Re-staining a freshly stained piece of furniture
Hello! I just bought the IKEA Tarva dresser which comes in basically a wood frame and allows you to stain and paint it as you’d like. We’ve stained the outside areas but find that the stain is a little too orange for our liking. We haven’t added the polyurethane yet (waiting for the stain to dry) but any tips of lighting our stain or even changing it to a more blonde/lighter wood color completely? I’ve watched videos of people removing wood stain with a stripper solution but do I need that since it’s literally just stain and no finish? Should I just get 100 grade sand paper and re-sand it? I’ve even considered just painting over it completely white but not sure.
I even read somewhere using Rubio monocoat might help so I bought some in hopes to temper down the brassiness.
Thanks so much!
Replies
The benefits of doing a test piece or four first, eh!?
Personally I would sand the stain off. Stains don't "penetrate" (as the adverts often claim) but rather sit in only the very top layer or three of cells that compose the wood. Of course, the stain might also sit in the bottoms of any open grain timber (like oak or ash) which will mean a bit more sanding-off to get down to the open grain bottoms. (Still not that much).
See sanding of redwood thread hereabouts for warnings about sanding things to keep them flat.
Trying to alter the colour by splashing on more goo is likely to mean only that you'll end up having to remove more stuff to start from scratch.
Once you've sanded it off, don't forget to do them test pieces before putting on the next stain you eventually choose.
Lataxe
PS Ikea finishing! Wot has FWW mag come to!?
Is it an oil stain? If it is, wipe the surface down with mineral spirits. Use a clean rag, and you can see how much stain is coming off.
I don't ask my local baker how to make a pie, nor do I ask my butcher how to make sausages. It's a matter of good manners.
In the backwater part of West Wales, the shopkeepers of the making-shops are not so sensitive to the questioning concerning their wares and their manufacture. This very morning the ladywife's butcher in Llanbedr-Pont-Steffan not only discussed the sausage making but also awarded her free potatoes and courgettes from his garden surplus, as she purchased the lamb shoulder and sundry other stuff.
After all, who else would she buy her sausage ingredients from?
On other occasions, the baker three shops down the street has advised on various ingredients and techniques relating to special breads of one sort and another that the ladywife likes to experiment with. Goodwill is priceless.
Of course, In West Wales we do co-operation and living together rather than cutting each other's throats for a few groats or to be biggest galoot o' some heapa summick. Civilised we are, bach.
Lataxe
You could go over the surface with a gel stain which has the consistency of pudding as compared to the stain you used which could have been water. Don't know the color you are going for but this could be a way out of the mess. I would personally sand the surface but as noted before you might not know what species of wood you have either closed grain like maple or open grained like oak or ash. My $.02
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled