Thanks in advance for any advice on this. I am trying to stain Oak Doors (red oak I believe – bought them from Mastercraft through Mendards is that helps) as close to the first picture as possible. My concern with these is that I am going to end up with something close to the 2nd picture, which I desperately want to avoid. I have a test piece of oak and tried using grain filler on that, and that doesn’t seem to be giving me the result I want.
From my limited reading it seems like I want to find a solid stain instead of a semi transparent. Issue is, I’ve been to 4 stores and the only solid stain I can find is for decking. Any advice on how to achieve the look I’m going for?
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Those are probably 2 different woods. The grain on red oak is very pronounced, which gives you the result on the right. The wood on the left looks like birch, maybe pine.
You can obscure the grain on the oak. Stain, finish, and finish enough so that the grain fills, or use filler beforehand.
Once the pores are concealed, you can add color to the final coat or two of finish. Either a dye or a stain that's compatible with the finish type works.
I'm not wild about doing this, personally. Adding pigment to a binder is, really, wood colored paint. But if you want to match the old doors with the new, that's what will work.
I can only echo what has been said. Disguising the prominent grain in oak is not something easily done and is best left to highly skilled finishers. Either return the doors if you can or learn to love the oak grain.
If you can do neither then get some red oak to test different finishing procedures. Make sure you do a large enough sample maybe 8" x 12" minimum. There is nothing wrong with using an opaque exterior stain on the door just make sure you use a compatible topcoat. You can also try gelstains, but I would avoid any penetrating stains or dyes as these tend to emphasize the grain more.
You wont get them to be the same unless you paint both. Oak is oak, pine is pine... fighting with what they are is harder than getting doors that match.
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