It would be almost impossible to make it blond it has way too much red in the wood. My suggestion would be to get new chairs like the ghost it will automatically bring into the 21 st. century

You can of course have a furniture repair business add material and refinish. Or you can add a center accent piece of tile, or wood inlay. If you're going from a narrow rectangle to a square, you would need to disassemble the table anyway, might as well do something fun with it.

Wax is good on a dining table as easy to apply a bit more in the event of cup rings etc.

Looks good! Never seen distressed wood before.