Dining table - extension different colour to table top

Hootie19

We bought our dining table and chairs second hand from someone at DH's work.

It's great. It's huge and extends even further. Trouble is, it's obviously been stored in a position where it got direct sunlight, because when you put the centre extension in, it's a totally completely and utterly different colour to the rest of the table!

I was wondering if it's possible to strip the whole thing back to basics and restain it. Is it something I could do myself, or could I get a professional in to do it. And if so, would they do it in situ, or would they likely have to take it away.

I'm not even sure that it's a solid wood table. It's very heavy, but I suspect it's probably veneer rather than solid wood.

Any ideas?

I keep it covered with a cloth at the moment, but I'd like to do away with the cloth if possible, so it needs to look good.

wallbash

No expert , but a fan of Restoration Man , tv series starring Alan Heard.
Stripping furniture looks fairly skilled to me. Looks like it makes quite a mess, you would not it done on your carpet.

It's very heavy, but I suspect it's probably veneer rather than solid wood.

I would have thought being heavier more likely to be wood , especially as wood has faded in the sunshine

We bought our dining table and chairs second hand

Question is , how much did you pay ?? is it worth getting in the experts??

Our latest table remains fully extended all the time ( luckily we have the room ) just to keep the colour constant

beaney50

Why not put a tablecloth on it when you want to extend it?

tony6403

I would leave it as it is. It is not worth the time or expense - and you risk making it very much worse.

Hootie19

Thank you

We only paid £40 for the table and six chairs.

We are completely redoing our lounge/diner. The only things we're keeping are the two sofas and the tv. Everything else is being changed.

I thought if I could get the table "poshed up" for a reasonable sum, it'd be a lot cheaper than buying a new set. And it IS a nice table - just looks poor at the moment. I don't want to keep the cloth on all the time. I'd like to use a table runner rather than cover the whole thing. I'd be happy to replace the chairs though.

ormus

unless you did it yourself, an expert french polisher would charge summat like 300/600 quid. certainly not worth it for an ordinary table.
most modern tables cannot even be done like this. they are made of imitation wood veneer.

julianashcroft

If you are going to use a table runner, get one that's just a bit wider than the extension piece and instead of running it length ways run it sideways.

dander

It will depend a lot on the table. Actually stripping and refinishing a piece of wood furniture is not difficult and there are quite a lot of bits of information out there on the internet on how to do it.
Essentially you would need to take the old finish off, sand the wood down to reveal the un-bleached wood and then refinish. If the table is solid wood, then you could just go ahead, but if the finish is a thin veneer, then you might find you haven't got enough depth of wood to sand without causing damage. If that is the case, maybe you could experiment with fading the darker leaf down to the sun-bleached colour. You might also find that if you can't sand it down very far, you could experiment with wood stain or oil to try and bring the colour back up. I recently refinished a piece of furniture with just linseed oil and was very impressed with how much rich colour it added to the wood.

If you only paid £40 for the whole set, I'd say give it some experimenting!