Technical > Home Improvement > Staining Pine Doors

Staining Pine Doors

I would use a pre-stain conditioner or pre-seal the wood first. It will help even out the color.

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reply to bryank
Naked pine will absorb a "darkish" stain quite readily. So readily that it will generally come out much darker in appearance than what is probably desired. Depending upon just how dark you want that cherry stain to come out, I would think you might want to use a pre-stain sealer/ sanding filler before you touch the stain to it.
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reply to bryank
Sand, red oak and then light oak stain.

Finish with spar if an outer door.

Mine was an oak door though.

reply to bryank
A pre-stain conditioner will make it really hard to get a deep color. I would suggest testing on a scrap before doing the door. Especially if you use Minwax cherry stain. From my personal experience with it, stay away from Minwax stains.

Pine is also subject to grain reversal where the dark grain absorbs less stain than the light grain and hence comes out with reversed color. It sometimes look a little odd.

You might want to try a gel stain. It will give you an even color but it doesnt penetrate the wood. It sits on top like paint does, though its not paint.

reply to bryank
so we have two people say to pre-condition it (which is what my gut was telling me to do) and one person says not to pre-condition. Damn.

Exactly the type of thing I would expect in a web forum...

reply to bryank
Without a conditioner it can come out really uneven and blotchy. Ive seen it many times.

reply to bryank
I got many different bits of advice here and there and from everyone. I tried doing scrap pine various ways, including pre-treating, and they looked anywhere from not that great to horrible. I just threw up my hands and had a pro do it. In my case it was $3000 worth of windows so another $150 for staining seemed like a better investment than looking at my mistake every day of my life.

She used a gel stain but I don't remember the brand and I wasn't there to see if she did pre-treating. Sorry.
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reply to bryank
The decision about preconditioning is yours.

»www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl···3v5Qe-AI

Note that some precoditioners are oil based. If you apply an oil based preconditioner, make sure not to try and put a water based stain on top.
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reply to bryank
Just adding a remark you may not have considered. Anyone that knows wood can tell you have a pine door stained cherry wood color. I realize people use all color stains in all color woods now however being slightly old-fashioned.. I kind of like the pine stained closer to traditional "pine" or blonder color. Be that as it may, You may want to look around at what colors people stain pine door... typically in the past these doors were painted due to pine being a fairly soft wood.
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reply to bryank
Is this an interior or exterior door?

Are all of the interior doors in your house cherry stained pine? If so, can you post a pic or two of the others?

reply to bryank


I have always had good luck staining pine by pre-wetting the surface first with water to open up the pores in the grain.

reply to bryank
They are not Cherry color now, but if this works good, then I would like to replace them.