Mahagony Dining Table Makeover
Today I’m sharing a project that I did for myself, yay! As a general rule, I don’t paint dining room sets to sell or as custom projects for clients (they are a lot of work and I just don’t enjoy doing them). But my own table needed some help and I had been putting it off forever. So I decided it was finally time and I needed to finish it before the holidays roll around. And of course, I had to share all of the details of this dining table makeover with you.
The table sits in direct sunlight, so the finish was extremely faded. The leaves (which are stored inside the table) were considerably darker. There were so large scratches and dings in the table itself, and the finish was starting to crack in places. The leaves were significantly darker than the tabletop. It was in need of some TLC for sure! While I love the look of the dark mahogany finish, I wanted to change things up, and not fight the sun, so I decided to go light.
A note on product links
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.
Step 1: Strip, clean and sand
For this project, I decided to test several non-toxic strippers to see which one performed best. You can read the results here, where I reviewed the four products tested. After using these 4 products on smaller portions of the table, I used my favorite, Smart Strip, on the rest of the piece.
After stripping I cleaned off the residue with soapy water, let it dry, and started sanding. My Festool orbital sander came in super handy for this large project. I was relieved to see that all of the scratches (even the big ones on the table leaves) were able to be sanded out completely. And the difference in wood tones between the leaves and table top was totally gone as well. Yay!
Step 2: Bleach
One thing to note before I continue. For each subsequent step, I started with a single leaf and tested out the result before moving on to the rest of the table. That way, if I wasn’t happy I would only have to redo one leaf, not the whole thing! Thankfully I didn’t have any issues, but it always makes sense to test things out as you go.
Okay, back to step two, bleaching. To get an idea of what the color would look like sealed, I did a water test by wetting the wood. While everything was a uniform color, I knew the raw wood wasn’t the final color I was looking for. There was still a lot of red showing, so I decided to start with a round of wood bleach to lighten everything up. This did wonders! I used Zinsser’s two-part wood bleach, and a full wood bleaching tutorial can be found here.
Step 3: Paint wash
Once the wood had been bleached, I liked the lightness of it, but it still was going to be very yellow if I sealed after this step (again I did the water test to see). A great way to keep your color consistent when sealing is adding a paint wash. The pigments in the paints stay true when a waterbased topcoat is applied. For details on how to paint wash, check out this post here. I made a custom mixed color using Stone and a bit of Epiphany Ecru (both by Melange Paints). I applied using my Zibra fan brush and wiped it back immediately with blue shop towels, using a misting bottle if things started to dry out.
Step 4: Paint Glaze
Once the paint wash dried and I brought a leaf back into my dining room, I decided that the wash was just a touch lighter than I wanted. And the top and leaves (solid mahogany) were lighter than the legs and apron (veneer). So I decided I wanted to go just a bit darker on the top.
This time around I didn’t want the color to soak in (like it does with a paint wash) but just be a translucent coating with a dark tint. So instead of making a paint wash, I made my own glaze. I mixed 3 parts Floetrol with one part paint in the color Maduro Brown. Like the paint wash, I applied using my Zibra fan brush and wiped it back immediately with blue shop towels.
Step 5: Seal with a topcoat
The glaze did the trick and added just enough brown back to get the tone I wanted. Yay! Next was sealing. I used my favorite water-based top coat, General Finishes High-Performance Top Coat (HPTC). I didn’t want any yellowing in the finish, so I decided against an oil-based topcoat. And I’m confident in the durability of HPTC, even on a dining table. With water-based top coats, one thing to remember is that the glossier the finish, the more durable the finish. So I started with 3 coats of gloss finish to maximize durability and then finished with 2 coats of flat to get the sheen I wanted on this table.
Summary
It took me a little while to get to the finish color I had in my head, but I’m so glad I was patient and kept at it, becuase I’m absolutely in love with the results of this dining table makeover. The table is now living happily in my dining room. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the chairs!
Want to learn more about each step? Check out the links below:
- DIY Furniture Stripper Review
- How to Bleach Wood Furniture
- How to Paint Wash Furniture
- How to Seal Painted Furniture: Protecting with a Top Coat
As always, please let me know if you have any questions. Want to learn more about all things furniture? Make sure to sign up for my newsletter to get the latest updates and exclusive content.