Dining Room Table Supplemental Finish

[kohler]

Our 7 year old dark stained dining room table mostly used for mail and a laptop has an unforgiving finish that develops white rings under coffee mugs and pizza boxes. The white marks dissipate after a few days. The table was bought retail, not sure of the type of wood and current matte finish.

Does anyone have finish recommendation that could prevent the moisture marks? On a previous honey oak table we used gloss marine varnish, don’t think that is the right choice for this. I’ve used Lee Valley pure tung oil on stocks becuase it’s idiot proof. My understanding is tung oil won’t work without sanding off the existing finish. And I don't know if tung oil would prevent moisture marks.

I’ve never used modified tung oil, or Danish oil, maybe those are options over the existing finish? Increasing scratch resistance would be a plus.

Thanks

[yobuck]

Ever consider having a glass top made for it?

[kohler]

Paradigm shift, not until now.

[kohler]

Domestic goddess nixed glass

[Robinhood]

Domestic goddess nixed glass

Awesome! Happy wife happy life.

Great idea though yobuck.

[Bill2905]

How about a low gloss spar urethane? That should be waterproof.

Since you know what situations leave the undesirable marks, you could apply some different finishes on a dark stained board and test each one to see how it responds to moisture.

[kohler]

That has crossed my mind last night as I was looking at options.

[J.Baker]

The marks are caused by the heat of the item(s) you're putting on it. Basically what's happening is that the heat causes the moisture in the wood to rise and it gets trapped by the finish creating the white spot. Over the course of a couple days afterward the moisture reabsorbs into the wood and the mark typically disappears.

Place mat's and coasters are your friend.

[kohler]

That makes sense.