Decision made. Cut a new top for the old coffee table. It's veneer over particleboard, so next step is buying veneer edging to cover over tbe particle board. Apparently you just iron it on and trim edges (have not tried it before). Then will sand this and Marine Spar Varnish the whole thing. #furniture

Not perfect, but it worked. Smelled like toasting coffee the whole time, lol (heat gun from my coffee toaster). I bought edging which was too thin, so I put two pieces edge to edge, adding another seam for moiature intrusion or heat/moisture warping. Anyway. Will still spar varnish the heck out of this after to hopefully waterproof it. #furniture

Light coat of whatever random stain I have here. Not dark enough, but it reduces the mismatch. Needs 8 hours before spar varnish, will do that tomorrow when it is warm. Hopefully won't gather too much dust.... a little bit of wind out here and way too much dust on the patio for this. Top is not yet secured, will do that before the spar varnishing. Should have done it before the stain... anyway. #furniture

Spar varnish, layer one. Top was affixed with screws earlier. Five more layers recommended, lol. I will see if my attention span lasts that long. The top is part of a free dining table, cut down to size (actually, the leaf). Note that most "solid wood" tables are actually particleboard topped with veneer. #furniture

@paul_ipv6 I actually don't know what "spar" refers to. Part of a boat?