Refinished Coffee Table

Like the title says, "can't sit still" 

So I set out to refinish my family room coffee table.

Here is a little glimpse of the table before. I was never crazy about the color.

And there were some areas that were pretty worn out.

With one trip to Home Depot I gathered supplies:

After two coats of the Citristrip, LOTS of scraping and sanding,

my table's true colors were revealed.

Yuck!

 I know you're wishing I took more pictures of the next couple steps, 

but frankly I'm too antsi to stop and get my camera out,
 I just want to get to the good stuff. 

Staining! 

But even before that, I applied a pre-stain wood conditioner for even stain coverage.

I used a mixture of 2 parts English Chestnut to 1 part Ebony and mixed it in an empty paint can.
Applied to coats of my newly mixed stain with a foam brush
and used fine grade steel wool in between two coats of satin polyurethane.

I love the new color!

The satin finish is the perfect amount of sheen.

Ginger really wanted to be a part of taking-pictures-of-the-new-table.

I'm really happy with the results after a lot of blood, sweat a tears 

(okay, no blood, some sweat and I almost cried when I realized what I had gotten myself into!)

 But my hard work paid off.