Restoring The Old

Last summer we received a table, which I found out the other day, is about fourth hand, as opposed to second hand! So this spring it was looking pretty bad and the old stain was cracking and a bit would come off every time we sat at it. You can see it really clearly in the picture of just the bench. Which, to be real, was discouraging us from using it. So I decided to try and refinish the top of the table and the benches.

I went to the hardware store on Saturday and threw myself on the mercy of the paint people. I was going to do it this coming weekend but it's going to be a full weekend and I wanted to see how much work it would be to strip the old stain off. I started with one bench on Monday afternoon because it was really nice and sunny outside, but not too hot. I used this gel which you spread on and leave for 30-60 minutes. Then you're supposed to scrub it off. Well the old stain must have been eager to get off of this stuff because it was coming off as I rubbed the gel on. So I scrubbed each piece for about 5-10 minutes and then rinsed it off thoroughly. Post stain removing gel, the pieces looked like this. Since the table and benches were 1) free and 2) fairly old, I wasn't going for perfection here. I was just going for better.

 

The people at the hardware store recommended this stuff which was 1) cheaper than stain, 2) doesn't need to be reapplied and 3) allows the natural wood to shine through. I was a fan of all of this. So I mixed it up (it comes in a powder form) and started applying it.

I applied one coat and let it dry. And now the sun and the rain and all the other elements (wind? fire???) are supposed to age the wood naturally and bring out other colours. So here is what our table and benches look like now. I am really pleased with how this turned out, and best of all, no slivers from peeling stain when we use it!

I've never considered myself a "wood furniture refinisher" but now I guess I can say I've done it once! I'm very curious to see how it will look by the end of the summer, when it has been exposed to the elements for a few months... And I really didn't mean to finish this entire project in about four hours but everything went so quickly that that's about all the time it took. Yay!