Finished Aurora Table

After two coats of a dye mix and numerous coats of satin wiping varnish, the Arched Aurora End Table is serving us well in our living room! I would like to thank Darrell Peart for his design and instruction. This was an incredibly fun project and a great learning experience. The table is made primarily of African Mahogany with ebony plugs. The handle is actually mahogany, but I dyed part of it so it would look like ebony. I thought it really needed this contrast.

And I am sure many of you will be interested to know the exact finish system I used for the table. I basically used a modified version of the recipe published on Darrell’s blog. Darrell’s mixture calls for 7 parts orange and 4 parts medium brown. I decided to try adding 1 part yellow in an effort to increase the highlights. There definitely was a difference on my test boards, but now that I look at the final piece its hard to tell how much of a difference it really made. The topcoat is 6 coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Satin applied using the same methods I discuss in my DVD, A Simple Varnish Finish. Check out the links below if you need a source for these finishing materials.

Product Links:
General Finishes Water Based Dyes
General Finishes Arm-R-Seal