Paint-a-Stain Finish
I have to first start by confessing to a problem I have. Last week, I realized I have PDD or Project Deficit Disorder. I find it extremely difficult to work on one project at a time. And now that I have so many unfinished projects waiting to be completed, my PDD is at an all time high. Through it all though, somehow, I am feeling very productive, working on a few projects simultaneously.
Mr DIY started building a bed for No. 2 son about 3 years. He didn’t like the way it came out; ahe joints weren’t up to his expectations and he wanted to chuck it and start over. He even attempted to stain it and, well let’s just say, that didn’t help matters any. So it sat and sat in the basement, then the garage. I decided to make lemonaide out of lemons, work some DIY magic and rework the design since perfection is truly overrated and the bed is solid and very sturdy.
I started by removing the Colonial Maple finish. I have worked with a lot of stain hues, but I don’t quite understand Colonial Maple. It could be me, but the orange tint is unattractive. I have tried it on various types of wood and it have never had good results.
Here is what it looked liked before:
and after sanding:
It still had an orange sheen that would not go away. I even tried to bleach it out and had no luck.
Next, I applied a dark stain with the hopes that the orange color would disappear. No luck, the orange hue continued to stand its ground and was visible just enough to annoy me. So I turned to paint. I watered down some chocolate brown latex paint I had lefteover from another project. I brushed it on and the orange hue was gone, with the wood grain was still visible, resulting in a stained appearance. I did add some streaks of watered down black acrylic paint to further enhance the wood grain. This is what it looks like now:
I am almost done applying a satin polyurethane finish. Unfortunately, my PDD caused me to have a little mishap, perhaps you can help me with. Multitasking the other day, I forgot to wash out the brush I was using. Does anyone know if it is posible to remove a water based polyurethane from a brush after it has dried? Turpentine, denatured alcohol or mineral spirits perhaps? I invest in good brushes so that I can reuse them and would love to save this one.
Have you ever used paint to create a faux stained finish?
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I completely understand the perfection thing – my husband is like that too. He actually repainted his truck 3 times for reasons nobody else could see – lol. He also does carpentry work and he said there is not anything that will clean your brush:( He uses good brushes too, but I am liable to lay it down and forget it so I use throwaway brushes. I don’t really like the colonial maple either. The wood looks realy good the way you finished it.
This is really lovely!
I love the end result. Great job! I will have to ask hubby what will do the trick to clean the brush. I’m thinking mineral spirits should do it. Good luck! I cannot say I have used paint to imitate a stained finish. I’ll have to try it sometime. Yours looks great!:-)
Looks great & I totally understand the PDD!!!
Very nice. I love it when attempts work out! I love the dark wood look, too. Can’t wait to see the finished bed!
hello joselyn,
thanks so much for your lovley comment on our first blog anniversary.Unfortunatly you aren´t the winner of our little giveaway, but we send you a big hug and many thanks to visit us on our creative outlet. Its always fine to be in contact with some of the BYW-friends…was an exciting and inspiring adventure, or?Wish you a lovley weekend and all the best for your great and exciting work…we keep in touch…cheers and hugs…i…
Thanks for your comment on my stool makeover. I really like the way this turned out. The orange tint woulda drove me nuts too, but I probably would have just dealt with it though. I just LOVE the was you solved the problem. I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time, it looks great!!!
[...] Anyway for the last few weeks, I have been desperately trying to complete No. 1 son’s bed. You can read about how it all started here. [...]