Furniture and Furnishings - Sanding and refinishing??

Hi everyone....I recently purchased a TV stand of solid wood from IKEA. It is antique white, which I don't like but I love the style. I want to sand it down and re-stain it. How do I do this?

Sanding the table down won't clean it enough to stain uniformly, plus you're liable to destroy some of the lines you like in the style. You've got to strip the table.

Chances are it's a lacquer finish (even though it looks like paint). A 50:50 mix of lacquer thinner and denatured alcohol will probably remove the finish - apply with 00 steel wool and scrub the finish off. Clean the remaining debris with the same mixture. Allow to dry overnight, then stain and apply the finish of your choice.

George....I've started stripping and I've spent an hour on a tiny peice and it's still not completely stripped. It's spruce thats been done an antique white......I can slowly see the wood through it BUT what exactly does spruce look like? Should it be completely free of white? This is like a blind guess for me. Thanks!

You may have to sand to get rid of the last of the white. I suggested stripping first because sanding a finih such as yours will use a LOT of sandpaper - and time.

Spruce pine (a Southern wood) is pale brown in color with a fairly fine, uniform grain. It takes stain well. I have used it myself to build various furniture items - coffee tables, etc, because of the pleasing grain characteristics when stained.

There are, however, a number of varieties of wood called "spruce" - yours may not be the one I described.

Thanks George, I appreciate you taking the time to answer me on this. I think this project is going to take me a million years.....I am such a girl that way.....I hate getting dirty, but I know I'll love the finished product, so I'll stick it out. Thanks again.