How to Choose the Perfect Gray Wood Stain

Sanding will even out the wood so that it will accept stain in a more uniform manner. With Driftwood, you combine their mixture with water and brush on wood and wait for it to react to the wood to create a silver finish. Here is an option if you want a more natural stain that works with the tannins in the wood to create a lasting finish.

There are probably hundreds of grey stains on the market, so I picked the ones that are the most used and get consistently the best results on varying species of wood. Smoke gray is really a chameleon of a color and I love it! It meshes well with both the warm and cool toned woods. berea college jobs This stain is actually a color wash, meaning that they are designed to be light stains to layer – either alone or over other stains. For example, in this home from Zero Energy Design, they feature a combination of bright-colored exterior materials with a soft weathered gray siding.

I love these because they have a built-in magnetic brush holder and a handle, which makes them super easy to carry. We used the Snowy Paint paint color by Behr Paint in Marquee type of paint in a Satin paint sheen because we already had it on hand in our garage. Slightly lighter than Carbon Gray, this is another good dark grey option that is more in the middle tone. I was inspired by a pair of Pottery Barn nightstands that had a beachy vibe. We used Classic Gray on this custom piece of furniture and it is a really nice medium gray. If you are looking for a wood to stain gray, I suggest a plywood without many knots or holes.

If you want your color to be more rich and saturated, you can wait the time specified on the back of the can and add a second coat. If you get the water-down paint added and you like to color, you don’t need to wipe it off. If you have a Handy Paint Cup that would work great too for mixing the paint and water.

If you want to use gray stain on your floors, you may want a more subtle color. These gray floors from this room designed using Armstrong-Pryzm features light wood-tone floors with a gray undertone. The coverage of this grey stain varies greatly by species. The top three have less pronounced grain lines, so the color looks fairly uniform.

We will help you understand the unique qualities of stain and give you a review of the most popular gray stain colors on the market. Creating all these color samples was actually pretty easy to do, and takes the guesswork out of staining. There’s nothing worse than hating the stain you chose and either painting over it or sanding it down and starting over! If I’m working with a new stain color or wood species, I always plan to create samples like these first. Still more of a light black than a grey wood stain, although the color evened out and became less green-ish with a second coat.

Your local Olympic® Stains retailer can match and/or order the exact color that you desire with the help of the Olympic Stain color name or number. Please keep in mind that every piece of wood takes stain slightly different. Samples are to give you frame of reference, but the actual piece you purchase could be lighter or darker depending on the characteristics of the wood. Item took 3 weeks for delivery, was held up by U.S. and Canadian customs due to nature of product being powdered substance. Product is awesome, brings out natural characteristics of wood and enhances the texture of the wood. Though we sanded the wood and prepped it as normal, this particular piece of red oak also didn’t accept as much stain as most pieces do.

Save your favorite colors, photos, and past orders all in one place. With PaintPerks, you’ll always be the first to hear about big sales and have access to everyday savings and exclusive offers. Plus, you can order your paint and supplies right from our site. Chelsea is the founder of Making Manzanita – a DIY and renovation blog – where it’s all about making your house a home you love one DIY at a time.

A final stain color varies greatly depending on several factors. The wood species alone affects how a stain is absorbed. Some woods have more grain than others, some soak up the stain more, and the original color of the wood itself affects the color of the stain once applied. A cherry wood with a deep raw wood color will look different than pine wood which is much lighter, even if the same stain color is used. There are so many options you can use to get the exact look you desire.

It preps the wood by opening the grain and helps it take the stain color better. I found that this helped bring out the stain color, especially if you are using a lighter stain color like grey. It may not be necessary if you are doing a super dark stain color like espresso. Finally, I found a stain combination I loved and I’m happy to say we nailed it and the results are even better than I hoped. It’s the perfect warm wood with a hint of grey combinationI was after. You can find the exact stain colors we used in this blog post.