We've been doing this since 2009 and we've posted a whopping 24145+ blog posts and counting. Turns out, it looks great with the right treatment. Probably, but youd likely need a combo of stains and Im not sure what that combo would be. Ultimately, I think Ill need to coordinate a color so that I can leave the inside of the cabinets gold, which suggests black to me. :). I bought silver-toned door hardware for the painting gray side and antique brass for the side I want to stain. Thank you for posting this!
They look blotchy and uneven in some spots, but what bothers me more is the really darker areas and even black. I am definitely sharing this post with my clients. Why would they do that and not stick with white oak??? Browse the CLJ shop. But the Dark Walnut goes with our new wood floors and the vibe of our house better. Any thoughts on how I can approach staining them without making it a thesis project?
Would it be too white going that route? It takes a stain well, is durable, inexpensive, and a good cabinet choice. We are building a house and trying to choose stains for maple cabinets and pine beams and French doors. You could even paint it a contrasting color! Question, do have any idea as to whether the sealer/shellac will change the stain colors at all (i.e. Thank you so much for doing this post. Were a couple of homebodies, working to uncover the home our home wants to be. Is that weird? I wanted to know how well birch took stain. And the second one is General Finishes Oil Base Gel Stain I read about in this article https://woodimprove.com/best-wood-stains/#product1. one i have used cuprinol dries to s shine. In the gas pipe storage solution, the stain is applied to Doug fir. You can see clearly the woods color undertones (yellow, pink, green, neutral, red) but they arent nearly as pronounced. Youre right, there are so many iterations you could do of wood and stains. I wondered why the pine wood looks such a different color in the picture where you have all the pine boards next to each other vs. in the pictures with the Jacobean and Dark Walnut stains? I am sanding a 18C vanity unit that is Chestnut. And though it might look even color toned, I would attribute that more to the editing of the photo. This post saved sooooo much of my time! Is the Minwax conditioner a substitute for water-popping? Excellent resource. Darn! Thank you so much for doing this! Thanks for the inspiration. Thank you for doing this! However, I noticed in your photos showing Dark Walnut and Jacobean, the pine samples for each color look much lighter than the same colors do in the photo of only pine boards with all of the colors. This is absolutely one helluva valuable test and comparison. I prefer Red Oak. Have you found one color stain that makes them similar? Its so hard to decide!! Useful helpful post. Thank you so much for your post, it helped my husband and I out immensely after going back and forth to the hardware store to get samples of stain! Want to do what we do?
You guys did a fantastic job with this. Have a green thumb but nowhere to flex it? This was perfectly timed! Recently, I came across an image of a beautiful room, engulfed in a mural, much like the studybut it was a formal dining room. formId: '5d839cbe8ab47e000f14432c', Birch has pink undertones. The color Early American in general reminds me of the Provincial stain color, although with a little more warmth in it. I wanted a cool brown with gray undertones, but every stain with gray in the title was just straight-up gray. Thanks for this! Thanks!! YOU ARE AWESOME. Ill be saving this as reference for all of my future projects :), Love this, thank you! Very useful to see how various woods behave and really helps in choosing what kind of wood to use! The Jacobean was a one of our choices, Im leaning toward Ebony now with 2 coats. For each of these stains, the wood species are shown exactly as they are above. My red oak banister, spindles, stairs and floors are currently stained Provincial. Dang- wish I had seen/used your wood stain tips!
Ft. of 6/4. Minwax Jacobean. WOULD LOve to see samples of stains on cedar! Thanks for doing this experiment and sharing! My floor guy really doesnt want to change the color of banister and spindles. The floors were sanded and then stained with Minwax Provincial. If nothing else, looking through our list may help you identify what elements of a stain you like and dont like.
Thanks for sharing! You dont need to wipe off the excess, you dont need to apply a second coat. Im a beginner learning how to refinish furniture sanding is therapeutic to me, and I love seeing the potential in the wood under all the old stain/ varnish. I love DIY and furniture painting, but never did staining before. varathane oleum based Yes, this is one coat of stain. This article is SO helpful! This is a really amazing comparison, greats job!! This is one of my favorite posts I have ever read ! In my opinion, of course. Anyway thank you again! Do you have any recommendations? Just wanted to say thank you. Great post idea. And Red Oak should probably stay away from things that add even more red to it (like Pickled Oak and Golden Pecan). Birch did surprisingly well and the oaks were naturals. We recent had a fireplace mantle done in Red Oak and were afraid to stain it. A note on sealing: Please be sure to remember that you should use a lacquer spray to seal the weathered wood (gray) accelerator to avoid messing with the color. Yes! The green that is generally very pronounced in Poplar, turned into more of a warm gray. Ive been struggling with finding the right color for so long now! Please sponsor at least one more post just like this but with other woods and stains. Especially learning about the wood conditioner. And how long did you let the stain sit before wiping it off? Riftsawn and quartersawn oak is gorgeous, but plainsawn needs to go away! Minwax Golden Pecan. Its definitely worth trying!
Love this post. This feels almost black on most of the wood, except for on the red oak where there are definitely more brown tones happening. Minwax recently came out with a Simply White stain and Im in love with it! We literally just finished stripping and sanding down pine stairs that had been painted and coated in sand by the previous owners yesterday. Poor kitchen floors, they deserved to match! What are your thoughts on this? One thing I think that people (including myself!) It doesnt lean warm or cool, its that just right in-between. I do need help though. When working with maple or birch, you usually leave the stain on longer to achieve a darker result. I had never used a pre-stain conditioner and also wanted to see the denefit of doing so. I want a matt black stain with no shine at all.
You could definitely go with black paint instead! Thanks. Get our monthly DIY Digest in your inbox. You can see the stain has a slightly more orangey tone on the white wood than the hemlock and Doug fir. Also agree with comment about poly. Im also learning a lot from the feedback responses. Help! In addition to being beautiful, Ingrid is really durable we have three kids, and we always have a home construction project going on. Cant usually see good stain variations anywhere online. Renovating our #cljmoderncottage in Idaho and headed for new adventures in Raleigh, NC. I have read you can bleach red Oak but dont know how labor-intensive that is I was told my original 1930s floor could not be refinished So picked white oak which I prefer but then a different refinisher said yes they can be refinished. Im currently working on a dining table for our British Colonial interior using Red Oak and was concerned with color matching the existing dark woods. Oh man, where was this post in the summer when I got new floors?! Thanks! It brings out a really right brown color, and you can see the natural undertones of each of the wood species peeking through (yellow on the pines, green on the poplar, and red on the oak). We applied it then wiped it off after about 2 minutes. Im having a pine table made, but I dont love any of those stains. Thank you. Im guessing Minwax sent you one directly since they sponsored this post? I am restoring a significantly damaged Gunn barrister bookcase.in oak.and your comparison has helped me finalize my choice! We have teamed up with Loloi to create a line of rugs that are as affordable as they are beautiful. Its one of their new stains. I love when you really get into DIY builder posts. Originally, the old doors, were all maple and at one point in the 80s, my mom had the door facing the living area painted along with along with a lot of of solid-wood paneling.
I really like this post and would love to see another post just like it, but with different woods and stains. Definitely going to reference this post for future stain projects. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Overwhelmed by DIY?
In the past, if what I stained was too intense, I mixed a little light grey paint with lots of water, brushed it over the stained wood, then wiped it off. This is a great example of the color difference between brands. All of the wood types accepted the stain well, except the non-conditioned Birch side.
Very helpful post!! I dont have any experience with this, but Ive heard rubbing the darker areas with acetone can help even it out. The white on the pine makes my heart race!
I love how classic / timeless it looks butthat white oak with Simply White stain definitely gives me the heart eyes. My one tip to anyone doing their own floors is sand everything evenly we had a couple spots that we didnt sand as consistently and those areas took the stain much darker than the rest of the floor. looking to refinish our hardwood floors. I think my blocks got mixed up on this picture from left to right you have: select pine, poplar, red oak, and then the common pine. Thank you so much for doing this! Thank you on behalf of users all over whove seen this and appreciate that you did a sample of all the stains. Prep- if you sand wood, the grit that you finish at will dramatically change how much stain is absorbed. So, I decided to do an actual experiment to show you how different types of wood react to different stain colors. Im curious of a recipe for red oak to match white oak. Think of all trim and stair parts as furniture.
In the chess set you can see the natural stain on cedar, and with the napkin rings, you can see it on white wood. Incredibly helpful! Really! Perhaps I should apply a double coat of Provincial to the stairs and floors to make it all match? Could you advise on a black paint that would be similar to the Ebony stain? Very helpful post! Most definitely as long as theyre the same type (oil or water base, preferably same brand). In the poplar, I felt like it really drew out some of the green undertones. For other wood projects, check out our bartop finish table, outdoor beverage cart, or DIY outdoor cook station. That was one my absolute favorite! Poplar has green undertones. Have found some beautiful carved corbels on Etsy that I want to use as wall brackets. lighten, darken, turn redder, etc.)? This was incredibly helpful! The aged wood one is my favorite and I can see myself using it often! Just let them sit for 30-60 minutes and youll achieve exactly the effect shown below! !function(d,s,id){var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? I am so glad I found this post and your blog. Thank you so much. Ex: contractors squatting in my back room at night, appliances stolen (we were in a motel for 9 months) problems with pouring concrete flooring, broken pipes under the foundation and last but not least, the City of Houston. On the left half, I used Watcos Lacquer in Matte, and on the top right is the unfinished wood. It was so beautiful and I momentarily thought OUR STUDY COULD BE A FORMAL DINING ROOM.
I tried this on white oak and did not get the look you got but I want to achieve this! My question is this: we ripped up the carpet and it looks like there is red oak underneath and the new wood that was put down in the new part of the house looks like a white oak. Be sure to check out this blog post for lots of tips, and if you still need help drop your question in the comments below! Thanks a lot for all the help! The desktop succulent planter is made from Doug fir, while the pencil holder, dog bed, mini succulent planters, and end table are all made with various white woods (spruce, pine, or fir). Any cherry or red furniture I bleach before doing all the other steps. Get the tools, mentorship, and training to be a Good Influencer professionally. The bed frame and the nightstands are both Doug fir, and the lanterns are hemlock. Still love the solid wood cabinets, still love the arrangement. We refinished and extended our original hardwood floors and there were gross dark stains on the original floors which didnt sand out. Ive never used a pre-conditioner but after a few not so great results, I decided to do so in the future. Love your post! oleum varathane mahogany Whitewood sometimes got blotchy (again, thats likely to do with the quality of the wood), and poplar looked great but its just not my favorite wood to work with so I tend to favor the others more. Here is an interesting link on hardwoods: http://www.hardwoodinfo.com/consumer/rediscovering-hardwoods/types-of-wood/ Article you wrote was interesting and I will assist those reluctant to try staining to maybe give it a try. Would the stain obscure more of the grain if left on more than 2 minutes? It helped me tremendously! Thank you so much Julia, Great post! Tough to know! Awesome post. Next up, lets take a look at the wood accelerators. When it comes to stain, it can be incredibly difficult to visualize and pick out the perfect color. In the process of building a house and the trim color really has me struggling. Really appreciated it you could totally make a series out of it! It got its name from being used on teak ship decks. This was originally a part of my How to Stain Wood Guide, but I wanted to pull out this information into a separate post for those of you who know how to stain wood but want to see how wood stain colors look on various different types of wood. Thank you for conducting this experiment! Was about to get a bunch of milled pine moulding to stain dark walnut, but now Im leaning towards the white oak the stain really brings out the grain in the oak.
And sure enough, thats the color on my bedroom walls today! In fact, it looked almost pinky gray. Some of my cabinet uppers have fluted glass, and the thought of staining everything inside the cabinet, too, has my head spinning! I want to thank you for your testing it was just what I needed.
I have a bit of a dilemma in that I have white oak floors in my newly renovated kitchen and original red Oak from 1930 on the rest of my main floor.
And I didnt realize how much I loved birch and poplar before this! which one you will prefer ? Im not sure how (or if it is even possible) to achieve the color I want. The effect can change not only from stain to stain, but from wood species to wood species and even from one board to another within the same wood species. Im considering using a dark stain, which will work better with the stone counter top color.
I have a red oak floor Id like to redo. I did not edit the lighting or colors in any way. I think the huge variation in poplar might drive me a little crazy, but birch does look awful stunning in those two dark stains. Thanks! Thanks so much for any insight you might have! #cljfam #cljtransformations, https://woodimprove.com/best-wood-stains/#product1, http://www.hardwoodinfo.com/consumer/rediscovering-hardwoods/types-of-wood/, Casual Friday: Pollys Sleeping, Eating and Schedule at 6 Months old, The start of our container garden and All the Best Planters, A Full Guide on Picture Lights + A Round-Up, The New Vanity in the Bathroom! I had such a challenge finding a color that worked with the trim, floor, and lighting in the roomuntil I saw a photo in a paint catalog of a room with a trim color and lighting similar to my bedroom. We chose to experiment with this stain color because of its mid-range tint with red undertones.
I love the Ebony stain on pine. I loved this post so much! At Dunn Lumber, for the Varathane stain products, youll notice that we have stain samples on a couple different wood species to help you get a more accurate visualization. I just want stained, modern looking doors. You said that birch is a very soft wood (extremely) which is incorrect. Thanks for pulling this together! thank you so much for this. Ive been researching for weeks and driving myself nuts with my white oak choice. I dont think it will work as well over stain, since it reacts with the wood itself), but it may help. One application I would call subtlethe other, not so much. Such useful info! Thank you so much! Did you wipe off right away? Would you do the simply white in a house that might be your forever house? Most excellent! With stain, more layers likely wouldnt help because the wood is still supposed to come through. I personally like their water based Polycrylic. Thank you for taking the time to document and share the results ! This has been a go-to stain for me over the years because its a nice neutral brown. Youll see just how necessary it is in a minute, because of course we took our observations one step further and only used conditioner on the bottom half of each piece of wood so you can see the difference it makes. We did provincial stain lightened 50%. That being said, I do love pine in those middle shades.
Im about to work on a project that consists of staining some wood, so would appreciate any tips!
We came to picked Oak after looking into wax-based finishes (Bona, etc.) Any more questions about staining? Is there yellow pine and white pine? Great information! Were in a rental so were stuck with the very dark mahogany cabinets with brushed silver hardware. We took 3 feet of water, in our 1955 mid century home, with Hurricane Harvey last Aug. Ive had one nightmare after the next, ever since. The other three projects (the display case shelf, desktop organizer,andairplane swing) that are stained in Provincial are white wood or SPFa mixture of spruce, pine, and fir. I had to comment because I am standing in front of the stain display at Lowes and I am trying to pick a stain. Summer Oak is a classic, warm, medium stain. My project is to build a side table and coffee table using 1/2 black iron pipe and then picking an edge glued wood for the top of it. This is a wonderful write up. Thanks again. stain varathane oak summer polyurethane classic qt polyshades gloss wood depot case step homedepot The red oak brr nightmares of 1980s cabinets and heart cutout furniture. This is a fabulous post! ), Red Oak (too dark) and Red Chestnut (too red). Bravo! There is not much worse than putting on the wrong stain, especially if you are working with dark ones. Best option is to cut small pieces of what youre going to be using and do some at-home tests to see the impact. Its the best jumping-off point for design, no matter your interior style. I think General Finishes is better because as the author says its great for difficult to stain pine and its easy to apply for the person who has no experiences in staining wood like me. The ever popular and inexpensive Pine has yellow undertones. Thank you!!! Very interesting! My White Oak with Golden Oak Stain is going to look great this weekend :). Did I mention we bought bright orange appliances by the Big Chill pro line? Ft. of 4/4 and 10 Bd. Love my pine floors! That way you can see stain colors not just in sample form, but in a real environment, and it just might help you make the best choice! Any insight on how the gold would affect the stain color? I personally like the look of really light-colored wood, so often, all I want is a coat of a clear finish. totally perfect sponsored post.
Im about to make a few frames with pine and Ill definitely be getting the conditioner now! Your email address will not be published. With that in mind, I decided that to help you all out, I would put together a collection of photos from the projects weve made over the years in different settings, with different stains, and using different wood species. Cabot makes a good one, and you can get it from Lowes. When designing a project to put in your homeor refinishing a piece of furnitureit can be incredibly difficult to visualize and pick out the perfect stain color. Since I poured concrete flooring (this is our second flood) and it is gray and my walls are repose gray, the bedrooms, where most of the doors are, I feel need a wood stain to give the rooms warmth. You can also layer stain colors, so you can always play around with a darker color on top of what you have! Best practice would be to get a piece of walnut and do some tests. This is so helpful as were trying to pick a stain color for a piece of furniture. Our home is a traditional colonial with all white oak floors except the previous homeowners remodeled the kitchen and dining room and put in red oak! Same color, different brand. I just wished you used cedar wood for this experiment (thats what Im using on my next project ;p), My only gripe is that I have been trying to find the Minwax Simply White stain, but its nowhere to be found both in stores or online. Or a sort of gray stain that would really cut the yellow could work! Teak oil is generally an exterior wood finish that both oils the wood and creates a protective barrier at the same time. As beautiful as they are, wish we had stuck with oak due to the hardness factor. Thank you We recently moved to Texas and I need to darken my oak furniture. Yours Truly, A very satisfied and intrigued reader :). This is so useful!!! Using wood conditioner prior to staining a cheaper wood like pine can make a really, really big difference! I have an old 90s red oak dining table and Id like to go for the PotteryBarn Seadrift color. There are 2 options of stains I found for me but I cant decide which one would be the best.