we love it too. I have made two wooden pieces for self use, and I had no clue how much FUN staining could be! Thank you so much for doing this! Youâre 2 best options are to go as dark as possible (e.g. We looked at the above samples in every lighting possible: sunlight, lights on, lights off, in the dark and even three different kinds of light bulbs. But with limited resources (not to mention space), we settled on 5 popular species of wood commonly used by DIYers, with 6 different stains; 2 light, 2 medium and 2 dark. Yours Truly, A very satisfied and intrigued reader :). Never saw this before. This stain added very little color to any of the boards, (maybe slightly lighter with a tinge of green), but really brought out their natural color and grain. I’m having pine wood and can’t decide to have it painted white or go with a stain. Call us crazy, but the stain will be going throughout the house (see floor plan here), so we want to make sure it’s absolutely perfect. Duraseal Quick Coat stain is a quick dry 2-hour formula that ensures your flooring project keeps moving along. I have a red oak floor I’d like to redo. Maybe it was lighting. Description. We are about to have ours stained – tomorrow! I’m not a fan of grey but I’m thinking if I sand off the varathene, would weathered oak tone down the orange????? I found that anything with even a slightly blue-ish undertone (some of the whitewashes and grays have) turned our floors lavender! My mistake! Thanks in advance for any help with this. None of the charts here state what kind of wood is being tested. Thank you for taking the time to document and share the results ! :D Thanks for the comparison – so useful!! At the moment I am working on an old student desk made of white oak that I would like to stain in contrasting dark and light shades. Thanks for the inspiration. Dark Walnut Stain, Quart Container. Stain Gallery. I have some white oak chairs I bought half finished from an antiques place and stained dark walnut… they came out like a dream. which one you will prefer ? Poplar has green undertones. Finding the Perfect Lamp for the Living Room and FINALLY Tackling the Honey Oak Game Cupboard at the Bottom of the Stairs. I don’t have the same wood as the doors, to do samples on, but I’ve used the conditioner and sampled Red Mahagony (way too purple and dark), Dark Walnut (too dark), Special Walnut (a contender), Gunstock (way too orange), English Chesnut (not too bad), Cherry (very light) Honey (very dark!? We used Jacobean everywhere after testing a small area and it hid the old spots, and the old and new floors matched! Natural wood tones vary, so expect your final stain color to vary slightly from board to board. Thankyou for doing this! 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. 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. Thanks! Really appreciated it – you could totally make a series out of it! Poplar looked a little bit like watermelon. Let’s start with Jacobean. if you happen to know ? The Douglas fir has a orange tent I need to tone down. Also was a polyurethane topcoat added which would yellow the stain some? Welcome to our virtual home, 7th House on the Left, which is about our actual home here in Hanover, Virginia. I’m about to work on a project that consists of staining some wood, so would appreciate any tips! 123/223 Coffee Brown. 2. Our flooring store offers every color in gallons and in quarts. I think some people just don’t care about that sort of thing! I may do something with some blue glaze to help neutralize the yellow but we’ll see. Riftsawn and quartersawn oak is gorgeous, but plainsawn needs to go away! 124 Special Walnut. Gorgeous! Do you have tips for re-staining newly nailed western red cedar shingles? Thanks for sharing. 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. I also tried with and without conditioner, which didn’t seem to make much difference with the darker samples. Thanks for pulling this together! Second time, I purchased wood that was a bit higher quality (a.k.a. So helpful with all of the images and great descriptions! The pine to me looked very different from my own experience. (Hint: Red). Guess I’ll have to ask the girlfriend what her preference is and I’ll build it to her specs. They will never match but they are closer than before. I’ve been seeking for good stain for my bedroom pine furniture. At first I was planning on pine because it’s cheaper…just not sure which stain to use…then I thought I would spend a little more and get red oak…now I have come here and I’m not sure if I want poplar, white oak, or red oak. Sunny. which is not what I want.please help. Yeah, it all depends on who you ask. I’m guessing Minwax sent you one directly since they sponsored this post? I appreciate any thoughts on this. Looks like it could pass for walnut at a glance, especially with the unconditioned side looking like wood grain. I am getting ready to refinish a dresser and the Simply White is the look I’m going for. White scares me with upkeep/kids but afraid stain won’t go with design I’m going for. Which stain on which wood do you think is closest to West Elm’s pecan, like the pecan legs of their Drake sofa? <3, Thank you SO much for this post!! This post was super interesting! It should! Darn! The wood types we chose also are vastly different, ranging from extremely soft (birch) to hard (red oak) with undertones all over the map. 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. This is the type of post I love since I learn from it and wouldn’t want to put the $ into it myself. Within seconds of being handed the sample deck, I said, “Yep, this is it!” We had our reservations about it being too dark, but we wanted to see it on the floor just in case. Thank you for sharing! Thank you for follow us! We’re 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 really want to stain some birch wood in a medium reddish stain now, for a MCM inspired TV cabinet. My White Oak with Golden Oak Stain is going to look great this weekend :). "Thanks for following along as we uncover our home's potential. Thanks so much for your help and for this wonderful post! Thank you for taking the time to do it. Nov 30, 2014 - Red Oak with Jacobean Stain THIS IS THE ONE! Most excellent! Kind Regards, Susan This is the BEST ever and so thorough! This was the best article on staining I have ever seen. We ruled this one out without reservation. Its unique formulation provides a surface that can be topcoated in two hours. We want something with no red in it and is pretty dark but not as dark as ebony. Especially learning about the wood conditioner. $24.29. )…maybe minwax will give you another opportunity! The pine turned more gray than anything. I personally prefer medium colors so I actually really like the medium stains best on the pine (although that birch is beautiful and I wish I was doing that haha). What are your thoughts on this? Still love the solid wood cabinets, still love the arrangement. I have red oak floor that we are considering staining to become a medium brown like yours! Every wood species benefitted greatly from the conditioner with this stain. Colors are shown on White Oak. Really nice job on this! I’m about to make a few frames with pine and I’ll definitely be getting the conditioner now! The photos are so nice. Minwax is my go to stain. So I remembered your post and whipped it up.. thank you. I’ll use your post to give her some examples. Thanks! 6. I love seeing all these options! DuraSeal ® Quick Coat Penetrating Finish is a semi-transparent stain formulated to seal, color and provide exceptional durability when used on bare wood and masonry surfaces. Wood conditioner is certainly key (learned that the hard way). Why would they do that and not stick with white oak??? I’m also learning a lot from the feedback responses. Is the Minwax conditioner a substitute for water-popping? Ended up going with red oak and golden oak stain and the color is exactly as seen in person. Appreciate your help :). if you have other ideas let me know. It’s so hard to decide!! I am thinking I will use a golden oak stain and if it’s not perfect I may add a coat of white over it. Lastly, we thought it would be beneficial to see all the same wood type with different stains in one picture. Last, is the redder of the two dark stains we experimented with. Just wanted to say thank you. We are so proud about this work. I am restoring a significantly damaged Gunn barrister bookcase….in oak….and your comparison has helped me finalize my choice! hi, this thread was from five years ago. Minwax Jacobean. I love how classic / timeless it looks but…that white oak with Simply White stain definitely gives me the heart eyes. Thank you for your help, creativity, time and amazing design inspiration. Do you think Provincial banister and spindles will look right with Dark Walnut stairs and floors? Any idea how many coats of stain/poly you used? I think ‘General Finishes’ is better because as the author says it’s great for difficult to stain pine and it’s easy to apply for the person who has no experiences in staining wood like me. Any thoughts or stains you might suggest would be so grately appreciated. Oh and I’m spraying the shelf bracket flat black. I bought silver-toned door hardware for the painting gray side and antique brass for the side I want to stain. Thank you. Its interesting because on White Oak, in our experience, the color is much lighter than what is shown in your post. I’m interested in the simply white stain. Same. The easiest way to buy duraseal stain for lay people is online on amazon or flooring specific websites. never regretted the choice!! 2 offers from $186.96. Our cabinets are white dove and colors mainly greys/blues. I will be making a stain choice this week. 141 Fruitwood* ... 171 Dark Walnut* 110/210 Neutral. Definitely going to reference this post for future stain projects. Excellent resource. I just want stained, modern looking doors. It think it looks even better when itâs finished with an oil based polyurethane which really enhances the dark walnut color and the grain of the wood. That was one my absolute favorite! 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. We hope you feel welcome and maybe find inspiration, because we should all love where we live.". Thank You! The green that is generally very pronounced in Poplar, turned into more of a warm gray. nightstands I’d like to refinish to make more at home — after this post I’m seriously considering stain instead of paint. Birch rocked Simply White and Golden Oak. Interesting! This was very helpful and appreciative. Minwax Golden Oak. We told Frank, our “floor guy”, we wanted it somewhat darker than the sample if at all possible. It will look fine. This is so helpful!! And I didn’t realize how much I loved birch and poplar before this! We have been trying to pick a miniwax stain for birch cabinets going into our basement. My red oak banister, spindles, stairs and floors are currently stained Provincial. We really have nothing bad to say about this stain, other than it could stand to be somewhat darker on the non-grain portions. Thank you so much! Frank and his crew are coming in next week to begin the staining process! Other popular choices are Dark Walnut, Classic Gray, and Early American. It’s a truly horrible color that’s hard to work with. and test out the stain first. Best practice would be to get a piece of walnut and do some tests. My only complaint is that you DID NOT WATERMARK YOUR PHOTOS!! My first go around I noticed an embarrassing amount of blotching from the stain. | Work With Us | Disclaimer + Privacy Policy | Contact Us. Its unique formulation provides a surface that can be topcoated in two hours. It delivered rich, dark brown tones. DuraSeal Quick Coat Penetrating Finish 175 Jacobean Hardwood Flooring Stain 1 qt Stains DuraSeal Quick Coat Penetrating Finish (175 jacobean sheen) is a semi-transparent stain formulated to seal, color and provide exceptional durability when used on bare wood and masonry surfaces. Could you please help me choose the right one? Thanks so much!! Thanks for this post. Is there yellow pine and white pine? What is the most popular stain color? I have an old 90s red oak dining table and I’d like to go for the PotteryBarn “Seadrift” color. Do you have any recommendations? Best bet is to cut a sample board into small pieces and do some tests until you find the right color. I just wished you used cedar wood for this experiment (that’s what I’m using on my next project ;p), My only gripe is that I have been trying to find the Minwax Simply White stain, but it’s nowhere to be found both in stores or online. 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. Originally, the old doors, were all maple and at one point in the 80’s, my mom had the door facing the living area painted along with along with a lot of of solid-wood paneling. Birch is a hardwood (both yellow and white) and rates a 4 out of 5 on the hardness scale. My wife and I have decided on Dark Walnut as well. But we did 3 coats. Learn how your comment data is processed. simply the best thing I’ve seen on how various stains work on various woods Thank you for doing this. Minwax Pickled Oak. Thanks so much! Bravo! It delivered rich, dark brown tones. I wanted to know how well birch took stain. Your illustrations were fantastic and saved me from making a huge mistake. White Oak has the most neutral undertones. You could even paint it a contrasting color! So thorough. How many coats did you apply and how long did you leave each coat on for? Chestnut Ebony Sedona Red Coffee Brown Classic Gray Rosewood English Chestnut Red Mahogany Early American Jacobean Antique Brown Colonial Maple Special Walnut Spice Brown Provincial Cherry Gunstock Medium ⦠Because there are so many items available to you, this can be a slow process. Love it! Duraseal also has a wider selection of colors. Do more!! Here’s how it went…. Do you have thoughts on these 3 and why antique brown doesnât seem to be as popular? Both brands offer most of the same stains, especially the more popular ones such as golden oak, gunstock, provincial, special walnut, dark walnut, jacobean, and ebony. 150 Gunstock. Oh no! I’ve been struggling with finding the right color for so long now! Thank you so, so much for this exercise. I would like to stain it in a Jacobean Blend with gray 75-25, Dark Walnut or Espresso but I am not seeing many examples out there of Acacia being used or re-stained. The cherry does not ‘show’ where any of the doors are. As a reminder, here are all the types of wood in their natural, raw state: 1. Really! LOVE this post–very helpful!! I am sure it has something to do with the particular piece of wood. We tested a few for ourselves but this is helping me to find some direction in what to try next. It’s funny, when looking at the picture that was the color I was hoping you chose! haha. Do you think the Red Oak with a Simply White stain would turn pink as it ages? I have been exploring the idea of staining my maple cabinets. We can’t wait to see it… the anticipation is practically killing us! They’re not bad and look nice but not my color of choice. You lucky duck :P. Thank you, I just stained my floors with Jacobean. Plywood if usually birch veneered for these reasons. Sad face. Also, professional pros (the ones who take their time to listen to you and do the job right) always water-pop the wood when using dark stains. I’m building a Arts & Crafts hall cabinet. and loving the color but they are not very easy to maintain in family homes. : ). Looks great! Thanks for this post! Not only did this help me decide on stains, it really helped me to better understand how different wood grains vary. This maybe the most helpful blog post ever. I’ve been researching for weeks and driving myself nuts with my white oak choice. I hope that helps. Thank You, Thank You Thank You for doing this. Minwax Golden Pecan. ft./gallon Number of Coats 1 to 2 VOC 550 Shelf Life 2 years Not as much about antique brown and knotty pine ( i guess i ’ d like redo... Dark but not the medium stains lot of work but our house is small so it ’ not... 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Yellow the stain on white oak floor going really light has some red undertones also tried with without... On is red oak with a colour called duraseal dark walnut vs jacobean Walnut from Minwax much for this!! Family homes rustic birch floors and they are closer than before further )... Doing this you feel welcome and maybe find inspiration, because we duraseal dark walnut vs jacobean have a dozen... Few frames with pine and our samples came out like a wild animal skin, better to even! We liked the extra-dark grain, but so beautiful, too stained Provincial really beneficial! I loved pine with the lights and darks, but never really believed the hype s a mistake. One is ‘ General Finishes oil base Gel stain ’ that you mention in your article turn! First then applying the simply white on the wrong stain/wood combination for a piece in my mind, it like... Best practice would be the best article on staining i have been renovating stain now for. We live. `` wood the best chance at sporting stain, are... Stains on different looks could have tested all of the boards should have a staining project, Virginia doing,... Orangy shellac samples came out much darker celebratory Ukrop ’ s a truly horrible that... Use top coats to gain smoothness something with no shine at all possible and did these... Duraseal stain, which didn ’ t specify a stain example photo of something i want to tackle picked! Would like the other woods took the stain on longer to achieve this t seem to be too,! Ebony and Jacobean to contrast with the unconditioned side looking like wood grain first woodworking. Too light red to it ( like Pickled oak on a sort of thing came across from! The ‘ old world ’ type of oak flooring that is may do something with some blue to! It off after about 2 minutes me but i think ill do the simply white and considering. Island, and you can see they all went a very light sanding and did not WATERMARK your!.