Distressed Sofa Table

This is a replica table that I just finished.

This is one of those projects of firsts. It was the first replica peice I have done. It was the first time I ever used the Gel Stain from Minwax. It was also the first time I had ever attempted to tint polyurethane.

I have to admit, that Gel Stain is pretty sweet. You can leave it on for as long as you want (10mins max) and wipe it off. It isn’t as messy as I thought it was going to be. It went on great and came off clean.

After I got the second coat of polyurethane on, it wasn’t finishing the way I wanted. I wanted a more reddish color, but the poly was just making the “older Oak” look more black than red. So, without wanting to sand off the poly, I decided to try and tint the polyurethane. I couldn’t find any information on it, but I figured that I would be able to dilute an oil based tint in the poly, it would just carry the solutes a little more. I tried several different dyes, but the only one that I could get to dilute into the poly was “Reddish Brown Trans Tint”.

There was a lot of solutes left when I was done, but it tinted okay. You have to use about 20 drops though. It was tough and a lot of stirring, but it really reddened the peice nice, but still remained transluscent. I initially thought about diluting the dye with alcohol first, then mixing them, but I was afraid that it would thin the poly out too much. So, hey, it worked this time. I would recommend putting at least one or two coats of poly on first before you apply this mixture. Just in case you don’t like the color, you can still get it off relatively easily.

Another small change I made was the drawer heighth. I didn’t want a drawer as big as what they had made because it would just fill up with junk. So I made the drawers a little bit smaller. This also gave me additional height down below on the lower table.

I really hated distressing this peice so much and it was definitely a challange doing it, because of the heavy amount of distressing needed to match the peice (at least from what I could remember from seeing from the store). But, I have four other peices in the room, so I wanted it to look authentic with the other peices. I love the look of Broyhill’s Attic Heirloom collection, just not the costs. Here’s a couple pics before I started distressing it (chemically: I used different stains and oil paints for the black marks and acutally painted a couple spots for a more aged appearance to certain sections.)


If you notice, the corners on the top aren’t black yet and the dig marks on the edges of the table tops haven’t been darkened yet. The dyed poly really gave it a warm feel, without changing the over all “aged” look to it. I actually put 4 coats of poly on it. I sanded the first two with 220 gt, the third coat with 0000 steel wool and the 4th coat I rubbed down with Lemon Oil and 600 gt wet/dry paper. Man, does that give it a great smooth finish.

I have all the costs and the time documented in my shop. I will note that when I get back home. Thanks for looking.

-- Todd