Your Coffee Table Does Not Have to Be a Three Ring Circus

A coffee table completes a formal living room. These low tables are wonderful when entertaining guests. Guests can be offered snacks and drinks while visiting and remain seated on the sofa with a nice space to sit cups of coffee, desert plates or cocktails while they visit.

If you entertain guests often a glass top table offers many advantages. The biggest is that you never have to worry about those unsightly water marks left when a guest unintentionally leaves a drink on the table without a coaster. Glass is easily cleaned and never will be marked with those white spots.

If you love the look of wood, the following option may help you to avoid having the nasty rings appear on your beautiful table. Have a piece of glass cut to fit the top of the coffee table. The glass offers additional protection to to the table against dings and dents. It's greatest advantage however is the protection from water marks. Use some small felt dots attached to the glass to prevent scratches to the wood.

The third option to protect that table from the unsightly rings it to provide coasters to each guest. While this will sometimes work, on many occasions either the host forgets to give the coaster or the guest does not use it and the result is a water ring.

The rings are caused when water get through the seal of the wax and causes it to separate from the wood. When that bond is broken, a white ring appears. Fortunately all may not be lost and you may be able to remove the white ring after all.

One way that works is to use toothpaste that is not the gel formula and apply it with a damp cloth. The toothpaste is rubbed into the spot and the resulting film is removed with a clean damp cloth. Polish the table and the ring should be gone.

If this does not work try again, this time adding some baking soda to the toothpaste.

If the stain is on dark wood, treat it using brown shoe polish. Rub the shoe polish into the stain until it disappears.

Steel wool (0000) can also be used to buff the stain away. Polish afterward.

Most of these methods seem to require rubbing the stain for a prolonged period of time. You should proceed with caution to prevent harm to the wood.

Not all stains will be removed using these tricks. If you cannot remove the stain using these or other tricks you may need to refinish the table. This will require quite a bit of work.

You must first remove the finish from the table. A liquid stripper may come in handy. You can also sand the finish away. Either process should be done in plenty of ventelation. The table will need to be stained again and then a finish applied. You can use finishes applied with rags or spray cans for a professional appearance.

After all the work you may want to add a glass cover over the coffee table.