ISO advice on staining wood trim (or recommendation of someone to do this)

Hi, we have stripped the paint in our dining room (see before and after pictures) and now need to stain the wood trims. The wood needs a bit of help in some areas (brittle, needs patching) and I am looking for advice on either how to go about doing this myself (which I would like to do) or to hire someone since it is pretty tiger oak and I don’t want to muck it up. I am curious about all steps involved (fill, sand, condition, stain, etc?). Thanks!

ditmasmom

in About Brooklyn 12 years and 1 month ago

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sethamin | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Oh, and with regards to filling and patching the wood, you can get stainable wood filler. But again, I’d experiment first to make sure you can get it to match. I haven’t ever used it myself, but I’ve read it can be difficult to get an exact match with the wood, particularly in large section because it has no grain and so it will visibly stick out. And you don’t need to condition oak. It takes stain very evenly. Conditioner is used for soft woods like pine that take stain unevenly.

sethamin | 12 years and 1 month ago

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You can do this yourself if you’re so inclined. Oak takes stain very evenly, so it should fairly easy to do (assuming you use an oil base stain – water based stains and dyes can be much more difficult to apply). First you sand the wood down; then vacuum it; clean it with a tack cloth or mineral spirits; apply the stain and wipe it off; then once dry, apply top coat of your choice. Personally I’d do a couple coats of tung oil, but you can also do polyurethane, french polish, shellac, etc. The key is to have some scrap pieces of the exact wood on hand which you can use to test your technique. You may want to experiment with different stains, different sanding schedules (the higher the final grit, the smaller the pores and the less stain the wood will take), or different top coats. One small piece of advice is to avoid Minwax if you can. I personally have found it to be the worst of all the stain brands I’ve tried – Rustoleum Ultimate Stain is my current favorite. They carry it at Lowes, but not at Home Depot. Or you could go to Abbot Paint; I’m sure whatever they carry will be better than anything you can get at the big box stores. Hope that helps.

ditmasmom | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Sorry, I tried to attached the photos and it didn’t work…