Its definitely worth trying! I wanted to point out 2 other variables though that would affect color, just in case someone with different results might be wondering why: 1. This has to be one of my favorite stains, and no wonder. Next up, lets take a look at the wood accelerators.

Please sponsor at least one more post just like this but with other woods and stains. I found that anything with even a slightly blue-ish undertone (some of the whitewashes and grays have) turned our floors lavender! But I brought it inside for a bathroom series, using it on a bath mat, shower caddy, storage tower, and bath tray. Minwax Golden Oak. It wont make a huge difference on something like oak, but when youre working with pine it can mean the difference between an uneven finish and a really smooth one. This is excellent! And I thought the pickled looked good on red oak you didnt?! You can see the stain has a slightly more orangey tone on the white wood than the hemlock and Doug fir. This darkened the boards up just a bit, and left plenty of the yellow tones in the two pine varieties. Looks like it could pass for walnut at a glance, especially with the unconditioned side looking like wood grain. thank you so much for this. It was extremely helpful. Useful helpful post. Sad face. Birch rocked Simply White and Golden Oak. When I planned to use this stain again, I was expecting a similar result, but applying it to a buffet table made from spruce and various other white woods resulted in a very intense, golden-orange color. And though it might look even color toned, I would attribute that more to the editing of the photo. What you see above are the different types of wood I used for my experiment, from left to right (also, cheapest to most expensive) you have: And now, here are the stain colors I am testing: Obviously I cant test every color out there (even though I so wanted to! THANK YOU. Im having a pine table made, but I dont love any of those stains. So interesting to see the stains all lined up. formId: '5d839cbe8ab47e000f14432c', This really helped me determine the piece I am working on is red oak! Thanks for this! What about bleaching the red oak first then applying the simply white stain? This post saved sooooo much of my time! I have some white oak chairs I bought half finished from an antiques place and stained dark walnut they came out like a dream. Thanks for putting in the work to share. Where with pine (except heart pine), its softness accepts stain quickly and often unevenly, which is why conditioner is so important to use before staining many softwoods. I bought silver-toned door hardware for the painting gray side and antique brass for the side I want to stain. I am thinking I will use a golden oak stain and if its not perfect I may add a coat of white over it. Also, which wood would be most like maple? :D I hated every single stain on both oaks! Right now the jury is out regarding the pricing. First of all, its so fascinating to me how every single stain color will look pretty drastically different on different species of wood. You know what would make this complete? Its the best jumping-off point for design, no matter your interior style. Great post. Wood conditioner is certainly key (learned that the hard way). However, it does seem that the difference in color is more noticeable with lighter stain once you get into the darker colors, they seem much more similar. So Dark Walnut it probably is and Ill save the white/light colored floors for my next house! 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. In my opinion, of course. Recently, I came across an image of a beautiful room, engulfed in a mural, much like the studybut it was a formal dining room. My best guess is about $30 less coming out of my pocket which will cover door hinges, door pulls and the shelf pins.. This was very helpful and appreciative. When it comes to stain, it can be incredibly difficult to visualize and pick out the perfect color. this post has disappeared. Love this post!! Doing an oil based poly over them vs a water based. But I hope this is helpful. We are in the middle of updating our 1940s fixer upper and last month we stained our upstairs, red oak floors Jacobean and I LOVE them. That being said, I do love pine in those middle shades. It can be applied over any wood but is especially necessary when working with soft or porous woods like pine, alder, birch, and maple. I love this! Extremely helpful!! And how long did you let the stain sit before wiping it off? The floors were sanded and then stained with Minwax Provincial. I think the huge variation in poplar might drive me a little crazy, but birch does look awful stunning in those two dark stains. With stain, more layers likely wouldnt help because the wood is still supposed to come through. I loved pine with the lights and darks, but not the medium stains. Is that weird? 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! I assumed it was the quality of wood. I really liked the way pine took pretty much every single stain, and of these four I actually think it was the most consistent and true to the color I expected. And I bet youll never guess Red Oaks undertones. Youll also notice that whitewood (the one on the left and the cheapest wood) occasionally gets a somewhat splotchy finish. Ive been researching for weeks and driving myself nuts with my white oak choice. I am restoring a significantly damaged Gunn barrister bookcase.in oak.and your comparison has helped me finalize my choice! Its one I reach for all the time for really great coverage and a beautiful, rich tone. I just sent them an example photo of something I like, but didnt specify a stain. Help! Its not too dark or too light, too warm or too cool. This was very helpful in moving forward with our birch project! In the process of building a house and the trim color really has me struggling. On the left half, I used Watcos Lacquer in Matte, and on the top right is the unfinished wood. And of course it is orange once again. 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. I was surprised how much I liked the poplar in the white stain, I would never have thought to try that, but it really calms down the purples and greens that poplar has, without making it look dull and boring. The shoe storage bench and the umbrella holder are both made with white woods, and the vertical shoe rack uses a combination of cedar and poplar. Is there anything that can lighten the darker/black areas before the polyurethane is put on top? Sent it to my boyfriend Im the researcher in this love. Brand- Minwax stains actually have less pigment in them compared to others like Mohawk, etc. 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. Excellent resource. By mixing equal parts Minwax Early American and Classic Gray, I came up with my very own personal stain. I really like this post and would love to see another post just like it, but with different woods and stains. Minwax Dark Walnut. :). Dilute ? Cabot makes a good one, and you can get it from Lowes. I have debating about what the difference a primer or conditioner will make, this was a big help! Let's do it together! From your testing I realized I can use the red oak since my stain although not as dark as the jacobean will make seeing the difference in white vs. Red oak undetectable. 6. But if its red oak, you could purchase a red oak board from Lowes and do a bunch of tests on your own to get the color right. Any more questions about staining? We literally just finished stripping and sanding down pine stairs that had been painted and coated in sand by the previous owners yesterday. Very interesting! I wish i had seen it BEFORE I applied a stain to a old pine ktichen table. Ill be 75 in January and am in the process of making my last big project a daybed that will eventually be used as my casket. Dont forget to thoroughly sand. Joining our weekly newsletter gives you access to exclusive content, never-before-seen photos, your questions answered, and our favorite DIYs. All of the wood types accepted the stain well, except the non-conditioned Birch side. Bottom line if youre using the weathered wood (gray) accelerator, make sure to choose a lacquer spray over a poly. Minwax Golden Pecan. Still love the solid wood cabinets, still love the arrangement. Varathanes Golden Oak is a warmer version of Varthanes Early American. yes! }); Im trying to get a greige color using knotty Alder. This means that it works with a lot and doesnt stand out too muchwhich makes it a good choice for something like this mini garden trellis. 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 wanted to know how well birch took stain. Did you sand the woods before staining them? How many coats of stain did you put on the wood samples shown in the photos? Did you use a wood conditioner prior to using the wood accelerator? A few key tips you can walk away from this post with? Poor kitchen floors, they deserved to match! Ooh, I could see that! You can see that the Minwax Dark Walnut color is more intense than the Varathane version. Also keep in mind it will look different when it dries, so go easy. I wanted a cool brown with gray undertones, but every stain with gray in the title was just straight-up gray. Definitely going to reference this post for future stain projects. 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. I love the simply white but dont want it to turn pink as it ages! I love wood refinishing, hope maybe someone finds this useful :). We hope this guide helps you pick the right stain (or none at all) for your next project! Plus, a Bathroom Vanity Round-Up, Inspiration For The Upstairs Laundry Room, Spotting Our Loloi Rugs in the Wild: Part 2, Deciding On a Paint Color For the Wainscoting in the Study. We used Jacobean everywhere after testing a small area and it hid the old spots, and the old and new floors matched! Your stain study was most helpful. Ended up going with red oak and golden oak stain and the color is exactly as seen in person. Some refinished do not sand super smooth (finishing below 220) for this reason, and instead use top coats to gain smoothness. Our wood grain Shaker cabinet fronts were designed for busy, high-traffic homes like ours. This is a really awesome post, thank you so much! We have been using Pickled Oak on a ton of projects lately. I really like the Jacobean, yet what light stain would you suggest as contrast? I would like the old world type of look to the finish. My only complaint is that you DID NOT WATERMARK YOUR PHOTOS!! Thankyou for doing this! Have found some beautiful carved corbels on Etsy that I want to use as wall brackets. Have you found one color stain that makes them similar? Love this post. Birch is similarly light in color, but with a cooler undertone. This was such a great post! We are in the process of refinishing old pine floors. formId: '5d839e061f3845000f2e624c', We've been doing this since 2009 and we've posted a whopping 24145+ blog posts and counting. Varathane Espresso is one of the darkest stain options and therefore shows up pretty similarly on various types of wood. Thank you so much for doing this! Thanks so much for your help and for this wonderful post! Its far safer to do a light coat, let it dry, check itand add another if needed, than to over do it and have to fix it or start over.

This is so useful!!! Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for your help, creativity, time and amazing design inspiration. It's the perfect, practical way to add the warmth of wood to all the rooms of your home. If your floor is going to look blotchy, damaged, or like a wild animal skin, better to not even refinish. simply the best thing Ive seen on how various stains work on various woods Thank you for doing this. I made it custom for myself! Teak oil is very similar to a natural oil stain because it colors the wood ever so slightly, brings out the golden tones, and doesnt change the color much beyond that. Im looking for a medium toned, neutral-ish stain (I guess). Hi Maria! SO SO SO SOOOO helpful!!! (Hint: Red). This is a wonderful write up. For the Homebody in everybody, ProperTee is our line of cozy/cool apparel, branded with odes to staying in and celebrating the indoors. Thanks a lot for all the help! Get more details on these and how they work on this post right here! Your email address will not be published. Thank you! In the red oak, it made the board look very pink! I'm Amanda, and I live in the suburbs of Austin, Texas with my husband and two sons. And were so happy to have you here. Im nervous I wont like how it turns out. Thank you! This is so helpful as were trying to pick a stain color for a piece of furniture. Oh no! Great post! This is a great post and helped me decide which stain to use on the twin bed my husband is making for our son! My White Oak with Golden Oak Stain is going to look great this weekend :). Any help would be appreciated. They look too orangey for my liking which I find happens frequently with stains and now wonder if I can go over them in a neutral darker stain but it will be a major mess, time commitment and height bravery (as they are on high parts of our house).

THANK YOU!!!! Could you please help me choose the right one? Im afraid we wouldnt be able to tell you which to choose far too many factors involved and were not there to see any of them in person. Over time, clear stained maple goes from an almost birch white to a really deep yellow gold. We have been trying to pick a miniwax stain for birch cabinets going into our basement. Turns out, it looks great with the right treatment. Ingrid stands up to it all. 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. Thanks for this post. Weve done a lot of projects, and theyre all here. Love my pine floors!

I will definitely refer back to this in the future. Hopefully Ill be able to decide if this is something I want to tackle. Tough to know! Its a little smelly. Did you wipe off right away? Ive been trying to match the legs, mixing shades and testing them, but your study really simplified it beautifully. I personally like the look of really light-colored wood, so often, all I want is a coat of a clear finish. The pine to me looked very different from my own experience.

Definitely referencing this any time we have a staining project. At first I was planning on pine because its cheaperjust not sure which stain to usethen I thought I would spend a little more and get red oaknow I have come here and Im not sure if I want poplar, white oak, or red oak. Guys this is SUPER helpful! Really! #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! Looking for our favorite things? Same. This is a very interesting stain that has resulted in two vastly different end products. Any thoughts or stains you might suggest would be so grately appreciated. Thanks for doing this, it really is beneficial! In the picture with only pine boards, they look a lot darker and much less gray. The Jacobean was a one of our choices, Im leaning toward Ebony now with 2 coats. Im curious of a recipe for red oak to match white oak. :D Thanks for the comparison so useful!! often struggle to really understand is that stain is going to show up very differently on different types of wood. That was one my absolute favorite! We finally had our floors refinished last summer to try to get them a similar color. Thanks for that. I tried this on white oak and did not get the look you got but I want to achieve this! It really is gorgeous! lighten, darken, turn redder, etc.)? containerEl: document.querySelector('#fd-form-5d839cbe8ab47e000f14432c') We put pine floors in last year and I stained them with a colour called Special Walnut from minwax. They look blotchy and uneven in some spots, but what bothers me more is the really darker areas and even black. And I didnt realize how much I loved birch and poplar before this! Great post idea. It should! Its also great for those of us who are comfortable with staining but just want a really easy finish! I guess Ill have to look up prices of birch next time I want to forego paint on my project. My only wood refinishing project has been a large table and even though it took a lot of elbow grease, was so satisfying and beautiful in the end and much better than just slapping white paint on it. Help me with your special undertone eyes! Ive personally used the weathered wood one for this project, and I used the aged wood one on this DIY raised garden bed. My red oak banister, spindles, stairs and floors are currently stained Provincial. The blanket ladder is built with white wood (spruce, pine, or fir), and the bath/breakfast tray is made from hemlock. Thank you, thank you, thank you! thanks. You can get a matte finish polycrylic and that often causes the least amount of change. The color Early American in general reminds me of the Provincial stain color, although with a little more warmth in it. Last, is the redder of the two dark stains we experimented with. 5. Im not sure how (or if it is even possible) to achieve the color I want. Yes, the harder (denser) the wood, like yellow or white birch or maple, oak, the more difficult it is to accept stains where you want darker results. This makes me want to get some wood and stain it for a piece in my house. For other wood projects, check out our bartop finish table, outdoor beverage cart, or DIY outdoor cook station. I prefer Red Oak. Yes! Want to do what we do? I built a queen sized farmhouse bed a YEAR ago this month and I have yet to gain the courage to actually stain and finish it, fearing Ill hate it after I screw it up with an ugly stain color or horrible application of it. Its a truly horrible color thats hard to work with. All I can say is that you deserve a Nobel Prize for providing the in-depth analysis and commentary on the various woods and stain options. Its important to know what undertones your wood has, because those will often become even more noticeable when you add stain. Probably because we are getting ready to choose a stain for floors in the house we have been renovating.

This is a really amazing comparison, greats job!! LOL. Youll notice with this stain that the effect on different wood species is less pronounced than the previous stain. One thing I think that people (including myself!) 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). The desire to make a custom stain came from trying to match the stain from a store-bought piece of furniture. nightstands Id like to refinish to make more at home after this post Im seriously considering stain instead of paint. Using wood conditioner prior to staining a cheaper wood like pine can make a really, really big difference! Were putting down pine floors in our new house and I have probably eight cans of stain sitting a few feet away from me for testing haha! Im not a fan of grey but Im thinking if I sand off the varathene, would weathered oak tone down the orange????? I must have read that wrong somewhere. Im also learning a lot from the feedback responses. Thats why today, Im sharing a guide I put together that showcases photos from the projects weve made over the years in different settings, with different stains, and using different wood species. Im going to give it a try. In the following three projects (the closet office, the midcentury planter, and the firewood holder), the stain is applied to an assortment of white woods, and you can see that tendency for the stain to appear a little orangier. But then there is the world of bleaching! Yours Truly, A very satisfied and intrigued reader :). Ill use your post to give her some examples. We have aged red oak floors that are very orangey and when we reach the point of refinishing Im trying to decide if I want to stain it with something to neautralize the red just a little or go light. Think of all trim and stair parts as furniture. Naturals in a very red way. You dont need to wipe off the excess, you dont need to apply a second coat. How many coats of stain did you do on the samples? I am literally holding off on my cedar plank wall project until I can find a freaking can of it somewhere in the universe lol. My first go around I noticed an embarrassing amount of blotching from the stain. This was incredibly helpful. I found one of the photos through a google search but a whole S load of spam sites had the photo. Any suggestions. Hi! Which stain on which wood do you think is closest to West Elms pecan, like the pecan legs of their Drake sofa? Sometimes mixing stain colors can help, but I dont know what the right formula would be off the top of my head. They often do. Going to bookmark it or future reference. Not only does the hardness effect how a wood will accept stain (harder woods tend to accept stains better and more evenly) but also the natural color of the wood. Maybe it was lighting. 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. Im leaning towards a dark stain with no red, to contrast with the white oak floor. window.fd('form', { Theyre not bad and look nice but not my color of choice. You should really check out Invisble by Loba. Dunn Lumber and its partners cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information, materials, or advice on dunndiy.com. I do need help though. Thank you for conducting this experiment! Thank you so much for this article. This effort is sooo great! As a reminder, these are just brushed on with a foam brush and then left alone. Need your advice. Your post was the clincher. Thank you for this helpful post and for answering this question! And I LOVE that white stain someone mentioned they cant find it hope that isnt an issue. Im about to make a few frames with pine and Ill definitely be getting the conditioner now! This just confirms my hatred for oak. Im going to need approximately 20 Bd. VERY instructive and helpful. White scares me with upkeep/kids but afraid stain wont go with design Im going for. This post could not have been better timed for us! it feels almost blue-ish purple with the common pine, and it leans pretty green with the poplar! Hi, I have sanded an old pine dresser that was coated years ago in an orangy shellac.

You could definitely go with black paint instead! Any cherry or red furniture I bleach before doing all the other steps. I appreciate your work doing this, but now Im more confused! I am so glad I found this post and your blog. Poplar looked a little bit like watermelon. This is a really cool post. 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. The last time I did research for a staining project I couldnt find this info, glad I looked again and found yours, you did the testing so we dont have to. Thanks, all! In fact, it looked almost pinky gray. 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. 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. Im going to try the simply white on white oak. Im guessing theres no poly on top of any of these? Just let them sit for 30-60 minutes and youll achieve exactly the effect shown below! 2. Why would they do that and not stick with white oak??? Were in the process of refinishing our red oak floors and have searched what feels like the entirety of the internet for a post like this!

I would like to figure out a way to make them look the same but really dont like the pink red undertone . I think the red oak accepted this one so beautifully, and I really like the unique feel of the color that the select pine produced as well. Thank you for doing such a great post! They look incredible. Both of the oak species took on a sort of Cerused look Im very into. I learned a lot from this, and it helped me narrow down my options for a teak cabinet Im redoing. Yes, this is one coat of stain. No wonder white oak is the HG of wood flooring. I have made two wooden pieces for self use, and I had no clue how much FUN staining could be! Do more!! These dont have poly on them. Not staining is also an option (one I opt for quite a bit). looking to refinish our hardwood floors.

It got its name from being used on teak ship decks. Another way for us to stay in touch! 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. Also agree with comment about poly. . Youd think MinWax would have this on their website. Thank you for posting this! YOU ARE AWESOME. more expensive) and there was some improvement. Do you have any recommendations? I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Available in 70 kid-friendly, pet-friendly fabrics, this line was created with families in mind. Second time, I purchased wood that was a bit higher quality (a.k.a. I may do something with some blue glaze to help neutralize the yellow but well see. Minwax makes a a few really great topcoats. Loved seeing all the side by side comparisons. This has been a go-to stain for me over the years because its a nice neutral brown. Thank for doing this! This collection houses a great mix of traditional and modern rugs, in cottage-y colorways, as well as vintage-inspired beauties that youll want to roll out in every room. From left to right, youll see: common pine, select pine, poplar, and red oak. Thank you We recently moved to Texas and I need to darken my oak furniture. I have been doing wood finishing for over 20 years and I cant tell you how hard it is to get a client to appreciate how different stains look on different types of wood. Hi Julia & Chris. We partnered with Stuga on a line of hardwood floors The Ingrid is really livable, and the color is very neutral. Love your post! Interesting! How many coats did you apply and how long did you leave each coat on for? What can be mixed with #2716 Dk Walnut penetrating stain, to bring out a touch of red. It turned out a very neutral, medium brown colour. I have an old 90s red oak dining table and Id like to go for the PotteryBarn Seadrift color. We refinished and extended our original hardwood floors and there were gross dark stains on the original floors which didnt sand out. Im open to suggestions on which of the ones here to use or if you have something else I should look at (different color stain), let me know! Of course you didnt do the two stains Ive been wondering about (Provincial and Driftwood) but still ;-) Guess I will have to do my own small test for the stained shelves Im installing in our wall nook. I think some people just dont care about that sort of thing! I love seeing all these options! I am limited on cabinet space so I am doing diy open shelves in our kitchen and I just knew your blog was the place to go for tips on mixing wood tones! The unconditioned Birch side, again, struggled with accepting the stain, but you can also see the conditioned side of each board is slightly darker. Get the tools, mentorship, and training to be a Good Influencer professionally.

Would you recommend a black paint color in a matte finish instead? In the poplar, I felt like it really drew out some of the green undertones. We tested a few for ourselves but this is helping me to find some direction in what to try next. And it makesa great gift! totally perfect sponsored post. In addition to being beautiful, Ingrid is really durable we have three kids, and we always have a home construction project going on. Thoughts? It does little more than speed up the natural yellowing process of lighter woods, with that coat of oil that always gives wood a more golden appearance. So thorough. Question, do have any idea as to whether the sealer/shellac will change the stain colors at all (i.e.

Especially learning about the wood conditioner. Teak oil is generally an exterior wood finish that both oils the wood and creates a protective barrier at the same time.

Similar quality, but less prone to the orangey tones because it has more of a yellow undertone that works with the yellow undertones of white wood. :). Know your undertones! White Oak has the most neutral undertones. I love when you really get into DIY builder posts. As beautiful as they are, wish we had stuck with oak due to the hardness factor. Im curious if you sanded the samples, that also makes a big difference especially with pine Im surprised by some of your results on the pine, I use pine with minwax everyday to build furniture and I get very different results.

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