Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Staining a pine coffee table dark?

Hi. I've had a pine coffee table for years that I quite like......However, the stain on it is way too light. Is it possible to put a really dark stain on it now, right on top of the light stain? Or would I have to sand the table first, and then stain it a dark colour.

Thanks.

To restain you have to strip and sand off all the stain/finish that is currently on it.
Depending on how dark you want to go, you can lightly sand and apply minwax polyshades to darken the current finish.

Thanks for the reply.

I want the table to be alot darker.......Re the sanding and stripping - Is the stripping a difficult process? I seem to recall seeing something in the store called a stain remover. Is this something that I just paint on so that the finish then comes off really easily? (I know this is probably a really basic question, but I've never done this before.)

Then once I've done the stripping part, would I still need to sand?

Thanks again.

"Furniture stripper" or "Paint & varnish stripper" is the chemical to use. This part is messy, best done outdoors.

Then you'll want to sand off a thin layer of the surface wood. Hand sanding with a block will go quickly enough if you use 80 -> 120 -> 200 grits, or thereabout, in that order.

Pine is one of the worst woods for taking dark stains. It contains streaks and patches of resinous grain that just about refuse to drink stain, while adjacent, formerly identical-looking areas soak it up readily. If you want to build up an almost paint-like coating of stain (using the above recommended Polyshades, for example), this won't be an issue. If you want a dark, consistent, yet *clear stained* effect, I can post the tricks.

I'm assuming this is a laminated tabletop (boards glued edge-to-edge). There will likely be some light-coloured gluelines appearing when you first apply the stain, as the wood darkens but the glue does not. Just keep building up the "stain" (it's translucent paint, really).

Thanks for the replies. Since it's sounding like the finished product must end up looking splotchy, maybe I should just paint it dark brown. I wonder if that'll look okay.

I recently bought a dark brown couch, and the pine coffee table looks awful with it. So I've been trying to find a coffee table to buy that I like, but can't find a thing. Many seem to be glass these days, and the wood ones have little shelves, and drawers, and just look messy to me. I'd love to find one that is exactly like my pine coffee table, but with a very dark stain.

Thanks again.

IMO polyshades would look better than paint on a coffee table. Tinted poly must be applied evenly because you are adding color with a clear base, uneven application = uneven color. Each coat that is applied adds more color so if you use a dark shade of polyshades, each coat will darken the table more. You will lose a little of the grain effect with multiple coats of polyshades but IMO it will look better than paint.

It is always a good idea to apply 1 coat of clear poly over polyshades, this protects the color from any possibility of wearing off in the future.