How to stain woodwork in your home like a pro

Let me guess. You’ve watched a few cable TV home improvement shows and you feel like you can stain wood like a pro now. I applaud your enthusiasm but want to manage your expectations.

Anyone can stain wood, but you have to do several things and know a few secret tips to get results professionals produce on a daily basis. I want your project to look like a pro did it, so allow me to share what I’ve discovered staining miles and miles of woodwork in my career.

It's important to realize you need to know the type of wood you’re staining before you start. It's far harder to stain softwoods than it is to stain hardwoods. White pine, alder, spruce and fir are all softwoods. Softwoods have a more open cell structure and tend to absorb stain like a sponge soaks up water.

If you’re dealing with oak, poplar, cherry or walnut, you’ll have an easier time because these are common hardwoods. The wood is dense and the stain doesn't soak in so fast.

Another key point is preparation. Expert sanding is required so the wood is as smooth as glass. You may have to use three different grits of sandpaper to get the wood satin smooth. Start with 100 grit, transition to 150 and then do your final sanding with 220 grit.

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Aluminum oxide sandpaper is brown and the abrasive self sharpens as you use it. Red garnet is an orange sandpaper and the abrasives start to round off as you sand away. In the last stages of sanding, red garnet paper can produce a highly desirable burnished finish to the wood. You may want to experiment with a small test piece of wood to see if you like the burnished look and feel.

A wood conditioner is the second step in the preparation process. Wood conditioners are clear liquids you brush onto the sanded wood. It's imperative you use these for all softwoods. The conditioner fills many of the pores in the wood cells and blocks the stain from soaking in too much. If you fail to use a wood conditioner with a softwood, the stain will almost always be blotchy and you’ll hide much of the desirable wood grain.

The wood conditioners are very easy to use and the drying time is fast. Often you can stain the wood within a few hours after applying the conditioner.

Keep in mind it's far easier to make wood look darker than it is to take a dark wood and make it lighter. This means if you’re not positive about the final wood color, start with a lighter stain and work your way up to a darker color.

It's always best to do several test pieces of wood before you try to tackle the actual wood you’re staining. Practice all the steps on the test pieces until you get the exact color you desire.

You can get a really good feel for the actual depth of color of the wood as you stain it. Apply the stain and allow it to sit on the wood for a minute. Use an old rag to lightly wipe off all the excess stain.

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With the stain still wet, this is just about what the wood will look like once you allow the stain to dry and then apply your clear finish coats. The stained wood will dry to a duller shade in a few hours, but once you apply that first clear coat, the richness immediately returns to the wood.

As with all things, read the label on the cans of the wood conditioner, the stain and your clear coat for application and drying tips. Allow plenty of time between stages so you get the best results.

Here's a secret tip that may save you in case you make a mistake: Let's say you stain the wood, apply the first coat of clear coat and the color isn't right. Don't panic. You can purchase small amounts of the pigments used at paint stores to create the colored stain. These can be mixed in with your clear coat and you add a transparent layer of color to the already stained wood.

I did this on a job several years ago where we had to match 80-year-old stained woodwork. By adding a little red pigment to the clear coat, I achieved a perfect match when my new wood pieces were held next to the existing woodwork. Once you’re happy with the color, then apply two normal coats of clear coat that don't have any pigment in them.

Tim Carter, author of the Ask the Builder column, wrote this story for The Washington Post. He can be reached at AsktheBuilder.com.