Staining a table please help!?

Question

I swear I has the klutziest fiance in the world! He is careless in everything he does. I told him not to put the plug in scented oil warmers on table and what does he do? He puts them on the table not even standing up but laying down! So they leaked ruined the stain on my table-it was only like the size of a dime so I was okay with that. But now he was moving stuff around and put acetone on the table and knocked it down and when I went to wipe it up the spot is like the size of my hand! I am so freaking pissed because this is a reall nice table, I paid a lot of money for it and it is ruined. It has a dark wood stain and I was wondering if there is an easy fix or a quick fix to fix that spot or do I have to stain the whole table? I am pregnant so I cant be working with chemicals too long. What supplies do I need and what do I do?

Answer 1

You could try Restore-a-Finish.  It might work.  If it doesn't, you aren't much worse off than you are now (just out the cost of restore-a-finish).  I've used it and think it's pretty good.

Answer 2

First of all, please don't work with chemicals, like acetone, if you're expecting!

Okay, so he really blew it? Can you work on this thing outside? If you've got a lot of fresh air, you might be able to do it yourself, but really the fiance should be impressed into service to undo what he has so clumsily done!

The most reliable way to get a good looking table again is to strip the top and refinish it with the same color stain and the same finish. Touching up and repairing finishes is not complicated work, but it's definitely tricky and knowledge of working with the materials and matching colors is essential, which you don't have yet.

Get your betrothed to take a hour or so and strip that table. Paint remover will do the job, since he's such a wiz with the acetone, maybe he could finish the job off with that? Anyway, you need a uniformly colored and uncoated surface.

Hopefully you (or he) can stain the table top, apply finish and then you'll be back in business.

One quickie solution, which may or may not be acceptable to you, would be to use a toner spray finish on it. These finishes are lacquer that has pigment added to it. What you get is a transluscent coat of finish that has color in it. Depending on how much  you use, you can either darken the spot (make it look stained) or if you apply too much it will just look like brown paint. Toners, used in conjunction with clear finish might solve your problem. You could darken the damaged area so that it blends in with the rest of the finished top and then apply a coat of clear lacquer to the whole thing to finish the job.

Answer 3

This is easy..........sounds like a cub bear in boxing gloves working around your house LOL sounds lke me......I'm sure you want to hear this........but buy him a little orbital sander and put him to work.......after he thinks he's done give it a water bath with a damp cloth and tell him to sand it once more....fill, stain, seal and finish........some stains will fill and seal ........but the old way probably is the best......if he likes running a spray gun shoot it on a warm day if not brush or pad it on........good luck....I've got a dining room table to do the same thing to......hoping wife will kill me first....so I wont have to do it.......she put some new pad on the table and it had a chemical reation to the finish on the table........soooo...on well it's summer at nothing to do but have kids and paint table's .......have fun.....enjoy please

Answer 4

most likely, you will have to strip and refinish the whole tabletop.  hopefully it is solid wood. If it is laminate you will have to use great care, as the laminate is less than a quarter inch thick.  i would make him sand it and restain it .  after that 4 coats of poly, so this doesn't happen again