opinions on finishing this table?

Hi everyone,

Almost finished my table here. It's 7' long and will be used as a counter/table in our kitchen.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d102/canuck74/table1.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d102/canuck74/table2.jpg

Not complete yet but plan on adding "slats" to the lower skirt for storage.

I'd appreciate any ideas on finishing this table as I am VERY inexperienced and of course would like it to look nice!

The top is solid maple and I ended up building the rest out of red oak...would have liked to use maple to match but it was too expensive!

Id like the top to have a durable finish that can stand up to normal kitchen use....


Thanks in advance!

 

Nice looking piece!

First you need to decide what you want it to look like when finished. It is possible to stain both the oak and maple similiar in color - experiment with different stains on scrap. You'll probably need 1 color for the oak and a different stain for the maple.

Polyurathane is the best wearing of the user friendly coatings available for diy. 3 coats, sanding lightly between coats [don't forget to dust] is the norm.

 

I agree - three coats of polyurethane is the standard. What you want to do for color underneath the poly, if anything, is more open.

 

thanks for the fast replies guys!

If I could...I'd also be curious to know what you think I should do in terms of stains for these 2 woods? Not very good with colors!

I was thinking maybe a light honey type stain for the red oak and maybe leaving the maple top with no stain and only the poly...sound like this would work?

Any opinions would be appreciated!

Thanks Again, Paul

 

Staining the red oak and not the maple won't make the 2 woods match, but the right stain might make the color differences compliment each other. Often stains are picked to either match or compliment other furniture or woodwork. It is always nice to test stains on scrap pieces - helps to visualize the out come. Poly/varnish will highlight and slightly darken the stain color.