Refinishing Tutorial

I have gotten many questions about how to refinish furniture. It is really pretty easy to do. It is time consuming but if you have a special piece of furniture that you don’t want to part with and it has taken a beating it is well worth it. So here is how you do it.

1. Tape off all areas that you don’t want to get stain on, in this case I covered the mirror with newspaper.

2. Jasco Liquid Paint and Stain remover is the bomb. However, this stuff is EXTREMELY toxic. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation and I would recommend wearing gloves. If you get it on your skin it stings like the dickens. With a cheap brush apply the stain liberally to the wood. It says to keep it on like 15 minutes. But I find 5 minutes is best. With a scraper or wire brush remove the stain. You can scrape the stain into an old plastic cup to get rid of it. Let the Jasco do the work. It should rid all the stain off your furniture. The more stain you get off the less sanding you have to do – let that be your motivation

You can see the difference it makes

3. Here is a picture of all the stain off the furniture. Wipe off all the excess Jasco gunk with a cloth. Next is the the not-so-fun, time-consuming part. You sand the entire piece with 60 grit sandpaper. After that you sand the entire piece with 100 grit followed by 220 grit. After it is all sanded is should be nice and smooth.

4. With a foam brush or an old T-shirt apply stain liberally but evenly. I used Sedona Red on this piece. I also used a water-based stain not an oil-based.

5. Let it stay on the wood for 5-10 minutes. With an old t-shirt scrap wipe off excess stain. Let it dry overnight.

6. With a nicer synethetic brush apply a coat of water-based polyurethane. The brand I use is Minwax Polycrylic. Let it dry for 2 hours. I usually apply two coats and then sand it down with 220 grit sandpaper. I then apply one last coat and let it dry for 24 hours before I use it. If you have a piece of furniture that will be used alot (like my kitchen table) I would recommend using an oil-based polyurethane as it has better durability.