Refinishing dresser - Stain problems

[Sibley]

I am refinishing a dresser, and I need some advice if I can improve the current status before I proceed.

Dresser is wood with a veneer. From the 1950s probably, fairly thick veneer. Was stained/painted with a semi-solid milky color originally then had a dark brown stain added on top much later. I stripped the old stain off, sanded to 220, and applied Minwax Early American color oil based stain. I will be applying poly as well. Note that what I started with was not perfect and I do not expect perfection. I think I know why it had a semi-solid stain originally.

Well, I like the color but it's uneven. Anything I can do to improve this? What will poly do to the appearance?

Note that it's in the garage, the lighting is shit.

[Sibley]

More pics

[nereo]

A pre-stain conditioner would help with the unevenness, but it should be applied before the stain. The best results will be to sand down to wood (again), apply conditioner and then stain. The conditioner helps the wood absorb the stain more evenly. With old furniture there can be all sorts of things deep in the wood that will impact absorption (from old penetrating finishes to wax or oils that were spilled on it decades ago).

Are you using oil or water based?  How are you applying the stain?

[Sibley]

Oil based stain, applied with a stain sponge thing I got. I didn't like it much, would use a brush going forward. And since it's a veneer, I don't think I have enough to work with to sand it down. It's thick but not that thick.

[lthenderson]

I agree with nereo. Most woods absorb stains at different rates causing that blotchiness in coloring and the most fool proof way to cure it at this point would be to sand it down to an even point, apply wood conditioner and then restain. I have seen very experienced people cure blotchiness by going over it with a slightly darker gel stain. Gel stains hold the dye particle in suspension much better and thus will give you more even coverage because it doesn't absorb as deeply. I have seen others go over blotchy boards with a couple thin layers of a darker gel stain after lightly sanding to give it something to adhere to and mask blotches from a previous stain job.

[Sibley]

Well, it's veneer. Assuming I can't fully sand it, what are my options?

Will a semi-solid stain work ok? If so, what's my process here? I could paint it as a last resort which wasn't my intention, but not the end of the world.

[Bartlebooth]

All-in-one stain+varnish is one option that I tested for some maple cabinet doors that wouldn't stain evenly even with wood conditioner.  The color in this case comes from particles that are suspended in the varnish.

It did color evenly but I didn't go with it because it wouldn't have come out well with all the ornate grooves in the door frame.  Varnish pools in grooves, and deeper varnish = more color there.  And it just looked kind of fake / amateurish on the test pieces.  I ended up painting my project.

But it could be an OK option for something with flat surfaces like your piece.

[GuitarStv]

Well, it's veneer. Assuming I can't fully sand it, what are my options?

If you can't sand it back and re-stain and want it to look great you're pretty much limited to painting or applying a new veneer overtop.

[nereo]

Well, it's veneer. Assuming I can't fully sand it, what are my options?

If you can't sand it back and re-stain and want it to look great you're pretty much limited to painting or applying a new veneer overtop.

this, or applying a semi-opaque stain, which would be my preference.

[Sibley]

What prep would be needed for a semi-opaque stain at this point?

I'll look at the stain + varnish, but based on the description I'm not wild about it.

[GilesMM]

If you don't wish to sand again, there are plenty of good liquid strippers that are suitable for veneer.

[nereo]

What prep would be needed for a semi-opaque stain at this point?

No, so long as you haven't added any polyurethane on top.  You can use a semi-opaque stain over an existing stain (since you've use oil you will want to match that, and wait until the oil stain has thoroughly dried... IME about 2-3 days unless its really humid or cold - if it is humid cold it will take longer)

[Sibley]

What prep would be needed for a semi-opaque stain at this point?

No, so long as you haven't added any polyurethane on top.  You can use a semi-opaque stain over an existing stain (since you've use oil you will want to match that, and wait until the oil stain has thoroughly dried... IME about 2-3 days unless its really humid or cold - if it is humid cold it will take longer)

No poly yet. Sained on Sunday, so while it has been humid/wet it should have plenty of time to dry before I can get to it this weekend.

[Metalcat]

If you can't resand, then I would try a gel stain because you can layer it until it looks good.

[Sibley]

Stopped by the hardware store. It seems that interior, oil based, semi-opaque stain does not exist. Exterior stains have a semi-opaque stain but I don't really want exterior stain in my house like that. There is a solid stain for interior, however it is water based. I have concerns about how well a water based stain will work on top of oil based.

In short, I'll be painting it. I don't want to strip it again, and I don't think even conditioner is going to get it to the point I would prefer. It just wasn't intended to have a semi-transparent finish. Now to figure out a color. Sigh.

[Metalcat]

Stopped by the hardware store. It seems that interior, oil based, semi-opaque stain does not exist. Exterior stains have a semi-opaque stain but I don't really want exterior stain in my house like that. There is a solid stain for interior, however it is water based. I have concerns about how well a water based stain will work on top of oil based.

In short, I'll be painting it. I don't want to strip it again, and I don't think even conditioner is going to get it to the point I would prefer. It just wasn't intended to have a semi-transparent finish. Now to figure out a color. Sigh.

It 100% exists, this is exactly what gel stain is.

Also, water based products will work fine over top of oil products as long as the oil product is completely dry.

I oil gel stained my kitchen cabinets and used water based top coat on them. I used a dark gel stain in humid weather so it literally took 3 weeks for each layer to dry, and I used 5 layers of gel stain because I wanted it almost as opaque as paint, but not quite.

I work with General Finishes products and their FB page has product experts who will answer literally any questions you have about how to get the result you want.

[Sibley]

Stopped by the hardware store. It seems that interior, oil based, semi-opaque stain does not exist. Exterior stains have a semi-opaque stain but I don't really want exterior stain in my house like that. There is a solid stain for interior, however it is water based. I have concerns about how well a water based stain will work on top of oil based.

In short, I'll be painting it. I don't want to strip it again, and I don't think even conditioner is going to get it to the point I would prefer. It just wasn't intended to have a semi-transparent finish. Now to figure out a color. Sigh.

It 100% exists, this is exactly what gel stain is.

Also, water based products will work fine over top of oil products as long as the oil product is completely dry.

I oil gel stained my kitchen cabinets and used water based top coat on them. I used a dark gel stain in humid weather so it literally took 3 weeks for each layer to dry, and I used 5 layers of gel stain because I wanted it almost as opaque as paint, but not quite.

I work with General Finishes products and their FB page has product experts who will answer literally any questions you have about how to get the result you want.

Even if the stain works, it's not going to get me to where I want to be. I WANT something that looks like solid wood, with the wood grain. Raising the grain on this isn't an issue because there's no grain to raise. If I'm staining, I want semi-transparent. I'd have to replace the veneer to get that, and I'm not going to go to that expense.

I don't want to to stain it knowing that I'll be unhappy because it's not what I want. So I'm switching gears entirely. I'll be happy with paint (once I figure out colors) in a way that I simply wouldn't be happy with a solid stain. This applies to this piece of furniture though. Something else I might have a different vision for so a solid stain might be perfectly fine.

[Metalcat]

Stopped by the hardware store. It seems that interior, oil based, semi-opaque stain does not exist. Exterior stains have a semi-opaque stain but I don't really want exterior stain in my house like that. There is a solid stain for interior, however it is water based. I have concerns about how well a water based stain will work on top of oil based.

In short, I'll be painting it. I don't want to strip it again, and I don't think even conditioner is going to get it to the point I would prefer. It just wasn't intended to have a semi-transparent finish. Now to figure out a color. Sigh.

It 100% exists, this is exactly what gel stain is.

Also, water based products will work fine over top of oil products as long as the oil product is completely dry.

I oil gel stained my kitchen cabinets and used water based top coat on them. I used a dark gel stain in humid weather so it literally took 3 weeks for each layer to dry, and I used 5 layers of gel stain because I wanted it almost as opaque as paint, but not quite.

I work with General Finishes products and their FB page has product experts who will answer literally any questions you have about how to get the result you want.

Even if the stain works, it's not going to get me to where I want to be. I WANT something that looks like solid wood, with the wood grain. Raising the grain on this isn't an issue because there's no grain to raise. If I'm staining, I want semi-transparent. I'd have to replace the veneer to get that, and I'm not going to go to that expense.

I don't want to to stain it knowing that I'll be unhappy because it's not what I want. So I'm switching gears entirely. I'll be happy with paint (once I figure out colors) in a way that I simply wouldn't be happy with a solid stain. This applies to this piece of furniture though. Something else I might have a different vision for so a solid stain might be perfectly fine.

Do whatever makes sense for you, but I was really happy with gel stain on my very damaged, very uneven cabinets.

I could layer it until it had the exact right level of coverage to camouflage the unevenness, but show just enough of the wood to not look like totally opaque paint.

Maybe I'm not understanding your vision, but if I had that piece, I would 100% gel stain it because that shit is magic.

[lthenderson]

Even if the stain works, it's not going to get me to where I want to be. I WANT something that looks like solid wood, with the wood grain. Raising the grain on this isn't an issue because there's no grain to raise. If I'm staining, I want semi-transparent. I'd have to replace the veneer to get that, and I'm not going to go to that expense.

I start by saying I have no experience with what I'm about to suggest but I have read fairly recently of people bleaching wood with dark stains to lighten them and to restain to the desired color. I haven't done research on this so don't know the methods or the repercussions but perhaps something that you might want to experiment with and see if it might be viable.