We had an old painted dining room table that I'm refinishing. I stripped the paint off to reveal what I believe is a beautiful Cherry table top. I sanded it, treated it with pre-stain wood conditioner and stained it with an oil-based MinWax stain and the color is beautiful. We love the variation between the heartwood and the lighter sapwood.
The problem I'm having is with the polyurethane finish. My wife didn't want a glossy finish so I bought the Satin poly. Because it's a dining room table that will see a lot of use, I brushed on 3 coats with very light sanding between each coat to eliminate nibs. For the 4th and final coat, I thinned the poly with 1/3 mineral spirits so any bubbles would pop on their own in the final coat (tip I read on-line)?
The problem is that the 4 layers of poly finish are now cloudy. After reading through the forums here, I wish I had used Gloss poly and rubbed it out to a satin finish. I don't know what to do now. Is it so cloudy because I thinned the final coat too much? Should I try another coat of satin poly that isn't thinned? Should I try a couple coats of Gloss Wipe-On poly over this? Or will the Gloss poly coats not matter because the finish underneath is cloudy? Do I need to sand off most of the existing poly and start over?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This is my first furniture refinishing DIY and everything was going so well until the end.