, and since it was birch wood, which is tough to work with anyway, it needed more than one coat.  Also, I decided to practice on the back of the table leaf.  I sanded it down and loaded up the pre-stain, and then I applied different stains that we thought might work.  I really wanted a dark stain, but as you can tell, it wasn’t going to work again.  We opted for the one with a little bit of color on the bottom of the picture.

 

I only applied one coat of stain because I was happy with the color and not having streaks.  The next step was to apply polyurethane.  I applied three light coats and sanded between each coat.

 

 

 

The poly is really protecting the wood, and I do not get nervous if cups are used without coasters.  This table will hold up to the “elements.”

 

 

I am so glad I was able to tell you this success story because it was touch and go at one point.  I was shopping on line for a new dining room table.

 

 

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Here is a fun side by side of the before, and finally, the after.

 

I am really happy with the end result, and even though there were some bumps in the road, this table works great for us, and now I am happy with how it looks.

 

Have you ever had a DIY project go wrong that you were able to turn around?

 

Cheers!

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