I love my Restoration Hardware salvaged trestle table. It came in unfinished pine that I finished with a coat of clear Monocoat Oil. Several years later and it's held up beautifully with no stains or water marks. The table is very rustic though and I'm not sure if that's your style. It has so much character in the wood that I'm not sure my family could damage it!

RH now sells the table finished but I prefer my oil finish to their options. If you Google my username and gardenweb you should be able to see pictures before and after the oil. It darkens the wood to a warmer color that I actually prefer.

I would not want to use this table unfinished although some people do. I recently went to an open house for a beautiful house listed at 2.8 million (just looking, not in my price range!) and they had my table but unfinished. It looked fine but in my house it would probably have marinara stains all over the tabletop within the first week!

What are the dimensions of your room and what else will you have in there and what period or style furnishings do you like?

Why do you not like the Ethan Allen? You say it is real wood and you know finding real wood nowadays from showroom floors and even in the high-end stores is like finding teeth in a chicken's mouth. If I had real wood, I might consider it worth the while to have it professionally refinished.

If, however, you just do not like the Ethan Allen you have (and sight unseen it is hard to know what it is, because Ethan Allen, once it went to the Middle and Far East, became a whole different genre, sotaspeak).

Do you want a maple, cherry, mahogany, walnut, pine, rosewood type wood, or do you preferred a painted finish? Do you want metal or glass on it, or just wood?

How many people do you normally seat? Do you want extensions so that you can enlarge for added guests? Will this space be for family only or will it also be used for entertaining?

I am asking the questions so others can give you good advice.

I quickly snapped a picture of our table. Apologies for the quality! I do love this set. I just wasn't sure if it would be crazy expensive to refinish the table. It is the table plus two leafs that we'd have to get refinished.

I also love the style of the chairs, but with the chips and marks on them, they are starting to show a lot of wear (we've moved a lot with the military, but hooray for being finished with all that!)

So we could get the table refinished and maybe just buy four new (similar) styled chairs for our every day use and then keep the extras in the garage for when we have family gatherings (and want to add the leafs). Or we could start over. Crate and Barrel has similar chairs, though I have no idea of the quality.

On a day to day basis, it is just the four of us, so we'd most likely just keep it sans leafs on a regular basis, adding them only when we need them for guests.

This post was edited by tammyw on Thu, May 8, 14 at 10:30

IMO, if you love the set you have, you should refinish it, and do so yourself. It's not a hard thing to do! and it is a LOT cheaper to do it yourself. Same with the chairs.

Is that the ocean outside your house? Looks like a stunning place.

Thanks Tibbrix. I never thought about doing it myself, but that's something to consider. I thought it would be crazy hard? Maybe I should invite my dad from Canada to come do the work (he has offered before!)

That's not the ocean unfortunately. We are in S.California, but we are further inland. We do have some beautiful views of the mountains though!

It would be much cheaper to refinish an existing wood table/chairs than to buy new ones of comparable quality.

I started searching for "how to refinish furniture" but there are so many different recommended methods. How do you find the method that will work the best and wear the best? I'm not sure I'm up to such a task but saving money while buying this house would be amazing!

The wear depends on the product you use as the final coat or coats. Refinishing mostly takes patience and a determination to follow directions exactly. You will save a ton of money, though. My father, like yours, loves to do that stuff. It's really just a matter of sanding the surface down, then re-staining it the color you want, or painting (this is why getting real-wood furniture is a plus), then finishing it with a protective coating, like shellack or polyurethane. The guys at your hardware store can help you get all the right materials.

The other benefit to doing it yourself is the feeling of pride in having done it yourself! Honestly, the only reason to not do it yourself would be if you really don't have the time, IMO.

The chairs seem like an easy fix. I'd just paint a new coat of black on them. Painting is not hard.

I'd consider painting the chairs myself and finding out how much it would cost to have the table top professionally refinished.

Staining and putting a protective coat on an unfinished piece of furniture is pretty easy. The prep work on an already finished piece is a bit harder. Not saying it's out of reach for diy, just that I would at least get a price on having it done professionally. My one experience stripping something was a long time ago so products have undoubtedly improved, but it was smelly and took a lot of work.

Thanks crl_ - Since there is a lot of chipping on the legs of the chairs, I think they'd have to be fully sanded down before applying paint. I might be able to get away with only sanding the legs though (they get banged up from banging them into the metal legs of the table).

But if I put paint over top the paint that's already there, would it really adhere properly? Or would it just need a light sanding all over? I guess this is something I could look up online. I've never done anything like this and wouldn't consider myself particularly "handy".

Yes, take a look online. But in general to paint over paint, you will want to sand, prime and then paint. If you know for sure what kind of paint was used originally, you may be able to skip the priming step. (If the orginal paint was oil based you need a primer to be able to use latex paint, otherwise the latex won't adhere properly. If you are painting latex over latex, you don't need primer. Since your chairs were factory painted to start with, they probably ought to have a coat of primer to make sure your paint layer adheres. You can always ask at your paint store.)

Chalk pant is a relatively new thing and people here have used it with varying degrees of success. I have never used it so I can't comment on it, but I believe the advantage is supposed to be being able to skip the sanding and priming steps. However with your chips you probably want to sand anyway to get a smooth finish. Also I believe chalk paint requires a finish layer of wax so it has that extra step on the back end. I'd also research durability as I remember at least one complaint here about it not being durable enough for a heavy use piece of furniture.

You could definitely see about having the chairs professionally painted as well. I just think painting is relatively easier than refinishing so that's why I suggested panting yourself and outsourcing the refinishing. But if you are getting a price on refinishing, it sure wouldn't hurt to ask for a price on painting the chairs as well.

Or just invite your dad! If he's like mine, he works for cherry pie which is a lot cheaper than paying real money. ;)

I love refinishing projects, but you do need time and space for it. It's not something you want to rush, so you would need something in its place during the project. Tables are fun, but chairs with lots of spindles or turnings, not so much.

I've always like that EA table and chairs. Definitely find a way to keep them. I don't think the table would be so hard to refinish, especially since the legs are metal.

I think that, since the chairs are chipped, you'd definitely want to sand, at least around the chips. Then put a coat of primer on the chairs so that the new coat of paint adheres better and is less likely to chip.

I stripped the top of a dresser and used some kind of stripper that comes in a spray can. The varnish came right off! It was so easy. Then primed it, then painted and then I totally screwed up and put polyurethane on the white paint, so it yellowed! Polyurethane yellows. Make sure you get the right stuff. I used poly on my antique pedestal table, but that is fine because it's stained golden oak. But on whiteâ¦DUMB! Now i have to strip it again!

There is amazing satisfaction, though, in doing it yourself. You do want to be careful with any sanding, do it lightly so you don't overdo it.

Its very easy to strip furnture now. I used a product called Klean Klutter . You can get that kind of product at any big box store. You need probly at least two rolls of paper towels a bag of assorted sized steel wool and a wide chemical scraper. My last project was a closet door and I ended up using a wide metal sheeprock spreader it worked great. The most important part is don,t skimp on the chemical g\loves you need a good pair. I don,t think it would take me more than two hours to strip that table top down to bare wood. You appy the stripper thickly with a old brush then let it set twenty minutes then remove with the scraper. Brush down the areas the scraper can,t reach with the steal wool then the paper towels then apply a second coat as needed. You shouldn,t have to sand any thing down. If there is stain or paint in the wood grain add a fresh coat of remover with the fine steel wool to bring it up.

juddgirl, as a slight aside, is monocoat easy to apply (we also have an RH table - the "Flatiron", which has a reclaimed wood top (what is the difference between "reclaimed" and "salvaged"?) and would like to finish it with something.

madeyna - that sounds easy enough even for me!

Any easy fix recommendations for the chairs?

Might be easier to buy new legs and spindles, paint them, and put then in each chair. I think I'd go nuts sanding and priming and painting all those parts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spindle Chair parts

Cleaning and sanding the chairs isn,t going to be as bad as you might think. There are no decortative scrolls you have to work around . I did mine last year and would really rethink redoing anything with alot of decorative scrolls again. You don,t have to sand the entire chairs down to bare wood just smooth out the areas that are scratched up then a light sanding over the rest just to give the paint a little grip. I think you will find that if you more or less fold the sandpaper over the spindles you can work up and down them quickly. I would spray paint them . You can buy a trigger holder ( I don,t know what its called) so your hand doen,t get tired spraying. The big box stores will give you big applicance boxs that you can flatten and strip the table on. They work better than drop cloths for stripping and painting. If you do decide to do this I would do the stripping outside in the shade. The fumes are really bad.

sjhockeyfan, it was very easy to apply. I just cleaned the table with a damp cloth, let it dry completely, then applied the oil with an angled paint brush so I could get into any knots and grooves. After letting it sit for the time indicated in the instructions, I wiped it off. I did everything except under the tabletop I just applied it a few inches all along the edge.

I also used it on our RH Dutch industrial coffee table.

It sounds like it's worth a try. All we have lose is the cost of some product. I think I'll attempt this once we get to our new house!

juddgirl, I sent you an email (didn't want to continue my hijiack!)

Pottery barn has some very nice looking everyday tables. I have the Sumner farmhouse table and like it.

Body shop.

I actually just looked at your table for the first time. It would be a totally fun and easy project. Once you strip off the existing finish (and no, it isn't hard to do), and sand carefully, you will be amazed at the new life you've given your old friend.

Chipping is easily fixed with a product you can buy at Home Depot or Lowe's. My dog chewed the newly painted window corners from my beautiful armoire. The painter had something in a tube that he got from Home Depot, squirted it on, came back the next day and sanded and painted. It was so easy a 5-year-old could have done it.

There is a paint called Cabinet Coat that may/may not come in colors but if not, ask at your local (best) paint store and they can guide you. If all else fails, go the body shop and get pricing. That's what Lynette Jennings does.

Does Body Shop have a web site? When I do a search for it, it is trying to take me to an auto body shop.

I really appreciate all the helpful advice!

I'm delurking to possibly add some information about your table. I've been contemplating refinishing our Ethan Allen American Impressions Shaker-style dining table, which I believe has a similar if not identical top to yours.

The finish is lacquer. Restoring it could be as simple as re-amalgamating by brushing on lacquer thinner to allow the current finish to sort of melt, reflow, and dry. I will probably give it a try if I can determine how to maintain a dust-free environment in this household.

Our top is cherry veneer over some other hardwood (common and not a sign of poor quality). I've read that commercial veneers can be extremely thin, like 1/32 inch. You would have to be very, very careful if you didn't want to sand it off.

Good luck! Let us know what you do.

oregonmom - how would I know if this has a veneer top? It looks solid, and has a bunch of scratches from my kids. Just curious how to figure that out? We bought ours 11 years ago.

I just looked at the table really closely. The underside of the table has the exact same wood patterns as the top, so it is definitely a solid wood top.

Sorry, I misled. I meant a body shop would do it. Many body shops do furniture. It prevents the dust that one gets at home when trying to sand and refinish. They have a way of protecting so that it is not tainted, sotaspeak.

My painter/carpenter fixed my window corners, baseboards and those of my armoire very easily where my puppy decided she needed to teethe.

I have the exact same dining table as you Tammy. I am planning on having it refinished, or doing it myself this summer. I have also thought about having a new top made. I wont give up the base I love it.