Mid-century table dilemma

[Reborn Refinisher]

I need advice from people way brighter than I am! I found the perfect expanding table online to go with the 13’ window seat in my kitchen. 

Unfortunately, to make it more saleable someone ( the dealer?) shellacked the top and the three leaves. Horrors!  

I can’t think of a worse surface for a kitchen table. It’s obnoxiously shiny. It scratchs if you look at it. And, heat and water leave marks. So far, I been quick and avoided major damage but it’s ridiculous, not to mention the legs and stretchers don’t match the top.

So, what am I to do? I planned to have it taken outside and to sand it once summer arrived. Well, it’s arrived but beyond sanding it, I’m stumped. 

The legs and all are dull brown and appear to have once been oiled. My fear is that once I get the top and leaves sanded they’re going to.be a completely different color than the rest of the table.

Do I choose a Minwax color I like, that will go with the legs and proceed to do only the top. Or should I attempt to wipe some stain on the legs and see what happens?

I plan to polyurethane the whole thing afterward.

Any suggestions? I haven’t had time to refinish anything in years and the recent addition to my home that created that 13’ window seat disrupted everything, so I don’t know yet where my mini furniture finishing library ended up.

Help!

Cici

Edited July 1, 2018 by Reborn Refinisher
Wanted to sign

[Chestnut]

So you want to tint the wood with dye or stain or you just want a more durable top coat?

If you want a more durable top coat take a solovent that removes wax, mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, denatured alcohol, and remove any surface wax. After that use a dewaxed shellac to get a binder coat between the unknown finish and your new finish. Sand the seal coat of shellac smooth 400 grit by and and lightly, you don't want to sand throuhg. Then just apply what ever you want for a top coat. Everything sticks to dewaxe shellac, well except oil finishes like walnut out tung oil and those funky oil wax blends like osmo polx, but shellac is more durable than those things.

The above won't work if they used an oil wax finish like osmo polx, but i doubt they did if it's shiny.

[..Kev]

Can you drop in some pictures?

You mention a difference between the base and the top, is this caused only by the finish? Some pics may answer that.

Have you contacted the manufacturer to see what they were finished with?

 

[..Kev]

Oh, welcome to the forums!

 

[Isaac]

22 hours ago, Chestnut said:

So you want to tint the wood with dye or stain or you just want a more durable top coat?

If you want a more durable top coat take a solovent that removes wax, mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, denatured alcohol, and remove any surface wax. After that use a dewaxed shellac to get a binder coat between the unknown finish and your new finish. Sand the seal coat of shellac smooth 400 grit by and and lightly, you don't want to sand throuhg. Then just apply what ever you want for a top coat. Everything sticks to dewaxe shellac, well except oil finishes like walnut out tung oil and those funky oil wax blends like osmo polx, but shellac is more durable than those things.

The above won't work if they used an oil wax finish like osmo polx, but i doubt they did if it's shiny.

This is what I was about to suggest. Some people will advise not to go over shellac with poly, but I think that is just a concern about the wax. Marc even had a video on it. 

If you pull it off, you'll potentially be preserving the warm beauty of the shellac and getting the protection of polyurethane. Not so bad actually...

[Reborn Refinisher]

Thanks for the replies. I’m impressed by the the helpfulness of this forum.

First, the tabletop finish must go. It’s more suitable to fine furniture than a casual table. And it’s too finicky for a kitchen table.

Secondly, the tabletop is much darker than the legs. They are dullish medium brown, very Danish modern, as opposed to dark glossy brown.

Thirdly, optimally I would like the whole table to be slightly darker. It doesn’t have to be as dark as the tabletop is now, but darker.

Next, there is no way I can contact the manufacturer without doing tons of research. The table is a Danish mid-Century antique, purchased online. The name of the manufacturer was not supplied.

In the 60+ years since it’s manufacture who knows what subsequent owners might have done to it. My guess is the top was in rough shape before the antique dealer ‘fixed’ it for sale.

I’m going to strip the top, stain it with Minwax and put a satin Poly finish on it.

What I’d like to do — but am concerned about —is apply Minwax over what looks like a dried out oil finish on the legs and stretchers.

I can make the top beautiful and functional, but I don’t want to wind up with the rest of the table being a tacky (as in sticky!) nightmare. 

But I’d rather leave the bottom alone and find a stain to match for the top than create a disaster! 

[AceHoleInOne]

If this were me, I would chemical strip. Then take a look at what your dealing with in regards to the tones of the woods. I'm betting you will ultimately be applying a dye to the wood first to get a good based color and bring the different wood tones closer together. Then apply a stain and topcoat. 

This is not easy for a novis without some experience of using dyes/stains.   

 

-Ace-