refinish my furniture

It’s an old Ethan Allen trestle table in distressed (practically suicidal) dark walnut. It had two benches which are happily (except when the sprinklers turn on) residing on my front porch. I bought 6 chairs from Ikea (4 of which are assembled) and they are unfinished. SOOOOO, I need the whole set to look as one.

Need: stain, sandpaper (so I hear), staining equipment (rag? sponge? brush???)

this Saturday at my Yard Sale. The current color scheme in my home is NOT one I would choose for myself. All of the left over furniture from my marriage MUST go to make room for my new life.

I found an old coffee table and an end table at a local Salvation Army store, the pair for 39 bucks. Both were in pretty bad shape, cigarette burns, loose legs, peeling varnish, and generally kind of sick and yellowish looking. I bought a bunch of sandpaper sheets, and stripped them both by hand, standing outside of my kitchen door in my tiny little yard. I cleaned out the hardware and tightened up the legs. It took days—I did a couple hours at a time, but eventually the wood was clean and pale white. Over the next few days I applied multiple coats of stain, the all-in-one kind, until I finally ended up with a very deep chestnut color, with almost golden wood-grain highlights. I’m really happy with how the tables turned out, and it was really satisfying to complete the project, and transform the old beat up pieces of furniture into something nice. I keep fighting the temptation to put on just one more coat . . .

my mom, who has refinished many furniture items in her day, has professed this a lost cause. she thinks there some sort of chellac on the chairs which is preventing us from being able to strip them. so, i’ll either buy new or find some funky way to make these look cool.

It’s been two years now and I’m finally getting to it. i’ve bought the fabric (good motivator) and now I’m 3/4 of the way through scraping -> no stripper used, it was chipping off anyways and I can’t stand smelly solvents. So I’m taking off what i think is paint that had a bad lacquer job on it, and I’d like to put a nice dark almost black paint? to go with a beauty of a yellow buttercream fabric for the seat. Any suggestions for the paint?

in march my mom helped me start refinishing by dining room chairs. they’re 20 years old and used to be hers- definately ready for a makeover.

i’m such a procrastinator- i didn’t touch the half-stripped chairs all spring or summer. finally in september my parents were up for a visit and took 3 of the 6 chairs home with them. i wish i was more motivated to finish the projects i start!

and emailed me a step by step. For anyone who wants to repaint/refinish furniture…here is what he recommends for prep:

First, you need to get the following supplies:

1) 2 or 3 Spongy sanding blocks(preferably 150 grit, but rougher 120
or finer 220 is ok)

2) Kilz Primer – I gallon will be enough for all your projects.

3) A medium quality, 3 inch sash brush – a sash brush has an
asymetrical head so it is easier to get into the corners and stuff.

4) A bag of rags

5) a couple of plastic pint size containers that feel comfortable in you hand

6) Whatever color you are going to paint the furniture. ** Note -
There are alot of options when it comes to creating differtent “looks”
- meaning faux painting techniques, distressing, the sheen you want,
etc. so you can tell me what you are going for and I will be happy to
help you.

7) As for the TSP, I don’t think it neccessary for the first few
projects, the bookshelves, so lets wait on that. It is ja pain to use
indoors and your furniture is not really stained. However, it might
be a good alternative to say sanding your entire futon, that is
applying a fairly strong coat, waiting ten minutes, then wiping it off
in leiu of sanding.

Anyways, hopefully this will help get you prepared.

Everyone hears “I want to buy a house” and starts giving you their old hand-me-downs. Some of it is cool though so I want to fix it up.