Off Topic: Changing the colour (stain) of Furniture

[Mustela Furo]

This is a thread totally unrelated to BHAFC or Football but bear with me as I'm having problems finding out whether what I want to do can be done - and who could do it!


I have a large Oak dining table (refectory style) with 8 chairs.

It is medium oak colour.

I would like it to be dark oak colour.


Does anybody know of any professional wood stainers (or whatever they are called) who would take on this kind of job?

I did contact a couple of rather pretentious locally based "furniture restorers" who deal more with Antiques and they were not interested.

One suggested that everything would have to be stripped back to bare wood and then restained and waxed and quoted me £500 for the table + £100 for each chair ... £1300 overall!!!!

I haven't got anything like that sort of dosh to spend on this!!



I could go to B&Q and buy some wood stain but I have a hunch that would give me less than perfect results so looking for a recommended professional in the Sussex area.



Thanks!

 

[Tony Le Mesmer]

I would have thought you could sand the table down yourself - to the bare wood level and woodstain/vanish it from there.

I have only just done that myself with a light pine table - sanded down with a B & D Sander & sandpapered the edges.

Took a while and needed about 4 coats to get the desired dark wood colour - but its come out quite well.

Doing the chairs could be tricky though and time consuming

 

[B.M.F]

I think it is a french polisher you require but may be completely off the mark. if it is then you need a french maid afterwards to test the polish if you know what I mean

 

[NMH]

If you think you might try it yourself, you will gain a respect for why the pros chargegood bread for it. Stripping existing varnish is pain enough, and will not be effective if simply sanded as the corners will be a problem and varnish will remain unstripped in places unless you have the wood dipped in an acid lacquer remover.
I woudn't advise using a prestained varnish as it can come out un-even, and as soon as it wears it will show up badly!

If there is not a varnish finish, you can stain the wood - but you MUST remove any wax polish before applying new. Then you can apply a stain (thinned with mineral spirits so you don't get patchy areas or build-up in crevices) and simply do a few coats until the desired shade is acquired. Then you might apply a satin varnish finish to seal it - use bronze wool for this, is my tip.

If the furniture is valuable then let the pro do it.

 

[Mustela Furo]

I've already decided that DIY is not for me.

Just need to find a pro now!

so any recommendations for French Polishers or Furniture restorers gratefully received!!

 

[Yorkie]

I cannot recommend anyone in particular but using internet yellow pages www.yell.com brings up 3 pages of french polishers in the Sussex area alone.

Maybe a fair bit of phoning around is in order?

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

If you get stuck RLZ then maybe check out the furniture shop just north of Preston Circus - the guy in there is pretty knowledgable and knows all sorts of furniture style pro's. He's helped me before on something else. It's on the southbound bit of the one way, just before the fire station / duke of yorks.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

On a similar vein, I've just asked a furniture restorer to do a veneer repair on one of my hi-fi loudspeakers, which took one hell of a clout when a shelf above it parted company with the wall ( taking the shelf brackets, rawlplugs and plaster with it ). I ended up with the veneer punctured in 3 places - tried to do a ' cover up ' job by filling it in, but as the veneer was booked matched, it just looked wrong ! I'm hoping he can remove the old piece of veneer and replace with new.

My advice is very definitley leave it to the pro's - you could make things much worse than they already are to the point that you devalue the furniture ( should you ever wish to sell it at auction or wherever ). Large dining tables and chairs can cost thousands to buy, either new or second hand, and buyers won't touch anything that's been mucked about with amateurishly.

It may even be easier to consider selling your existing table & buying a new one, depending on what it's worth.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Congratulations anyway - for thinking of B&Q, rather than Focus Wickes.