I have had this lovely coffee table sitting for a while waiting to be refinished. It didn’t look like this when I bought it. It was pretty scratched up and worn out.
My plan was to paint the entire thing with Annie Sloan Old White but as you can see from the pictures I (thankfully) decided to check under that thick finish to see if it was wood or a veneer. I’ve been fooled before into thinking the top of a piece of furniture was real wood just to sand it and find it was a veneer. But the bottom of this coffee table had the word Mahogany written on it so I started sanding. It looked to me like it was going to be veneer over plywood but the underside of the table looked promising plus it said Mahogany. Hello Cindy, pay attention to the clues! 😉 Once I started sanding off the thick finish I could see the beautiful wood underneath! I patted myself on the back for not making the mistake of missing out on this and went searching for just the right color to stain this beauty. I love the Minwax Early American so that’s what I went with. The bottom got 2 coats of the Old White, a little distressing and a clear wax finish and she was done!
It doesn’t hurt to check if you aren’t sure and want to stain something. I almost missed out on uncovering this amazing piece of wood. This table wouldn’t have had the same look if I had painted the top. I cringe a little that I almost pained over it. I do love painted furniture but a lovely stained piece of wood is worth the effort.
Let me know what you think and thanks for taking a look!
Cindy
