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Restored a 1920s oak table and ruined it with the wrong varnish in 20 minutes
I found this gorgeous oak table at a thrift store in Nashville for $40. Spent 3 weekends sanding and prepping it, looked perfect. Then I grabbed the first polyurethane can I saw at Home Depot without checking if it was water-based or oil-based. It turned all cloudy and sticky within 20 minutes, totally ruined the grain. Now I gotta strip it all over again, wasted $30 on that can. Has anyone else messed up a furniture restoration by using the wrong finish?
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dylan_brown302mo ago
470 bucks down the drain on a 30 dollar mistake sounds about right for my first project too. @the_terry is dead on about shellac, I switched to it after ruining a similar table and never looked back.
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price.ben2mo ago
Oh man, I feel your pain @dylan_brown30! I did the exact same thing on my first refinish - stripping a table for hours only to realize the old stain was fighting everything I put on top.
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