How to Refinish a Table in 1 Hour! (Quick Refinishing Class #1)

Do you have a piece of furniture that needs some refinishing love, but you've neglected it for years thinking of sanding, stripping, coats of this and that and more coats of this and that.....labor intensiveness!

Well, I'm going to teach you how I refinish my wood furniture in about an hour!

Let's start out with the dirty stuff ...(these two tables!)

I will call this first one #1

I found her at a yard sale for $30 about 4 yrs ago, and (embarrassingly) have been using her in  my bedroom ever since. Now that I'm onto master bedroom renovations, I'm going to give her some TLC!

We'll call this next table, table #2

I found her, and her twin sister, along side the road for free :)

Yes, both obviously have lots of dirt. If you look at #1, she also has some deep circular cup stains that I will have to sand out. #2 just needs a good cleaning before we get started. 

See how dull the legs look?!

OK, I know I said a table in 1 hour, but I'm doing two tables in 2 hours, so it will all even out :) Doing one individually could take you an hour and 15 minutes or so.

So, let's say you put the kids down for naps. Now drag your furniture to the garage, or wherever you're going to refinish it, and start cleaning. You don't have to get crazy, just get it decently clean. 

Once you've cleaned it, use some stain (in a similar color)  and start brushing it over the wood. Always work with the grain, forcing the stain into the pours. If you can't find the same color of stain, feel free to mix two colors together to get your desired color (as long as they are both either water based or oil based).

Notice the arrow above. Those legs just needed some stain! 

Most people think of refinishing furniture as a multi-step, intense process of stripping, sanding, varnishing, sealing, resanding, revarnishing, resealing ect... 

Yes, if you want a quality, really-nice job done, it is time intensive! However, I've found that it takes very little time to get a piece of furniture looking really good, and considering my life right now, I'll take "looking really good in 1 hour", over perfection!

Notice I didn't do any sanding on #2. There were no stains that were visible enough that I needed to do any sanding. However, I suggest finding stain that is a similar color to what you're staining over, if you're not going to sand. 

Below on #1 is a picture of me using a brush to stain. (I personally like foam brushes). If you remember the large circular stain on #1, you'll see why I did have to sand the top. I just took my electric hand sander to the top and sanded until I couldn't see the stain anymore. I sanded the entire top (and only the very top) to be an even color ( in otherwards, I didn't leave any original stain or sealer on the top. If I had, the next stain I would have put on would have looked uneven). I use a typical oil-based stain like Minwax. 

* If you are sanding only a section of a piece of furniture (as I'm showing here). You can always add a second coat of stain over the sanded section to make it darker, if you need to.) 

Now let the stain dry. I left #1 and #2 outside to dry on a breezy day. I don't suggest leaving furniture out in the open air, because they'll get dust particles on them, but I don't have a garage, so a carport will do. The stain dried in about 30 minutes in the breeze. If you have a piece of furniture with a serious amount of old sealer still on it, you may need to let the stain dry for two days to get it dry enough to apply the new sealer. I know, you're reminding me that I said this would take an hour, but I'm meaning the time you're actually working on it. These pieces were so rough and beaten up that they didn't have much sealer left on them, therefore, this really did only take me 2 hours of work and only a couple hours of drying time for the sealer.  

Once the stain is dry, start applying the polyurethane, or sealer. I like a semi-gloss and I use the kind that says "dries quickly".

See how beautiful the poly makes it!

So here's #2 inside. See how she has that shine on top. She's not perfect, but she looks really good. 

Look at #1!  She looks fantastic!

I don't think you'ld be able to tell I didn't give her a complete sanding, and didn't use multiple coats. 

Do you remember #1 from the beginning? Not bad for an hour makeover!

Now she is at home again in my bedroom, but is looking much improved!

You can see she's not perfect, but she looks really good!

Here's #2 at home again. Remember, these improvements took a total of 2 hours, and they are looking so much better for 2 hours worth of work!

--Katie

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