Oak Dining Table is Stained OVER Existing Finish
Do you have a furniture piece that has a great finish but the stain color is not what you want? Follow how I used a product that can change the color OVER an existing finish.
Table before
This round oak table had been refinished by the former owner so there was no need to strip, sand and restain BUT with a new gel stain from Fusion Mineral Paint I knew I could update the color without doing all that work. Here are many other dining table tutorials that were stripped and or painted and this handy how to refinish a dining table guide.
First step scrub clean!
1 vs 2 coats
Here is one coat of Fusion's double espresso gel stain on the left and a coat of ebony going over on the right.
Tip if you have bubbles
Now if you get some bubbles dried after a coat, I use a razor to carefully cut them off, lightly sand with a sanding sponge and move on to the next coat. A light sponge sand between coats helps too.
Brush on the gel stain
Be sure to brush slowly to avoid creating air bubbles which require the above tip to resolve. I use a cheap 2" chip brush.
3rd coat
Here is the third coat I believe on and sitting to dry. I put on 4 coats total only because I had the bubble issues. If you can avoid them you can save a coat or two.
All coats dry
Here are all the coats dry, the sheen is lovely, not to glossy.
Paint the table base
Moving onto the table base I chose Fusion Mineral Paint in Sterling, a soft grey using the Fusion 2" synthetic paint brush. Two coats were brushed on then black wax was added. In depth tutorial details are linked at the end for this makeover.
Top
As you can see the top is stunning.
Pop over to my blog for more free home decor and furniture tutorials.
Base
And the dark waxed sterling base pops.
Table at smallest diameter
This table is perfect to go from sweet round to more seating oval all updated in a fresh new finish.
Resources for this project:
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Comments
Join the conversation
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I love those oak tables. I cut mine down to use as a coffee table. Great job you did on your table, I love the color. These are pics of my table. Iasked a family member to store it for me when I had to move , so it wouldn't get damaged. I think she likes it, cause that was over a year ago😄
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Beautiful Mary!!! I love reloving pieces as do you :)
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It's so much nicer to have something real, while not spending money on something new that isn't made as well as older pieces. Something you can be proud of
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Thank you Mary, your kind words mean allot
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Why did you use 2 different colors of gel stain for the top? Do you have to to get that color or did you just decide it wasn’t dark enough?
Gorgeous! Can you apply this gel stain over the original fairly shiny finish on an oak table almost identical to yours? It's the honey oak color and I want to go dark like you did.
Beautiful job on the table I see lots of posts with this kind of table my question is what are people doing with the chairs?