I purchased this little table for $5 during our neighbordhood yardsale.  I posted this picture of it before saying it was in process, which was quite a while ago, but DIY does not always go as planned.

It had definitely seen better days, but since it was so rough looking I thought it would be an easy makeover.  I was definitely wrong on that one!  The sanding was simple enough with my power sander.  I got it down to the bare surface and ready to be stained.

It was missing one of the screw covers in one leg, so I applied a stainable wood filler to it.  I had never used the product before, but I thought it was worth a try.

After that was dried and set, I got started on my staining. When I took “Paint and Stain 101” at the Haven Conference, I learned that when I was staining I really should use a pre-stain wood conditioner.  This product prepares the wood to accept the stain equally, so you don’t end up with a blotchy stain.  So, this was my first time also trying that product.  I followed all the directions on it, then got to work staining.  And, this is where the good progress stops!

Despite all my direction following, I still ended up with blotchy stain.  I can overlook blotchy spots if the overall look is still good, but this one really was not the look I was going for.  The picture above is the table still in the garage, because I just can’t decide what to do with it.  I tried applying a darker stain overtop to see if that would warm it up a bit, but that didn’t change it much at all.  And, the stainable wood filler did not really work either….I didn’t take a picture of it, because it looks really bad! 

So, does anyone have any recommendations for how to save this piece?  Should I accept the current stain and just put a satin poly on it?  Should I throw in the towel on staining and paint it?  What would you do?