Coffee Table

I love the shaped of this table, and the wood inlay on top.

The second piece of furniture I have refinished is my coffee table. I purchased this piece at a local estate sale. It was quite a deal, the end of the sales day and my favorite Estate Sales team Tom and Jan Parker sold me the coffee table and two end tables for $55. They were each beautiful pieces, and I couldn't pass them up. 
At this point in time I had not refinished a stained top and painted bottom. So, there was a lot of trial and error. I stripped the top first which was really easy. I learned quickly I prefer citristrip stripping gel. The odor is not bad, and it is easy to apply and see when it's working.

Using a palm sander I sanded the top. Now, at this point I had made a mistake, but had no idea. I had used the sander incorrectly on a previous project, and the pad had huge dents. I didn't realize this until I stained the piece much later, but I'll cover that in a moment.
I painted the bottom with Valspar, I don't remember the exact color.  I did two coats, and then used brown/walnut glaze, I purchased at Michaels. For the distressing. Wiped on glaze, and rubbed off. Then sanded for more distressing, and to cover drips.  I put a coat of poly on and was finished with the bottom.
Back to the top.... I covered the bottom with trash bags and taped to prevent stain drips (I'm very messy). Stained the top. Then I saw a strange zigzag pattern that my sander made in the wood. I ordered a new pad for my sander, but in the mean time decided to play with Denatured Alcohol and steel wool. This made the top have a really neat distressed look. The zigzags were there, but not as prominent. I decided to finish staining, and put  on a coat of poly. I thought I would fix it later, but have decided I like the beat up look, and have gotten a lot of compliments.
So, when people say that you can't go wrong when distressing furniture, you really can't, I always make a bunch of "mistakes" but the pieces always end up better than I had planned.

Before, ignore the floor. This is in the garage turned work room.

Christmas 2011, Here you can see the top and how the distressing looks.

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