This is my latest piece of furniture that I’ve refinished. After doing the last dining room table I think that I was so happy with the results that I chose to forget how much sanding and time had been involved. I think that for people who see the potential in secondhand objects it can be hard to pass up a project. When I saw this French Provincial style dining table with queen anne legs and a pretty scalloped top I had to restore it!
This is a more process oriented post than normal because I documented all of the steps it took to get to the finished product. Hopefully all of this trial and error will help someone about to start a refinishing project or in the midst of one.
This is what I learned along the way…
This is the before and while the shape was beautiful, the scratches, worn edges and finish needed some work. What I didn’t expect was that this top would be very hard to sand down evenly and the staining process gave me more trouble that it ever has before.
After using a stripper (which did nothing) and sanding there were uneven patches.
I tried the darkest stain I had to try to balance out the uneven colour with a red cherry stain I already had.
Then I applied a light grey stain but this colour wasn’t the look I was going for.
I ended up having to buy another stain, a dark grey which is pictured above. I also used chalk paint in graphite as a base layer for the bottom.
This is it after a couple coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in white. After all of the trouble with the stain not working how I wanted, the paint was so easy and enjoyable to do. I distressed the base with some sanding and then added a coat of light grey stain and sealed it with a matte varnish.
Since this table was going up for sale after being completed I took some photos for fun.
I keep saying that this is the last time I’ll refinish furniture that isn’t for our house but I think that if I come across the right piece I’ll do it again.
Thanks Apartment Therapy for the feature!
This is another table that I refinished in a different style if you want to see more.
shibangdesigns.wordpress.com 
It’s absolutely gorgeous Robyn! Nice decorations on the shelf too! 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Heather
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HI Robyn: It was fun for me to look at this table. My parents had the very same table that was part of a dining room set. I think they bought it in the mid-50’s. French Provincial was very popular then. It was cherry. The set was the table, 6 chairs and a buffet. Eventually my mother had the furniture professionally painted a kind of olivy-green. She had the top of the table refinished in it’s natural color. When I closed my parents’ apartment I sold the set. Several years later when I was furnishing my house in Brooklyn, I saw the same style buffet (but not the same one) at ABC Carpet in Manhattan. It was just the shape I needed for my dining room–but smaller than the size I wanted. Ellen
Late to the party, but – someone on my neighborhood Nextdoor was advertising a FREE french provincial table with a leaf AND 4 cane backed chairs, and I had been wanting one, so I ran over and grabbed them. This is pretty much the exact table! The table base and the chairs are all painted an icky kind of old yellow 😦 I will be doing this exact process on them all, colors and all – yours is exactly how I want them to look, except I would like a very dark stain on top. Thanks for the post!