Today we have a great DIY kitchen table makeover for you! This old farmhouse table was transformed into an Antique Gold Dining Table.
I’m always amazed at the ideas my clients have, and this one just rocked my socks!
Her inspiration came from an antique gold candle in her home. Then we recreated the look for her on this old french dining table.
It started out as a white farmhouse style table; a white bottom and stained wood top. I didn’t grab a before photo, but you can see a little bit of what it used to be in the photo below.
How to Get a Freshly Stained Wood Table Top
To start out, the top of the kitchen table needed to be stripped of the stain, so we could give it a fresh coat of stain.
You basically have two options:
- Strip the stain off with a chemical stripper
- Sand the stain off with a power sander
This tabletop was made with a veneer, so I really didn’t want to sand the whole thing down with my power sander.
If you’ve ever sanded through the thin wood veneer on a piece of furniture, and then you try to stain it, the stain doesn’t take evenly to the wood under the veneer.
What to do when you sanded a veneer too deep?
You can try using different colors of gel stain to paint on a stained finish over the sanded area.
But, more than likely, you will just have to paint over all of it with paint instead of stain.
So it’s not worth it to use a power sander and risk blowing through the veneer.
How to Strip a Table Top
The best stripper in my opinion is CitriStrip.
Just brush on the stripper, let it sit until it looks all gooey and bubbly. (Yes- those are official terms on the bottle…okay maybe not, but it will make sense when you see it.)
Then scrape it all off, wipe it down with mineral spirits and 0000 steel wool and let it dry out.
I have a full tutorial on how to strip stain from wood furniture, and another tutorial on how to remove paint from wood furniture. Both use the same technique!
These are jam-packed tutorials that can help you with how to strip a tabletop!
Sanding a Veneer Table Top
Once the wood is all dry, I grabbed the orbital sander with 220 grit and lightly sanded away.
Yeah, I know that I just said that I didn’t want to use my power sander on this veneer tabletop.
But hear me out.
Once the stain was mostly gone, I needed to just remove the little bit of stain left, and smooth out the wood grain.
I used 220 grit instead of coarse sandpaper to keep the power sander from taking off too much.
Then I made sure to not press down on the sander, and I made sure to move slowly, but keep moving, so I didn’t sand down one spot too much.
Just be gentle or sand it by hand.
The Gold Table
Once all of the old stain was off of the table top, I turned my focus to the apron (the white painted part of the table top) and legs of the table.
I lightly sanded the old white finish with 220 grit sandpaper (by hand) and wiped it down with a tack cloth.
Then I taped off the edge of the table top, all the way around, with painters tape.
And then I laid a few broken-down cardboard boxes on the top of the table to keep the paint from getting on the freshly stripped top.
(You could also just paint the base before you strip the top, but then you may run into the stripper dripping onto your fresh coat of paint.)
I painted the apron and legs of the table in Rustoleum’s Bright Coat Metallic Gold.
This paint has stuck so well to all of the pieces I have ever used it on. It is amazing!
If you’re working with raw wood though, I would recommend a primer under the gold paint to help the gold paint cover better.
The apron and legs took two full coats, and then one extra touch up coat in a few places. It dried super fast in between coats, but I let it dry for at least 4 hours before I started the antiquing glaze.
How to Use Antiquing Glaze
For the antiquing glaze I mixed Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze with General Finishes Java Gel Stain (the same stuff we stained the table top with) until it was the deep rich color I wanted.
Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze has been discontinued. I like to use this glaze now.
For this project I only needed half of a cup of the tinted glaze. And that was plenty!
With latex gloves and old t-shirt scraps as my rags, I wiped the dark glaze on, let it start to dry for a few seconds in this Arizona heat, then wiped it off with a clean rag.
(You can also brush the glaze on with a cheap paint brush, and wipe it away with baby wipes)
We wanted to get it dark, but still show the beautiful gold underneath. When wiping on and off I tried to keep the glaze in uniform long strokes. I also left more glaze in the cracks of the details than on the raised and flat places.
I let the glaze dry for a few days so the top coat wouldn’t ruin all of my hard work.
Stained Wood Table Top
While the glaze dried, I stained the table top with two coats of Java Gel Stain (the same stuff we used to antique the gold paint with) with at least 8 hours of dry time between each coat.
This stain is thicker than normal stain, but I used the same concept.
Wipe the stain on with the grain, let it sit for a few minutes, and then wipe the stain off (with a clean rag) going with the grain.
I love the richness of Java Gel Stain!
How to Protect the Freshly Stained Wood Table Top
After both coats of gel stain were completely dry, I finished off the stained table top with at least 3 coats of Minwax’s Wipe On Polyurethane in Satin finish.
The Minwax Wipe On Polyurethane adds an extra richness to stained wood.
But since it is oil based, never use it on white or light paint since it will add a yellow tone to the paint.
Since we were working with gold paint, I also used the Wipe On Poly for the apron and legs.
This table was such a fun project! I love how creative my client is. I would have never thought of this finish, but now that I have done it, I sure can’t get enough of it!
Where do you find your inspiration? I would love to hear from you!
Have a wonderful week!
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