I know this has come up before...I've read the archived threads.

There are a lot of "experts". I'm not one. I want to know whether anybody who is NOT a finishing expert has done this successfully and been happy with the results. I once tried to seal a medium-quality oak table with polyurethane. It seemed at the time very tricky to get the laps smooth, but oddly, on drying it didn't look as bad as I thought it would. Is that why poly is popular with the home market - self-correcting?

Table is on-sale until Monday (hhhmmmm, who could it be from...) - I like the design of the table, the sale price seems reasonable, but the color just doesn't match the chairs I would like to use with the table. Think I can live with it for a year or two but will have the constant urge to start the project. The wood grains are similar, it's not like I'm trying to match oak to walnut.

Thinking the procedure would be to:

move it to the garage

rent a hand-held belt sander and sand, 100 then 220 maybe?

test areas with a stain to try to match chairs

2 coats of stain

3 coats of poly with light sanding between?