Help with varnish -newbie

Hi there,

My wife has a small table that was given to her by her grandmother, I dont think it has anything other than senitmental value but my wife is keen to use it to sit a big vase on.

At some stage the varnish started lifting, so in her teenage years, my wife decided to paint it.... :(( Anyway, I've managed to strip most of the paint off. Underneath it has quite a dark walnut finish which will work well with our other furnature, but as I sanded back the varnish from the legs, I noticed the timber is considerably lighter than I expected, even with a little water on it.

I'm hoping some people can give me some direction on what might be the best way to varnish this wood and attempt to give it the darker look it originally had, it doesnt need to be identical, but the darker the better. Will several coats bring it back to it's original colours?

Any help appreciated!

Original colour
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...e/DSC01377.jpg


Sanded legs
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...e/DSC01373.jpg


Some water on the legs
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...e/DSC01379.jpg

This picture I see hope, however in actual light it wasn't as dark as the picture makes out.

I personally would try to stain it with a walnut stain or similiar colour to match the table top, and then coat the whole table with varnish.

Try Wattyl Walnut stain. One coat should do but if not dark enough a second coat may bring it nearer to the colour you are after. Check at most larger hardware stores as they will have a colour display of the stains.

could you not use some "dark" furniture wax and just give it a couple of coats of that! I use this quite often with good results

I'm open to anything that will give it a look like it had, but I do want a fairly high gloss finish.

I had a look at all the coloured varnishes, but I'm not 100% what the timber actually is so it's hard to know if it will turn out the same way as the display.