Couple questions in this post, please bear with me - hoping you guys can help. DH built some closet doors, used pine. He used a pre-stain base coat and applied two coats of oil-based Minwax stain – came out beautifully. Then came the clear-coat. Used satin polyurethane (Minwax) – what a disaster! Lots of milky blotchiness, finish was ruined. So, per the advice of pros on the flooring board, he used the citrus stripper stuff; he still has to finish this, the stripper part is done, now he has to remove the residue (he bought some stuff yesterday to do this, not sure what).

Where does he go from here now that the clear coat is stipped off? He’s going to have to re-stain – I would assume he has to sand before re-staining? He’s not too happy about this (obviously!) but actually it worked out in my favor because I did not like the satin finish. There are other pine closet doors and widow casings throughout the house that have a completely matte finish and I love the look – this is definitely what I want (I thought satin would be…not so glossy, it certainly isn’t so on my hardwood floors). So, what product should he use as the protective top coat? Should I get a matte polyurethane (but I’m really afraid of ruined doors round 2 here), a matte varnish, or use something like tung oil? I want zero gloss to the finish. Zero. Or, can we completely skip the top coat on the doors and casings?