staining popular

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9
Location
Hilliard, OH
Hi all:
I need to figure out what the best way is to stain popular. I am building four dressers for my kids. I got a good deal on 200 bdft of popular. I know popular has a yellow greenish tint to it I would like to keep the color some what light.

Any recomendations would be helpful.

Thanks
Fred
 
I find poplar very hard to stain evenly with a dye - I find it tends to blotch. What I would probably do it put a base coat of dewaxed shellac on it and then add the color in the finish until I got the color I wanted, then do a final coat of clear (I'd spray all of this). The green of poplar will turn brown after a period of time in the light so plan for the color change.

The other thing to do is to use paint. There's nothing wrong with painted furniture - and you can do some very interesting things with paint and patterns, especially for kids. You can paint some of their favorite characters on the dressers, or do some bold contrasts between the case and the drawers. After all, it's poplar and it's for kids. Let your imagination run wild. You can always paint over it.

Mike
 
Thanks Mike

Mike

I had suggested painting to my wife and kids. They want the look of stained wood though. They always pick the hard way.:) :) May have to talk to them about it some more. My boys would love pictures of football or baseball on there dressers

Fred
 
Thanks Alan

Thank You I have been looking into the Watco oil. How long does this stuff take to dry? Can you use polyurethane over top of it. How about a Gel stain?

Fred P
 
For the oil I rub in a few coats and let it set a day inbetween coats.Then let the oil set for a few days to allow it to dry. I have been told that you can put poly over it, but I have not tried it yet.
Gel stains are a unknown for me as there has been time to try it out yet. I try not to use stains, as the smell stinks up the whole building.
 
I have always found poplar very easy to stain, kinda like walnut, in that the color variations (green to cream) don't show up when stained. I have never had it blotch with pigmented stains and never tried dyes, other than as a toner in the top coat, so I can't say how dyes work, but in general, dyes shouldn't blotch since they lay on top of the wood. Maybe it is the quality of stain I am using, ML Campbell wipe ons (ready for top coat in less than an hour), more expensive than home center stuff, but well worth it.
 
thanks to all

Thanks to everyone that has given me information, I am going to go and get some different types of stain this weekend and see what happens, when I get the project complete I will try and post some pics.


Thanks again
Fred Pilkington
 
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