Wood Staining!

I couldn't find a thread similar to this so I thought I would start one here.

So I've had my Ikea Gerton desk for some time now. The desk comes unfinished so it leaves room for DIY. months go by, I never got around to it even though I told myself I would. I think I was just being lazy because it would mean that I would have to disassemble all of my setup.

My Setup before this project:


This is my Ikea Gerton desk after:
- 2 layers of Minwax Dark walnut stain
- 3 layers of Arm-R-Seal


It didn't turn out perfect, as expected since it's my first time, but I'm quite happy with how it came out. When I was doing my first layer of Arm-R-Seal, I was impatient and tried doing it in the dark after work. Yeah...not a good idea. There were areas with too much goo and looked really bad. I sanded it trying to even it out but I can still see it in certain angle. Not too noticeable and I'm okay with it.

@ChaChaRealSmooth asked for pictures of my wood , so I thought I would share this with y'all.

 

DIY section would be a good place for this thread. Staining is useful for amp enclosures and speakers. Maybe not quite for MDF, but still applies to plywood and veneer

 

Looking good there.

I prefer to use anlyline dyes for wood. You can use denatured alcohol or water. I have always used water as you get more "working time", however it does raise the grain. I usually pre-raise with pure water and dry and light sand it down just to knock the rough off. Dyes also work better with woods that don't take a good oil stain (e.g., pine).

 

@Cspirou ah my bad. Mods feel free to move this to the appropriate thread if needed!

@rtaylor76 interesting. I'll definitely hit you up if I end up with another project like this.