Giving an existing furniture a new look, be it stain or paint is one of my go to ways to refresh a space within budget. It also gives a custom look and adds personality. Recently I did a dining table. Jump right to the steps.
Here are my five of the most essential steps to keep in mind when staining a piece of furniture. These are mainly beginner friendly and you can skip the fancy power tools.
1.Sanding
Sanding is one of the first steps that you’d never want to miss. The better the sanding the better will be the end result. Start off with a rough grit like 80 and go up to a finer grit like 320 for a smooth finish. When sanding be between coats of stain, use 400 grit. If you’re a beginner and not comfortable with power tools, you can do it by hand although it will take a bit of elbow grease.
Though for a smoother and professional finish, I prefer a Random Orbital Sander.
2.Condition
If you’re working on untreated wood, a wood conditioner is a must after sanding especially if working with soft woods like pine or any wood those are porous. The reason being, porous woods tend to absorb the stain too much giving a blotchy look and unpredictable stain color. Woods can have different density at different places causing irregular color. Wood conditioner prevents this from happening.
3.Check your stain
Talking from my previous experiences, it is always a good practice to test your stain on that particular piece you’re working on before starting. Because same stain can give different results on different woods.
4.Stain with the grain
This might sound a small thing but it is really important to always apply stain in the direction of the wood grain. Not doing so will result in blotchy finish.
5.Water based top coat over oil based stain
It is an absolutely necessary step to apply a top coat to stained wood unless your stain already has a sealant or topcoat in it. The topcoat will protect your furniture piece from daily use.
There are generally two types of top coats available, oil based and water based polyurethane, the former is used over oil based stain the latter is used over water based stain. But the thing with oil based topcoat, it has a tendency to yellowing over time, may not be in the next day or month but eventually it will whereas water based topcoats do not. To avoid it this is what I do. When I use an oil based stain, I wait for a good 72 hours or even a week to let the stain cure completely, then I apply a water based top coat over it. For me it has worked every time.
Now let’s go through how I transformed this dining table from drab to fab…
I bought this solid acacia wood dining table sometime back. It was the perfect size for my family and was within my budget. I liked it very much except the finish which was an easy fix and that was the reason it did not stop me from buying it. I admit it took me a while longer than I anticipated between projects and major moves but at last I did it and I could not be more happier.
I started with stripping the existing finish with a striping gel. There are many in the market but I used this one Citristrip – Safer Paint and Varnish Stripping Gel Non-NMP (relatively low odor). It is advisable do this in a well ventilated area and never forget safety gears like gloves, masks and eye protection. Once I stripped all the finish, I wiped the surface with odorless mineral spirit.
Next step was sanding. I waited till the surface was completely dry then started my sanding with a 80 grit sandpaper on my random orbital sander. I gradually went to a finer grit sandpaper up to 320. Once all the sanding was done I wiped the table well with a damp rug to remove all the sanding dust. While sanding it is essential to wear a mask and if possible connect a vacuum cleaner to your sander.
Now comes the staining part.. I started staining my table but was not happy with the result as the reddish tone of the wood was still showing through.so I sanded off the stain fully and then applied a light white wash, yes you heard it right.. generally white wash or pickling is applied at the last but I did not want that white washed look so I did this to get rid of the red tone of the wood and have a neutral base for my stain.
The stain I used was Behr Water based Stain and Poly in Mission Oak color. I applied the stain with a fine brush as per the instruction. The color looked right but I was not happy with the result as it had brush marks. so I sanded it down and applied the next coat by hand with a blue shop towel, it was better but still not perfect. then I sanded it again lightly and this time I used a foam roller and it worked just perfect. total i did 3 coats and always sanded in between.
though it has a poly in it i used a water based top coat for extra protection since its going to be heavily used.