Help with stain

[jake721]

I'm replacing all the baseboard moldings in my living room and kitchen, along with the casing around the doors. We bought stain grade moldings and I laid them all out in my garage to start staining them. My wife decided to help me by staining them while I was at work. She put 2 coats of stain on and thought it looked pretty good until she gets brought them in the house, and into better lighting. The stain turned out to look a lot more grey than brown.

This might be a dumb question, but is there anyway to get it darker, or more of a brown color now that they are stained? I know the proper way would be to sand them all down and restain a different color, but that's a lot of contour and a lot of wood to sand. I thought I would checked see if anybody has any other ideas?? Thanks!

[Beechwood Chip]

Do you have any scraps you can experiment on? That seems to be the standard answer to all finishing questions. Some things to try:

• Put a third coat of a different stain on over the first two. Try a regular coat, a very light coat, etc
  
• Sand off the easy parts of the contours and leave the stain in the valleys. Then re-stain. This may create an interesting look by emphasizing the contour. It may also look "antique". Worth a try.
  
• Maybe try a bleach followed by re-staining?
  

But, mostly I'd just experiment on scraps with anything you can think of until you come up with something you like.

[Grain Guy]

I know you can get a tinted sealer and top coat with clear. You must be careful to spread tinted finish nice and even.

Or I would try a lite sanding and recoat a new color. Try a redish brown color to offset the gray.

You can also wet the wood after a lite sanding to raise the grain again and see if it takes the stain better.

You can also try a lacquer based stain which you can leave a even film to dry.

Practice practice practice.

May the force b with u

[dwacker]

What stain did you use? Are these poplar moulding?

Don

[jake721]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I used Minwax oil based stain. I can't think of the exact color right now. It is poplar molding.

I've got a Minwax stain, I think it is English chestnut. I'll try that over the top of one of the pieces when I get home.

[Grain Guy]

Poplar sucks. Minwax sucks more.

That green color in the wood alters stain colors from what they should be, especially using minwax aka colored water. Red and orange colors wil kick that green.

Look into funding a different brand of stain and you will see big results. I recommend Old Masters or Zar for oil based and Lenmar for lacquer based. Make sure to stir before and during use.

[Fricasseekid]

I find that the brilliant deep color of freshly stained wood gets dull once the stain dries. It happens a little less with the second coat. But a little poly on top always revitalizes it! You could lay a light coat of gloss poly over a practice piece and see if it brings back the color your looking for. If it does and you don't want the glass look, wet sand over the poly with some teak oil or Johnson paste wax and steal wool, that'll take it back down to a smooth satin finish. Not to mention the poly will protect the wood better than just stain.

PS. You have to use gloss because satin and low gloss polys have light detractors in them that interfere with the wet sanding process.