Save your favorite colors, photos, and past orders all in one place. With PaintPerks, you’ll always be the first to hear about big sales and have access to everyday savings and exclusive offers. Plus, you can order your paint and supplies right from our site. Chelsea is the founder of Making Manzanita – a DIY and renovation blog – where it’s all about making your house a home you love one DIY at a time.
This type of stain allows the natural wood texture to show through and changes the color to a rich gray tone. For each stain, we opened the can and stirred the stain until we could no longer feel any pigments at the bottom of the can. Grey wood stains tend to have a lot of color pigments that settle at the bottom of the can, which is why it’s sam’s club fire pit smokeless super important to thoroughly stir before starting. If the existing stain on the wood is already pretty dark, you can skip adding more dark wood stain. Before you start your woodworking project, make sure the wood is clean and dry. Once you’ve finished staining your project, put some sort of sealant over it; I prefer using polyurethane.
Chelsea and her husband, Logan, have been renovating homes since 2015 and have seen the sweat equity pay off. They enjoy teaching readers how to renovate with confidence. As an influencer, Chelsea has collaborated with brands like The Home Depot, Etsy, Behr Paint, DAP Products, Walmart, Frog-Tape, and Kreg Tools. Making Manzanita has participated in One Room Challenge and was a finalist in the Fall 2019 Jeffrey Court Renovation Challenge. Within 30 seconds or so wipe off the paint from the surface with a dry lint-free rag.
This watered-down paint is what gives it that “wash” characteristic, meaning that the paint cover is opaque and see-through. So even after the paint is applied over the stain, you’ll be able to see that wood grain. Thus, it can be used in areas subject to tear and wear. It can also be applied to exterior wood, such as patio furniture, decks, fences, and house trim. While many manufacturers make oil-based stains water-based stains come in a far greater variety of colors.
If you want your color to be more rich and saturated, you can wait the time specified on the back of the can and add a second coat. If you get the water-down paint added and you like to color, you don’t need to wipe it off. If you have a Handy Paint Cup that would work great too for mixing the paint and water.
It varies from a chocolate brown – on the warm toned oak – to a golden brown on yellow toned pine. Unless you use a high end hardwood , you will want to paint or stain your wood for a finished look. Allow it to penetrate for a few minutes and wipe off the excess stain. If you are happy with the color, you can apply a top coat. This can give you a more uniform look than some of the other aging solutions.
Minwax Classic Gray is always a fan favorite in the grey stain category. It’s a brownish-gray, making it neutral enough to go with a lot of different styles and decor. To fix this, I lightly sanded areas with a sanding block. This removed some of the paint, revealing the darker wood-stained surface. It also helped get rid of some of the areas of imperfection. Areas of imperfection on the backside of the cookbook stand are where there were 2 coats of paint and they are much lighter.
If you want to use gray stain on your floors, you may want a more subtle color. These gray floors from this room designed using Armstrong-Pryzm features light wood-tone floors with a gray undertone. The coverage of this grey stain varies greatly by species. The top three have less pronounced grain lines, so the color looks fairly uniform.
Much more pigmented than the other samples, although not quite as much as the General Finishes one. This one is my second favorite, especially if you’re short on time and only want to apply one coat. To see how some of these colors look on real furniture, check out these grey wood stain projects!
