I've chosen this for a couple of reasons. It looks milky now, but it will dry clear. Now this is the top coat that I'm going to use on this project. It's an easy finish to apply and can be very effective when it comes to blending varying background wood colors. Whitewashing harkens back to the days of Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer. The greater the pressure I apply, the more of the stain I remove and the more of the wood below shows through. I apply the pickling stain with a brush, then using a piece of cotton cloth folded into a pad, I wipe the surface, always moving in the direction of the grain. It produces a less formal country appearance, but at the same time looks sophisticated. This is a whitewash pickling stain, designed to impart color to the wood but not obscure the grain and character. This is an important step because the pre-stain, like any water-based material, tends to raise and stiffen the grain, which the sandpaper will cut off cleanly.

The pre-stain doesn't really change the appearance of the wood, but it will help insure that any stains I put on from here forward, look their very best.Īfter about a half-hour, the surface is ready for a light sanding with 120-grit paper. I apply the pre-stain with a brush intended for water-based or latex paints. This is a water-based product that needs to be stirred thoroughly. Now to avoid that, I'm going to condition the wood beforehand with something called a pre-stain. And sometimes when you stain a soft wood like this pine, the finish can appear blotchy. Now I'm going to be staining this piece and not painting it. For the larger flat surfaces, an orbital or palm sander can speed things up. This allows me to sand up into the corners and keep a clean angle. To sand the bevels on the edge of the raised panels, I wrap the paper around a piece of scrap wood. The folded pad conforms easily to the rounded edges, yet works equally well on the flat panel faces. Notice how the sandpaper holds its shape this way and allows me to apply pressure evenly as I move it back and forth in the direction of the wood grain. This is a quarter sheet of 120-grit sandpaper that I'm folding into thirds. Here's how.įirst, I'll remove the doors and then get ready to do some sanding. The wood and grain underneath will actually show through a bit. Now this is a new, unfinished pine corner cabinet and rather than paint or stain in a solid color, I want to put a pickled whitewash finish on here.

Pickled maple kitchen cabinets