Dark stain on mantel: reduce grain?

[ukrworld]

Hi everybody. I am new to staining wood. I needed to refinish our mantel which was cracked in many places and had a lot of holes. I suppose it's pine wood, over 30 years old. I filled the holes with "plastic wood", sanded with orbital sander to remove original finish and stain (80, 120, 220 grit), then used Rust-Oleum Kona wood finish, 2 coats. I planned to add a couple of brush-on Minwax polyurethane coats.

I am not sure I like how the grain looks on the piece shown in the pictures. In some places, the wood barely took any stain at all, and the contrast is too great. My other family members love the look; however, I wonder if there is anything I can to to reduce the grain effect without sanding everything completely off again. I do want to keep the current dark color, if possible.

I read on https://www.doityourself.com/forum/solid-hardwood-engineered-laminate-flooring/500372-problem-staining-oak-floor-cant-get-dark-enough.html a solution that someone came up with for the seemingly same problem:

"I decided to try a paint wash over top of the stain. It worked like a charm! Using a slightly damp (and I mean slightly) rag I dipped it into some paint. Then I just wiped it on. Simple! It was pretty easy to wipe on without leaving streaks. (You only need a little.) You can do a second coat if you'd like it even darker. Even if it looks slightly streaky when wet, it will be very hard to see when dry. Then, just poly over it all. Make sure it has plenty of time to cure first, though." If you guys think this might be something that will work for me, what type of paint would you recommend to do a wash with? 

Thank you.

[wtnhighlander]

If you want to top coat with an oil-based polyurathane, I suggest avoiding any sort of latex paint. You want something that cures in a relatively short time, and isn't "strechy" like latex can be.

Lots of folks use poly over milk paint, but I don't know if it comes in a suitable color.

 

[ukrworld]

Thank you for your reply. I decided that I really want to keep the rich dark chocolate color of the mantel overall and don't want to mess it up, so opted to keep the current grain pattern and finish it with oil-based polyurethane in 2 coats. In the future I would probably go for the sealer first then gel stain to even the grain pattern on a dark pine wood.