the resulting color matches the floor. I am leaving the spindles white. just touch up the stain messes.

i only have 2 coats and can add more it's a stair rail with lots of use

the place is all open concept with white cupboards black granit and grey leather with espresso wood accents ...I am not rustic

I’m sorry! What’s wrong with the finish? I can’t see from here. I prefer idiot-proof wipe-on finishes for vertical/shaped things like that. The brush-on stuff is too finicky for me on things not flat. I think it’s the application, not you.

it was all white for the last 6 years . do I match the hand rail to my floor (impossible to copy factory finished mirage maple hardwood) or dart to keep with furniture. hind sight I should have tried a lighter hand now I just want to cover it more. thanks for any feed back there is so many differences in the wood in the room here is a few more. pictures arnt telling the truth!

so add more of the same ? or go darker? I don't want to strip or sand it down. .....it was white sprayed perfectly so perhaps it is a shock

Stains generally are applied and the wiped off to get a nice finish they are not painted on like paint.

I will just say that the wood bannister and posts don't have to match the floors. I have always had furniture, floors, accessories and trim in various brown wood tones: they all go together because they are all variations of brown wood. (The only wood I don't want in the mix is golden maple.). A garden may have twenty green colors, but they go together because they are all green, as in nature.

after white I was just looking for clean and fresh 5 grubby sets of hands. I can go darker. I have the coffee color I put on the big oak table. each coat on the banister will only make it progressively darker and sturdier. see befor pictures also I new I couldn't start with dark and wonder what light would look like. the coffee color is my a cent color

You can’t just add stuff and go darker. Your work isn’t good enough—sorry. :( You need to take off what you’ve done.

I just realized that you put stain over the paint. That doesn’t work. You must strip it down to bare wood first.

Then you get a STAIN ONLY, not a stain and finish in one. You want a regular pigment stain, not a dye.

Put a bunch on, but immediately wipe it in a circular direction with a soft cloth to get most off again. Buff it like that. Then do a final wipe down parallel to the grain.

You can layer stains, but matching is tricky. It just is.

The finish comes last. On that, a wipe-on (meaning with a rag) water-based poly is best. I still do shellac on furniture because I’m a fussy-duddy who has issues with plastic wood finishes, but on that, it’s the only sensible choice.

No paint brushes! Not on this.

Glaze.

If you would like to go darker, there is a relatively easy fix. No need to remove what you have done. Faux Effects (fauxfx.com) makes a water based product called stain and seal...I use van dyke brown. Sand everything well, paint on 2 coats... Next day, brush on a coat of polyurethane, oil is best. 2 coats of poly is better than one. I've done it many times and it's beautiful and durable.

Oh my goodness thank you for the details M Rey. I am embarrassed the application applicator product was all wrong.... however I did just spend 25 hours and a few brain cells chemically stripping it to the prettiest maple. now what to hide all this mess I made. I cleaned up all around it till I am off on the weekend again. I can hardly bare the thought of stripping again and would prefer to keep to not sand too much it's in the house. .....try again? Or add glaze or dark stain or more top coat to mute the bad paint job. I will try to add a picture of it stripped. thanks for all your feed back it has given me lots to think about....I am still undecided.

So you did sanded down to bare wood before applying stain? It looks to me like you let the stain dry on the banister rather than wiping it off after applying. Is this correct? If so, go buy some mineral spirits and try rubbing the mineral spirits on the banister. Hopefully it will take off some of the stain and blur the marks of the paintbrush a bit. Let us know!

thank you Houzzzers!!!

I was confused about the type of product you used, so I googled it ... Is this it?

Did you mix two different colors - amaretto and prestige grey?

I'm always wary of all-in-one, one-step products.

The description on the website states that it dries quickly, which to me means it's probably very unforgiving. It dries fast, then it's sealed and there's no room for error.

With a true wood stain, you can apply, then wipe off as desired, as mentioned by other commenters above. You can add another coat to darken if you'd like.

I'm not familiar with the product you used, so I have no idea if you can go over it again to darken it. If it's already sealed, I'd think not.

I'd probably suggest rubbing it down with mineral spirits, as suggested above to try to strip some of it away. Then assess where to go from there.

Yes that is what I used .....I will try easy befor I strip again....I fear being high in front of my teens is bad form!

I got a proper mask too now

I did us both products 1 at a time. surly the 3rd colorckuld be coffee but I am leaning towards rubbing out or sanding out the harsh lines first see what happens???

there are lots of comments, didn't read all.

I'd paint out the wood stained railings, and paint them the color of the gray leather chairs. This will be a look that is not rustic.

loved this. thank you Houzzzers!

You can just paint it darker, if you want! And forget staining.

You need to use a flow additive product that prevents brush strokes.

The thing is...I don’t see bare wood anywhere. :). In your most recent photos, there is still a ton of paint on the wood.

If you're wanting to keep the wood finish for the posts and rails and if the rail is about the same finish but, as it appears, the shade of the stain on the posts varies, you could go darker with the stain on all the posts -- whether or not you do on the rails. If you're going to paint the posts and hand rails anyway, I like the white with black look (Carolyn posted a pic).

the more i think about all this i love the raw maple honest I did get it down to the raw wood. but short of a different process I will never see that grain again. the wood grain shows through on my table cause it is a old oak strong grain wood. so I will be going dark.....like white spindles with dark handrails. next weekend I will fix this I even liked the idea of dark grey! yep for sure lots of diamond finish it is a busy stair well....should have tried it years ago lol since I did this no one touches the hand rail on there way down stairs haha thanks again Houzzzers

Hello it's taken a while to get my mojo back to dealing my self inflicted mess

I need to go darker. I don't like the grey hand rail because my furniture is grey. So soon (not tomorrow) I will go with black coffee. what's your thoughts?

So far it's 4 layers and likely will be 6 or 7 once I add the dark then the diamond finish matte varathane