Easiest/Quickest way to stain already finished furniture?

Question

We've purchased brand new furniture (4 poster bed) and received a great deal, but the finish is now quite what we'd like. The finish is a mahogany and we'd like something more along the lines of an espresso or a dark chocolate color. The furniture is obviously already stained and finished and so I'm looking for the easiest way to re-stain this furniture.

We thought about painting it, but would prefer not to do that.

Is it absolutely necessary to strip the existing finish and then use stain to match the color we're looking for? Or is there a way to apply the stain we like to the furniture without all that extra work beforehand.

I'm sure this sounds crazy, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Answer 1

They make a product that has polyurethane and stain in one, Olympic paints, have one called One Step, minwax has one called Polyshades, just lightly sand before applying the product, give pleantly of time to dry, if it's not dark enough, apply another coat!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Not crazy at all. A few months ago, I refurbished an antique art-deco bar. It too was a mahogany stain and finished with polyeurathane. What I did was sand it thoroughly with 200grit sandpaper. Be careful not to go through the finish and into the stain. What you're looking for is a uniform chalkyness. Once you've got that, wipe it down realy well and wipe on a stain. Make sure you apply the stain evenly and don't choose one that's too dark to begin with. Try MInwax english chestnut. If it's not dark enough, wait 24hrs till dry and wipe on another coat. When the bed is sufficiently dark, apply three coats of spray laquer in the sheen of your choice(semigloss looks best in a bedroom)sanding lightly after the second coat with 000 steel wool.

Answer 4

Assuming you have real wood, with a real stain and seal, then the only way to do it right, is to remove the clear coat. The stain went on first. It was given time to penetrate the wood and dry. Then a clear poly or varnish was applied over, to protect the wood. This clear coat is non-porous, and will prevent another layer of stain from getting into the wood. The finish would have to be removed, probably with a combination of sanding, steel wool, and tack cloth treatments. This is a lot of work. Stain is pigment, with a carrier, that brings it into the wood, then evaporates. Adding any stain, even a lighter one, will add pigment, and darken the finish. The Minwax one step products are beyond ugly. Any product that tries to combine stain and finish is going to give a hideous appearance to anything it is put on.

Answer 5

Refinishing Furniture Without Stripping

Answer 6

Restaining Furniture

Answer 7

I agree - change your opinion and say it looks OK.

Other than that, to do it right you'll need to remove the finish and re-stain and varnish or varathane. This will take a LOT of time. I strongly suggest you don't try to apply another finish over top of the existing one. There is a good chance it will start to peel and flake off in a short while.

Answer 8

As long as it is not varnished you can reapply stain. Keep in mind though if it is already mahogany & you want to apply a darker color, only go the next shade darker. What they show the color will be is if applied to bare wood. So do a small area on the back first to determine how many minutes to leave it on for the desired color when dry.
If it is varnished you will need to sand the varnish off before applying stain so it can soak into the wood for even color. Notice I said sand not strip. Stain soaks into the wood & gives even color as long as it is applied evenly & wiped off at about the same time frame. To seal the wood when you are finished staining, varnish, & then apply & buff Johnson's Wax to protect(in the tin can).

Answer 9

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Answer 10

unless you have a liking for difficult work that is easily messed up, I would not touch it - I would learn to like it and live with it. Having sold paints and varnishes for some time and have a hobby of refinishing furniture, I would not put a MinWax varnish stain on my mother in laws garbage can.

Stripping is difficult and you have to know how the furniture is made these days to figure out if you can do it without causing more harm than good. A lot of furniture, though it might look like solid wood, is really made out of MDF with a very thin veneer on wood on top of it. If your bed has rails, they will probably be solid wood. if you go to strip something that is veneered on MDF, you might well loosen the glues that hold the veneer on it, or worse, if you happen to get water in a place where it can seep through to the MDF, the MDF will swell and ruin the whole piece. If you did not spend a lot of money on the bed, I would hold it suspect concerning what is actually made of. The corner post will be wood, the wood between the post, the headboard and foot board, are serious contenders for MDF.

There are other ways of doing what you want to do. They make waxes that are tinted and can be put on to deepen the color. I would contact a company, like woodcraft(ers) to see what they might have. There are many catalog houses where you can get things like this, or you can call Mohawk Finishing Products in Hickory NC and try and get in touch with someone who knows what you are asking. I don't use those waxes as generally I get very old solid wood furniture and stain it up to the depth I want it.

I don't see any reason to take a new piece of furniture with a nice finish and risk ruining it.

Painting it would put you in the category of "dumber than a box of hammers."

If you can't find the waxes, you can try the darker shades of Old English Furniture polish, but take into consideration that neither of those two options will permanently color the wood.

You can tell if the wood is solid board by looking at the end grain - that is where the wood was sawn. If the end grain has a surface like the major part of the bed, that is the grain on the end looks like the headboard, that has been veneered.

Since I don't know who made the bed, I can't tell you if they use MDF or particle board as a base wood. As far as I know there might be a few small manufacturers that use solid wood and I think that Ethan Allen is the only one that you can be sure of of the major brands. But Ethan Allen would be expensive. My sister paid a lot of money for a bedroom suit which she was told was solid wood. It was oak, but in my looking at it, the end grains did not look right. That does not preclude it from being solid wood, often stable woods, like Bass Wood, Poplar, and even gum are used as base woods to be veneered.

I think I would just let the bed age, the wood will turn darker with age. If you simply have to refinish it, take it to a professional, don't do it yourself.

Answer 11

The easiest way is to buy furniture you like. Barring that, you cannot lighten the finish without immersion chemical stripping. You can darken the finish if you roughen every detail, use a tack rag on it all, then apply new, darker stain and then a finish coat of Varathane or similar material. Good luck. It is basically impossible to get a good as new finish.