We actually expected to have these shelves hung and posted about today, but we really wanted to make sure we were 100% happy with our stain and we just weren’t on our initial test piece. So we have tried and tried and tried again until we found a method that worked and we were happy with. We decided on thick douglas fir shelves for the reading room. We custom ordered them from our local lumber yard at 2.5″ thick and just shy of 11″ wide and 12 feet long at $33 a pop. It’s solid and straight and the grain is gorgeous but there’s one downside, douglas fir needs a little coaxing to accept stain.
Our wood grain Shaker cabinet fronts were designed for busy, high-traffic homes like ours. Clad with durable textured thermofoils, this line is compatible with Sektion, Akurum, Godmorgon, and Besta cabinets from IKEA. It's the perfect, practical way to add the warmth of wood to all the rooms of your home.
We have teamed up with Loloi to create a line of rugs that are as affordable as they are beautiful. This collection houses a great mix of traditional and modern rugs, in cottage-y colorways, as well as vintage-inspired beauties that you’ll want to roll out in every room.
We partnered with Stuga on a line of hardwood floors — The Ingrid is really livable, and the color is very neutral. It doesn’t lean warm or cool, it’s that just right in-between. We have really loved putting it everywhere in our house. It’s the best jumping-off point for design, no matter your interior style. In addition to being beautiful, Ingrid is really durable — we have three kids, and we always have a home construction project going on. Ingrid stands up to it all.
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Have you tried this stain on Douglas fit for an outdoor table?
The wood conditioner does the opposite than what you have stated. It seals the wood so that the stain is absorbed more uniformly to avoid the blotchy look.
I love the look of the wood in picture #1. What’s the walnut stain you used for that piece with conditioner?
I agree! Do you happen to remember the stain? Thanks
Would love to know the name of the walnut stain in pic #1!!
Also wondering! Please share
Ditto for me! I love the wood piece #1 and would love to know what stain you used!
Great post, very informative and specific. My girlfriend is outside sanding away on some doug fir lumber for a rustic outdoor table she’s building. I stumbled on to this with a google search, trying to decide if we should use pre-conditioner or not. The pictures are really helpful!
I’ve used minwax preconditioner, polyshades, regular minwax penetrating stain, and minwax wipe on poly.
I’ve never tried the gel stains – I understand that they ‘sit on top’, which is good for reducing blotchiness on difficult woods, but many complain that they obscure the natural grain and look too ‘even’. Your pictures look the opposite, like the gel stain really defined the grain.
Having seen your samples, I’m tempted to try either multiple coats of penetrating stain or try out the gel stain. Either way, we plan to overcoat the final stain color with Minwax Helmsman spar-urethane. It’s the exterior UV/water resistant poly they offer.
Do you have any experience with spar-urethane on doug fir? I’m curious, what made you choose polycrylic over a standard interior clear polyurethane?
Nice work, and thank you for sharing!
PS,
My own experience with polyshades is mixed. I’ve successfully exploited its flaws to create an aged, grainy look on wood that has none, like the MDF-topped Home Depot fold-able workbenches.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Signature-Development-72-in-Fold-Out-Wood-Workbench-WKBNCH72X22/203083493
But that’s not how it’s supposed to work, and I generally wouldn’t recommend it. It gels quickly, streaks badly, and doesn’t tolerate over-brushing. Plus the thickness of the poly is connected to the darkness of the color. I’d rather have independent control of both.
What sealant did you end up using? You put the sealer on after the stain, correct?
Yeah, we just like polycrylic
Can you be more specific on the type of wood.. Ive been trying to do a similar project but the different grades of Douglas Fir are mind boggling. #1,#2, CVG…. Im trying to get down to that $33 mark you mentioned and the lowest Ive found was $70.. Were there splits in the wood?
Hmm, sorry. It was so long ago, I’m having trouble remembering.
what was stain/method #4? that’s actually a look i would like to achieve with our doug fir beam.
Thanks so much for this! My brother in law just finished the most beautiful Walnut shelves for the shoes in my new walk-in. We are putting in a fir barn sliding door and wanted to stain it to look like walnut. We will try this out and hopefully it will turn out as lovely as your shelves did.
Erin
I would love to see the finished stained shelves. Do you have pics of them posted anywhere?
Yup! Right here, Daron: https://www.chrislovesjulia.com/2013/12/the-reading-room-shelves-fully-loaded.html
Love the stain you picked. Do the pieces of wood smell glorious?
wow…I had no idea fir was so tricky. glad to know all your tips…can’t wait to see the shelves hung!
Wow, what different results! I’m definitely mentally filing this away in case I ever try staining this kind of wood. I never knew you could custom order wood—great tip. Looking forward to seeing these up!
Gel stain is miraculous! I’ve only used it once (on shelves in the laundry room when I didn’t feel like sanding off all their old finish) and I loved it. Am looking forward to see what your shelves look like – love how chunky they are!