When you say "window box" I think of a outdoor planter box. If so, I would use semi-transparent deck stain and plan on reapplying it every couple of years. Many can be tinted to almost any shade desired. The only drawback I see is that such stains come only in gallons. I don't know if any of the home centers or paint stores offer an 8 ounce "tester" like they do for regular paint.

I did find a small tester at Lowes. I stained it today and came out nice. The only problem was I used some wood filler in a few spots. BIG mistake! After I stained it, it looked horrible. It's a shame because if not for those spots it would look really great.

I plan on a spar semi gloss finish tomorrow.

Thanks for reply. Wouldn't varnish provide More protection? I'm confused, why would anyone us varnish then?

I re sanded the areas I used wood filler. I was wondering if I used a min wax colored pencil in nail hole would that work? I was thinking about trying before I applied stain. Bad idea?

Thanks

Varnish will provide more protection but sooner or later you'll need to re-stain and varnish again. That means the old varnish needs to go. Much easier with just deck stain - clean it up a bit and stain again.

Sometimes you need varnish or some other kind of top coat.

I've never used the Minwax crayon sticks outside. I don't think you have much to loose given the price.

Thanks for reply. I didn't realize you had to remove old varnish. I thought it just wears off.

As far as the crayons would you hit it before or after stain.

You'd have to get pretty lucky to have the varnish come off completely and uniformly. Just think about your planters, some surfaces will have more exposure to the elements and sunlight than others, right?

The crayons are typically used after staining. As I said, I never tried used one outdoors but I'd go with after staining there too.