Polyshades Stain Project

Not too long after we moved in here, I decided to stain our stair railings from the plain & boring oak that they were to something more rich & exciting. So, I bought some Polyshades by Minwax. Not sure how long this product has been out, but it is pretty neat in that it has stain & poly all in one step. You don't have to do a lot of prep work to change the color of something & the results are pretty amazing. Thought some of you might like to see this project. It was very easy to do & only took about 2 or 3 days working a couple hours at a time. I didn't tape off the spindles, but used a small cheap chipbrush that could be thrown away. Did I mention that I'm a lazy painter & hate cleaning brushes? Especially oil based paint brushes. So, you can buy these chipbrushes very inexpensively & throw them away without a lot of waste. I mixed 2 shades together: Bombay Mahogany & Royal Walnut. The Mahogany has a lot of red & I was trying to get more of a deep dark brown. It turned out a little more red than I wanted initially, but I'm still happy with the results. It's a whole lot better than the boring somewhat blonde oak color we had to begin with. Here's a pic of the railings before I started. Boring oak. Oak is not my favorite, especially this color. I have some old furniture pieces of oak that are rich & mellow, but the new oak in most houses today leaves a lot to be desired. No offense to any of you who love oak, it's just not my cup of tea.

And here are the After pics. I think you'll agree that they look a lot richer & have much more depth of color with this new stain. My railings were not shiny to begin with so all I did was wash them down before I started & then just stained. Keep a rag handy to wipe any drips.
You can see how they contrast with the floor. I wanted them to be darker than the hardwoods. This product is a little bit runny, so you do have to watch the drips as you are going along. I did one coat overall & then went back & added more where it was streaky. All in all, it turned out just the way I had planned & I'm very happy I did them. This color above on the railing is very accurate to how they look in person.
They aren't quite as orangey-red or streaky as this pic shows with the flash, but here's a closeup. I'd suggest you get small pints of any colors you are looking at & mix them until you get exactly the color you want. It doesn't take a lot of stain either, so small pints, not quarts will do this job easily. I'm working on a small side table that is not real wood, so I'll show you that one when it's finished. I do notice that the Bombay Mahogany really does go on darker & more saturated than some of the other colors, like the Royal Walnut I'm working with now. So, the best advice is to experiment with the colors before you get started. I do think if you wanted a darker brown shade that you could easily mix one of the darker ones in with the Mahogany to get the look you want.

This is an easy project, so I hope you might be inspired to make some changes too. This will work on furniture too, so keep your eyes open for something to update at your house!

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A big THANK YOU to Angela at Cottage Magpie and Des at Peeking Thru the Sunflowers, for giving me the "You Make My Day" award. I'm so appreciate of all the awards I get, even if I don't always pass them on. Thank you for the honor!

I've also been tagged by Rhondi for a 4 Things About Me Post, so since I haven't done this one before, I'll be a good sport and play along....

4 jobs I've had:

Library Page (my first job at 15)

Administrative Assistant

Design Consultant for Ethan Allen

4 movies I watch over and over:

I rarely watch movies over & over again, they just aren't nearly as good the 2nd or 3rd time to me...now my husband, he can watch his favorites over again at least 100 times.

4 places I've lived:

Marietta, GA

Lakeland, FL

Birmingham, AL..you can see I don't move much!

4 TV shows I watch:

Devine Design

CSI

Dr. Phil

48 Hours

4 places I've been:

St. Thomas

Italy

St. Maarten

France

4 people who email me regularly:

Vicki

Manuela

Debra

Debbie

4 favorite things to eat:

Pizza

Ice Cream - White Turtle from Brusters, I even blogged about it last year.

Anything Chocolate

Creme Brulee or cheesecake

4 places I'd rather be:

Italy

Gulf Coast Beach in FL

San Francisco

Caribbean

4 things I look forward to this year:

Getting my decorating business off the ground

Volunteering in ministry

Possibly going on a missions trip

Going to the beach for a week with my hubby

4 people I will tag:

Manuela @ The Feathered Nest

Debra @ The Bunnies' Bungalow

Sher @ Sher's Creative Expressions

Donna @ Donna's Art

OK, girls....you're it! I've also got an exciting lamp makeover to show you soon, so stay tuned!