Light or dark stain on the drawers of this waterfall dresser?

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

I bought this dresser with a mess of remnant white paint, and dark splotchy stain. My plan was to sand down the drawer fronts and top to stain a lighter colour and paint the rest. But now that I've got it sanded down, and in some spots, maybe sanded down a little too much because I feel like I'm starting to see through the top veneer to the ply underneath, I see that the darker stain penetrated into cracks in the wood and I'm not going to be able to get it out.

Would you stain the drawers dark again in hopes that it would blend in a little better or just call it an aged patina and stain it the lighter colour/natural wood tone that I had planned?

Walnut stain

Natural stain

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Comments (3)

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BeverlyFLADeziner
4 years ago
You've got one chance at this with stain. I would select a dark color to minimize the blemishes. of course, if you paint it, you have lots of options.
Jennifer K
4 years ago
If you like how it currently looks, seal it with a clear sealer-- no stain. Almost certainly the wood will not take stain evenly, even if you use a preconditioner. However, if you're willing to take a chance, try staining it. If it doesn't work out, you can always paint it.
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Amanda Healey
Original Author
4 years ago
I never thought about it being one chance with a stain, but that makes sense. It also makes sense that if it came with splotchy stain, there's a chance I'm going to end up with a mess like that again. I may just save myself the work and go straight to paint now considered both your comments. Thank you!