If I had to choose, the poplar is my favorite. This stain truly softens the wood tones and creates a calming feeling. To my pleasant surprise, it did lighten the wood with hints of white and gray once I applied it to the pieces of wood. I’ve never used Varathane’s Sunbleached before and all I kept thinking of was bleaching wood furniture. Classic Gray tends to be slightly blotchy so make sure to use pre-conditioner with this stain color. Which also means the wood grains still show through the stain color. This Classic Gray stain creates the perfect weathered look without over-saturating with too much gray. If you’re wanting to go slightly darker than the Pickled Oak or wanting stain with hints of brown and gray, you should probably give Weathered Oak a try.Įvery single piece of wood took on a gray hue including the red oak. It pulls hints of gray which helps to give it the weathered look. Weathered Oak is generally used as a lighter to medium stain color. It also appeared to make the wood look softer. It brought out the natural tones while slightly lightening each type of wood piece. If you’re wanting to preserve the natural wood color (and possibly go even slightly lighter), I recommend using Pickled Oak. And before we get started and as a quick tip, we used a pre-stain wood conditioner on each piece to help prevent any blotches when applying the stain. Don’t let another project upset you because the stain you thought you would love, you ended up not liking at all. We tested a variety of natural, light, medium, and dark stains on pine, poplar, whitewood, and red oak to give you plenty of options. Use this post as a guide for your next project as you’re picking out the best shade of stain to use.

I’m hoping today I can save you a headache and a lot of time by showing you 10 different stains and what they look like on 4 different types of wood that you can find at Home Depot and Lowe’s. Both of these things affect the stain color. You have to take into account the hardness and undertones of the wood you’re using. Why does this happen? Depending on the type of wood you’re staining, the color of the stain can change. You see, you may fall in love with the stain color shown on the can, but it may end up looking completely different once you apply it on a piece of wood. When using stain on wood, it’s just as magical as it is tricky.

Minwax stain colors on hemlock