Table Trouble

I  bought a very heavy, solid wood, but a little scuffed up coffee table from someone for $5. My initial idea was to turn this into a lego table by painting it and glueing lego squares on it, but we put it upstairs as-is and saw how the kids used it all the time for multiple activities, and realized that it would have more function if we left it alone.

But I have this problem of not being able to leave things as-is, so the other day I brought it down to the garage and took all the finish off by stripping and then sanding it down. It honestly didn't look a lot different, but it was a lot less orange, which I liked.

 I really like the wood detail, and I decided to play off of the angles and add a stained pattern to it. Kind of a quilted aztec look.

I used some dark walnut stain that I already had, and did one light coat of stain, blotting off the excess. You can see how one light coat of stain really absorbed into the wood. Although I liked it, the way the wood soaked in the color should have been a warning signal for me to watch out for.

I really like the pattern and the way it compliments the wood grain. And it's subtle, which is good because the playroom already has enough pattern. 

So another problem I have, along with not being able to leave things alone, is that I am cheap and impatient. I was dying to see what the table would look liked finished, and I already had some danish wood oil in a light walnut finish that I thought would work, so I decided to just go for it, because it would be free, and I could do it right then.

But what I really should have done was sleep on it and then researched what stain would work best. Because as I was applying the wood oil, I realized it was turning out even redder than it was before I refinished it. It was not the look I was going for, and I was really surprised that the color ended up that way. I'm pretty sure this is cherry wood, so I am guessing that the wood's naturally red tone made it turn out this way. But instead of stopping halfway through, I finished it up, because I wanted to at least give the color a chance.

So this is what it looks like in the room. Although I like the subtle pattern on the table, I am having a hard time with the color, and I am concerned that it doesn't work in the space. I honestly wish it was just a little lighter and a lot less red. 

Here's a photoshopped version of how I WISH it had turned out.

I reeeallly don't want to start over on it. And I don't think I want to paint it. I don't think.

So for now, we'll keep it up in the playroom as-is, and I'll sleep on it.