Coffee Table Refinishing Project

I decided to make some fun, useful things this summer, since I'm a teacher and have lots of time on my hands.  I'm not sure where I got the idea {probably the Internet} but my first project was to be refinishing an old pine coffee table.

It was very scarred and had been antiqued, so it was dark and awful.  It was a hand-me-down from my in-laws {which I appreciate very much} and it has 2 matching end tables.

It was a learning experience.  I had refinished 3 oak floors in my house using chemicals, lots of scraping, and hand sanders.  So that's what I did.  First, on the patio I laid out some black plastic cut from a roll I had bought to line my flower beds a few years ago.  Then I put the coffee table on it and took a "before" picture.  I painted Citistrip stripping gel, waited the respective amount of time and scraped.  I quickly found out it was hard to scrape when complete dry.  So I started experimenting and found it was more effective and easier if i just waited about 5 min.

It was really hard getting into the tight spaces on the legs.  I was also using a metal putty knife and gouged the top of the table.  When I was sanding, which you're really not supposed to do, I changed the shape of the legs a little.

Anyway it was a learning experience and it was a huge improvement over the "before" picture.

This is the finished product!

I have also refinished one of the end tables and used some of the things I learned from the first table:

1.  Use a plastic putty knife to eliminate gouging
2.  Use Scotch-Brite pads to get into the nooks and crannies
3.  Don't worry about the nooks and crannies so much when sanding because the stain soaks in there and makes it darker anyway.
4.  Be careful when sanding around curves or you'll end up with flat spots.