Varnishing

Now that the table was fully sanded it was then ready for it to be repainted and varnished. I removed the old masking tape which covered the sides of the centre of the table and retaped it with new thicker masking tape to ensure no varnish would seep through, damage or stain any part of the the centre table.

I began with the table top, using a mahogany colour based varnish I made sure I was using a sensible amount of varnish, avoiding putting to much on the brush to keep from getting uneven areas or drip marks. I painted along the grain of the whole wooden areas of the table-top then left to dry. The varnish was then fully touch dry within the hour where I then added a second coat to create a slightly darker colour.

Whilst left to dry I moved onto painting the table legs ( still without the feet on). Varnishing to the table legs took longer as where the different sections had been put together during making the grain lines where in different directions. I took more time on the centre pole especially on the rounded detail as I was careful to avoid getting thicker areas of varnish in the creases. Like the table-top once dry I added a second layer.