Dining Table Makeover w/o Stripping, Before and After

We may earn money from the companies mentioned in this post.

I wanted to call this article, “I’m Done with Stripping” but that might mislead people about the main idea. Or maybe that would’ve intrigued more readers. Either way, it’s about an oak dining table makeover.

My drab, dark, dining table needed a makeover, but a $4,000 new oak dining table was not in the budget. Enter Craigslist and the 1980’s.

This article was written in 2022 and updated in 2024.

Find a cheap oak dining table

They’re everywhere. Mostly, they’re on Craigslist.

As I look around my home, I come to realize just how Craigslist-crazy I am when it comes to furniture. With the exception of our couch from RC Willey, nearly every piece of furniture we have downstairs is from Craigslist–and most were freebies!

Alas, our new-to-us oak dining table cost actual money. $170 to be exact. With the additional purchases of sandpaper, stain, and poly, our oak dining table makeover project cost around $210 totoal.

Here’s the look I wanted (I didn’t want that $4,000 price):

And here’s my finished oak dining table makeover:

I’d love to put a rug under it, but I just think that’s asking for trouble with three young boys. Maybe when they’re a bit older.

My old Craigslist table was on its last “leg”. It was wobbly, creaky, and inexplicably sloping inward toward the middle. On top of that, it was a dark-cherry colored stain that wasn’t properly sealed, and I was ready to see it go.

I recently fell in love with the natural wood look with either white or black Windsor chairs, so that’s what I was hoping to replicate when I found this ’80s (or ’90s?) honey oak beauty:

Sand said table

Solid build, a substantial size, and two extendable leaf additions made this oak dining table the perfect fit for our family. And the the honey-oak shade made it the perfect summer makeover project. Oh yeah, plus the cheap price tag.

Look at all that orange! I can make honey-oak color work on my cabinets, but not on this blast from the past. The look I want for the dining area is honey-free.

I’ve used Citri-strip before, and had a heck of a time with cleanup of the orange gunk. Not worth it! So I decided to just sand this project. Whoa, was that a lot of work too! And I mean five days of sanding if you include all the various grits. Still beats cleaning up stripper. Luckily, I had a faithful helper.

The oak dining table was in pretty great shape, but it did have a few nicks we filled in with wood filler. We started with my Craftsman sheet sander and 80 grit, but went down to 60 when the 80 wasn’t cutting it. This took three days of sanding! After most of the orange came off, we used the sander for a quicker job with 100 grit. Then we sanded by hand with 120, and finally, 180. I recruited my 10-year-old and 7-year-old to help too, but they weren’t too keen on sanding in the July heat. Can’t find good help these days.

Choose a stain

With sanding behind us, I was really digging the natural look of the wood. I didn’t want stain that darkened it too much, as my floors already darken my home more than I like (and that will be the next project). I knew I wanted something with a grayish tint, but nothing that screams “GRAY,” as I wanted a classic look that I won’t have to redo in a few years.

Although not gray, I read great things about the Minwax “Special Walnut” stain and its popular rustic appeal on Pinterest, so gave that a try.

NO! Way too dark and 1960’s. I know the midcentury modern look is in right now, but again, I wanted lighter!

Minwax makes a stain called “Classic Gray” that I used for my staircase handrail. It was so streaky and uneven, I had to mix it with a “Classic Oak” stain and paint thinner for a warmer and more even color saturation. Although I love how the handrail turned out, I wanted to go even lighter for this table.

I headed to Lowes to check out the colors that were on the lighter side of classic gray. After spending way too long comparing colors on Pinterest and waaay too much time in the stain aisle at Lowes, I found it. The natural, almost-gray to end all gray searches. The not-too-dark, grayish tone that downplays the fact that I used stain at all.

Stain the table

Enter Minwax oil-based wood stain in “silvered gray.”

You really can’t see much gray in it on the can picture, but you can see it after you wipe it onto the wood. It actually looks a little metallic and lavender at first while it’s wet, which scared me. But once it dried, the metallic sheen went away. Phew. And it looks nearly natural!

As the Cars say, it’s “just what I needed.”

I used an old white T-shirt and gave the table a once over, drying each section with another old T-shirt. You could also buy a bag of rags at Lowes. I waited a few hours and did a second coat of stain for good measure.

Seal that bad boy

Sealing began the next day. I used a quality Purdy paintbrush and applied a layer of Minwax oil-based polyurethane. I chose oil-based poly because water-based poly just doesn’t hold up as well. That night, I read about how you can thin your oil-based poly with mineral spirits (or your water-based poly with water). In fact, you can thin it up to 50/50 and it helps the poly be more forgiving and less likely to bubble. Although I had some bubbles initially, they all popped while drying. Just to be safe with my last two coats, I did thin my poly with a 3-1 ratio of poly to mineral spirits.

I did three coats total, with a very light sanding using 220 grit sandpaper between each coat. After each sanding, I wiped down the table with another old T-shirt and then a tack cloth to pick up any stray dust particles. I learned that trick from a random handy guy whilst spending too much time in the stain aisle at Lowes. My indecisiveness finally pays off!

I’ve used water-based matte poly before, and it doesn’t hold a candle to oil-based semi-gloss as far as durability. Remember how I mentioned my old table on its last leg? Yeah, I stained that one with water-based matte poly. And it didn’t hold up. You might think you don’t want shine, but the shine works for me if it comes with the ability to hold up to my kids. That’s why you use a glossier sheen on things like this–it can take more abuse and cleaning. Whatever you do, don’t use the trendy wax stuff on a tabletop. That’s a recipe for disaster with hot plates.

The chairs

My chairs are only a few years old, and very sturdy, so I wanted to continue to use them. Have you looked at the cost of new chairs?! And the terrible reviews! One exception is Target’s Threshold brand Windsor chairs. I love these chairs and they have pretty great reviews, but they simply weren’t in stock this summer. Of course they are now. The blue ones are adorable too.

So, I took my two-tone chairs and painted the seats to make them solid black instead of cherry seats. First I removed the seats from the rest of the chair frame. Then I sanded them with 80 grit by hand. Then 120, and finally 180. I used Rustoleum spray paint in semi-gloss black and sprayed light layers, letting each layer dry for a few hours. I did sand very lightly between paint layers with 180 grit sand paper. Then I used the same oil-based semi-gloss poly in three coats.

After dry, we brought it in, I took a seat at my table, and swore off any more projects.

Hmm, maybe we should wall off our front room…