Furniture Refinishing - Part 2 - Bleaching Wood

The hardest part of this job was trying to figure out how to get the stains off the top of the dressing table. They appeared too deep to sand off and I couldn't find good consistent info on bleaching the wood. So...I got a little adventurous and used clorox bleach and water. (1/4 cup bleach, 3/4 cup water). Rubbed it on and let it dry - being so hot it took about 10 min to dry. I did this twice, then rinsed with a vinegar/water combo. This did the job and removed the majority of the stain. The only downside was that it also removed some of the 'red' tint of the wood. The grain wasn't changed though.



I also found out that I splashed when I didn't mean too. Apparently some bleach mixture ran down the side. These drips also removed the red tint. So if you decide to use the bleach mixture be more careful than I was. Also, make sure you research a little online. The bleach will completely remove the grain lines from some woods.



I am restaining the pieces with Minwax English Chestnut stain. The chest stained beautifully. The dressing table was a different color since the red tint was gone. So for it I added another coat of stain - Minwax Red Chestnut . It added enough red to it to make the match almost perfect.

I am now adding tung oil to both pieces - hoping to get 4 coats on each. Will post the end results as soon as I am finished up.