Stained Poplar Floor

The commercial stain controllers i tested didn t provide enough blotch resistance so i developed a simple recipe to make a.

Stained poplar floor. It s my go to stain because of the brown and gray undertones you see once it s applied. This requires starting with a very effective stain controller also called wood conditioner or pre stain sealer. The best way to avoid that. All the grey wood stain colors were tested on birch plywood maple poplar pine and oak.

Poplar is technically a hardwood but it s one of the softer ones. I didn t include any exterior stains or weathering treatments in this test but i might do a second round in the future. Each piece was sanded with 150 grit sandpaper and was not treated with any kind of wood conditioner before applying the stain. 2 light 2 medium and 2 dark.

If i had to choose the poplar is my favorite. This will hopefully help you see how pine birch poplar white oak and red oak s undertones play with different stain undertones. This means it s perfectly suited for a paint application. Staining poplar wood is another matter entirely.

However staining poplar is not as simple as just brushing it on and allowing it to dry. Poplar is what we in the paint and stain industry refer to as a paint grade wood. Poplar is a very popular hardwood used in building cabinets furniture and other projects because of its relatively low cost. It is also very easy to work with and can be stained to look like more expensive types of wood such as cherry oak or walnut.

We ve been wanting to do a wood stain study for years now and in my head i wanted to do every type of wood with about 20 different stains each but with limited resources not to mention space we settled on 5 popular species of wood commonly used by diyers with 6 different stains. Briarsmoke is my long lost medium stain that i ve been searching years for. This stain truly softens the wood tones and creates a calming feeling. This post is sponsored by minwax.

For good results when staining it is imperative that all surfaces are prepared properly with a couple of coats of a pre stain wood conditioner this will allow the stain to be absorbed much more evenly and will make the bland grain pop a bit more. In its native form poplar tends to take stain in a very blotchy manner. The key to giving poplar a rich even stain color is to control its horrible blotching tendencies. Poplar is a fairly soft porous wood.

Lastly we thought it would be beneficial to see all the same wood type with different stains in one picture. That paint grade classification also means that poplar is not ideal for staining. Because of their softer nature porosity and grain texture both pine and poplar tend to be very blotchy when you stain them.