Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Rookie Wood Refinisher

I have a 30 year-old end table and coffee table that I want to refinish and use in my living room. It's solid oak and nothing has been done to it in 30 years. It's in great condition, but I do notice that it's a bit dry on top from sun exposure.

Any suggestions on good products to use?

Any help is greatly appreciated! :D

Thank you!

Gina

Not a bad thing to try for a first time (if it is). Your first goal is to remove all of the previous finish. I prefer just sanding it off, using a random orbit palm sander and 80 grit, but you can try a chemical stripper (get the aerosol can of paint stripper, seems to give better results, you may need 2 cans tops). Note that this will effect any stain in the oak, and the stripper alone won't work to remove all the stain. Oak will continue to have some stain in the grain. Hose the piece down quickly to remove the paint stripper but DO NOT let the water soak into the wood much. Only remove the stripper.

Once all the old stuff is removed, either restain in a stain dark enough to hide the old stain that is in the grain, or if it wasn't stained to begin with, start finish sanding.

Sand 80-100-120 and finally and optionally, 150. Be sure to ***hand sand in the direction of the grain) on the final sanding, and the more time you spend on this last step, the better the finish will be.


For coating it, you'll likely want something that forms a hard shell, like polyurethane. You can use regular old poly, which is IMO better, but for a thinner covering, you can try "wipe on poly". Either way will look nice.

Avoid finishes like Tung oil, linseed oil, or danish oil. They're all fine products with uses, but I wouldn't use them on a coffee table unless it was 100% decorative and 0% use.

Thank you very much for your help!

Have a great weekend