It turns out that we're starting to like darker wood as far as furniture is concerned. We've had a couple of end tables for years that were in rough shape; they lived a life void of coasters or care. A decision was made to replace them. Or refinish them.
We went with the latter. A trip to the new Lowes near our house gave us the tools necessary to do this. Now all we needed was time and attention to detail (not my strong suit). Two tables needed refinishing. One for me. One for Erin.
Stripping the old stain was easy. Leave a gel on and rinse it off after an hour. However, this also necessitates sanding any lingering stain before moving to the next step. Erin got all her old junk off. I only thought I did. After staining the wood with the new dark stain mine was all blotchy. Erin's was perfect. Dammit.
She ended up refinishing mine, I added the protective varnish and put the tables back to together. The finished product is shown above. Not bad... beats buying new ones!
