STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Wow, that's an impressive stripping project !  You definitely have your work cut out for you with all those spindles.  I'd suggest disassembling everything (numbering it along the way) while you stain, being careful not to get lots of stain or polyurethane on the pegs/holes that connect the pieces.

It doesn't look like a kind of wood that's going to have alot of graining in it, so you might not get too different of an effect painting vs. stripping & staining.  If you wanted to paint the legs and stuff ebony or expresso, all you'd have to do is sand lightly first, and maybe apply a primer coat.  If you still want to stain, you can definitely achieve a very dark color.  Home Depot/Lowes has a huge selection of colors - do a test or two on an out of the way swatch of the wood first, and you can always apply a second coat if it's not dark enough for you the first time around .  Don't forget to get a good poly to coat over your stain, and sand/wipe down between each coat of the poly!

-- Edited by Elle at 10:39, 2007-04-05

If you're just painting, there's really no reason to strip the previous finish completely off unless it's in terrible condition.  You just sand to rough it up a bit and improve adhesion, wipe it down with a tack cloth to remove the dust, prime it (they make tintable primers for dark top coats), and give it a couple coats of paint.  I'd probably get a nice durable poly to go over the paint too since the finish will be handled/wiped frequently.

I was thinking you'd planned to just refinish the white parts, but now when I reread it sounds like you want the entire thing in all one (darker) finish, is that right?  If that's the case, you would see a difference in paint vs. stain on the table top, bench top, and chair seats.  A darker stain on those areas would still show tonal variation in the wood, whereas paint would be opaque.  Again, if you want to stain any part of it, the current finish has to come off in it's entirety (with stripper and sandpaper).