Just purchased a used coffee table that needs help. The stain on the wood was done poorly. Do I need to strip it to re-stain or can I stain over the old stain.
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Rose,
Usually you will want to strip it before you stain. In many cases, it will be hard to find an exact-match to the existing stain and even if you do get lucky enough to get a close match, there is no guarantee that the stain will absorb in the same way.
Depending on the damage / wear and tear, you might try putting a coating of Old English furniture polish on it before you go to the trouble of stripping and re-staining. I have found that you can often times get light surface scratches, etc, out with it.
If you don't want to harm you wood again then choose the best wood stain. Here woodimprove.com/
Thanks Gladys,
The table has a lot of intricate wood work and would be laborious to strip. It is not scratched though. Perhaps I could try the Old English first.
Rose
I use the Homer Formby kit for refinishing. Use ultra fine steel wool to apply the formula to dissolve the old stain and then finish with a couple of coats of semi gloss or matte sealer finish. This is just about the easiest way to finish any furniture that I have run across.
Better giving the coffee table a good sand down with rough sand paper first then a light sanding with the smooth sand paper before re-staining
Depends on what kind of topcoat was used. You could probably hit it with some steel wool first. Medium-course to remove topcoat then use a fine grade and re-stain.
Hi,
I've used this on furniture with great results, Howard's Restore-a-Finish. It costs about 10-11 dollars and they had it at our local Ace Hardware:
www.acehardware.com/
It does a nice job.
Susan from ThriftyFun
Try cleaning it first with Murphy's oil soap and you might have to do this several times. Its great stuff.
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