I have some question about refinishing wood furniture.?

Question

I have 2 end tables and a coffee table that are about 16 years old. They are cherrywood Chippendale tables. Could I strip off the dark finish and refinish it in a medium pecan-like stain? Is cherry always stained dark because it is an ugly wood? Would the Chippendale style look odd in a pecan finish? I'm trying to combine a traditional style with kind of a Tuscan-rustic style, would this sort of move me in that direction? It's really not an option to replace the tables just yet. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

Could be lucky, maybe?
Cherry wood in its natural state is fairly light & the deeper color comes w/ age of wood ,stain if any & filish.
Cherry is not ugly , but can be relatively featureless in inexpensive pieces.
The dark color was just the fashion at the time original Chippendale was being made
Being only 16 years old , good chance the color is in the finish.
A safe way to go is to use a finish restorer, Formbys makes a kit
which works well.
It cleans & reduces the finish to almost bare wood with a couple of applications, also avoids sanding.
Should give a good idea of how light the base wood is & you may be able to stop there with luck.
The "Tuscan" finish ( just a matter of taste) you describe is used to replicate aged rustic pieces & would be difficult to do without completely stripping,possibly bleaching,distressing & refinishing if you want the natural wood to show.
A specialty woodcraft shop may be able to offer online help.
Good luck

Answer 2

well 1st w you want to strip with a good stripper . i like stripez from Sherwin Williams. then you will need to sand . use steel wool to get in the nooks and cranny's . the you will need some wood bleach with asilic acid . follow directions on bottle . be care full this will burn the skin . let dry and now you may refinish. stain seal sand 2 coats of finish use a good poly finis to hold up to water stains . i am a painter of 23 years

Answer 3

cherry wood is very a attractive unstained. you would strip the old stain first. but you can sometimes hurt the value of refinishing a old piece of furniture which in this case soon to be an antique.

Answer 4

Don't think you are going to get a pecan finish on cherry wood unless you do a lot of bleaching, and maybe damage the wood. You could do it on birch or oak, but not cherry. Sorry.

Answer 5

If the tables are 16 years old (and not antique), you probably would not get much for them if you sold them. Therefore they could be worth the attempt to change them to your liking. I would remove the stain with a chemical remover (a paste), and then re-stain. Maybe you can try it on a part of the table you do not see (e.g. the underside), and see if you like the new stain.

Answer 6

Cherry will still come up dark if you stain it with pecan, thats just the way the wood is.