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onthefence I was looking at some kitchen pictures and noticed one in gray stained oak. I was really taken by how unusual it was. Seems it would work great with your couch and rug. I'm assuming the table is oak. Assuming is often a bad idea ;-)

I will say that table ROCKS. Great find!

decoenthusiaste Check rustoleumtransformations.com They have a cabinet product that might work for your table.

cwolpert Thanks very much to both of you! I was leaning towards gray, thinking of one called Granite by Cabot but will check the rustoleum site as well.

Darzy I think once you sand and do a coat of polyurethan the wood it will look great as is. But, if we saw your other furnishings, you will get the best ideas. I'm not diggin' the gray idea on the gray carpet.

Jason Porter The golden tones may be from the stain that was used originally. As Darzy said above, you may want to try just sanding it down and seeing what color the wood is in its most natural state... a satin-finish poly (not gloss) on top of the raw natural wood might give you something that works well for your taste.

onthefence Darzy and jporter make great points about the current stain or discoloration of whatever was used to seal it originally.

I'll add though in terms of stain - if you do decide to try this option you might want to mix a couple colors to get to a shade you like. We did that with an unfinished piece of furniture. It took some experimentation but we ended up with a shade we wanted.

Aja Mazin Take care when sanding.

cwolpert It will be replacing the brown ottoman and aligned in front of the long sofa on the right. I'm thinking of getting a couple of small cube style footstools for in front of the loveseat. Please excuse the clutter!

eztia If the coffee table is oak, you might want to consider a cerused finish. It brings out the wood grain with white, and also leaves some of the natural wood color instead of turning it gray.
Look online for instructions...

cwolpert sounds interesting! I think I will keep sanding and see what the natural colour is. Thanks everyone for the input!

onthefence eztia - that's gorgeous! There are a lot of examples in this ideabook.

Bentley Design Be careful sanding, it looks to me that the table top is veneer, which is typically thin material . You don't want to sand through the veneer

florie26 Where are my saved ideas?

twylahaj No real advice, but great admiration of your fantastic find!

One small piece of refinishing advice: if using a chemical stripper test it on an inconspicuous area first (like the underside). I once stripped a piece that was originally a pale, cool tan with a badly damaged clear finish and the stripper darkened the wood considerably. Still uncertain what kind of wood it is and did use a citrus based stripper, which may have made a difference, but thought I'd give a heads-up. I'd hate to see that gorgeous table get messed up in the process of being improved.

nFORMAL design cwolpert...I would definitely sand to 220. One of our favorite things to use on these types of projects is either General Finishes or Old Masters Gel Stain and Gel Finish. The Gel Finish (gel varnish) is a wonderful DIY finish that gives great results on golden toned wood. It has an amber tone like most varnish or poly, so not "water clear". (We do custom furniture, so we little about this...haha.)

If using General Finishes, I'd use a Colonial Maple or American Oak Gel Stain and then a Satin Gel Varnish.

Aja Mazin Please let me repeat my earlier warning, TAKE CARE WITH SANDING!

If you look at the "edging", it is clearly veneer.

cwolpert Thanks for the sanding advice! I was wondering about that. The table is super solid and weighs a tonne, but the wood grains didn't really make sense for solid pieces of wood.