Best way to stain pine to a medium colour for high use?

Hello,

This is my first post so I apologise if I'm asking something that has been asked before, I couldn't find any other threads asking quite the same thing.

I am looking to stain a piece of pine bench (this one Porta Pine Laminated Panel 19mm 405 x 1820mm | Bunnings Warehouse) to a medium brown kind of colour. I will attempt to attach a picture of our acacia wood buffet, something like this colour but it doesn't have to be exact.

It is for the top of our hall unit which will get quite a lot of use as people tend to put down their phones/bags on it when they visit.
Ideally I'd like something that (at least by the time it is dry) is low-VOC/healthy as it is just outside my toddler's room.

I have done some googling and I can see that the general idea for pine is to put a layer of seal to make sure the stain doesn't reverse the grain, then stain, then perhaps glaze and then seal? I see that shellac is a well regarded seal for being non-toxic, would it stand up to heavy use, and would it be ok to use with the procedure listed above?

I've never stained before and I'm a bit confused about what type of stain (water based, spirit based etc) and what type of product to use in those steps so that everything plays nicely together. Also the swatches I looked at in Bunnings didn't seem to have much in the colour range I was looking at....

So, basically clueless and looking for any advice of what type of product to use at each step. I don't mind if it takes more time in between to apply or dry, I just want something that will look nice and last well. Any advice greatly appreciated :)

The trouble with pine is it does not stain evenly and the trouble with stain is it's hard to match when applied to a different species of timber so from experience I can safely say that you will never get your piece of pine to look like the sideboard in the picture. I'm sure Bunnings have these tops in different species, like Merbeau which would be a much closer fit to your sideboard.

Thanks very much, I will have a look and see what I can find, that might be a better option (unfortunately we've already bought and hubby has cut the pine to size but I'm sure we'll use it for something else if not this). The colour/appearance doesn't have to match exactly to the sideboard as it is in the next room but I get what you are saying that it is a totally different looking timber. Probably pine is a bit soft as well if people dump their keys on it, hmmm. Off to investigate Merbeau, haven't heard of it before :)

One of the characteristics of pine is that it has a tendency to go blotchy when you add a stain/finish to it. One way as you have already discovered is to firstly seal it with Shellac this will most likely cause the pine to give a yellowish tone. In general Shellac is not the best finish for a hard wearing finish but there are exceptions.

As to the variety of available products in your hardware store the colour range can be quite limited. It certainly does not limit your options as you can add additional colour. Like the Feast Watson Feast Watson 50ml Oak Prooftint Interior Stain | Bunnings Warehouse or Ubeaut U-Beaut Polishes - NON TOXIC WATER DYES.

Decant an amount of finish in a jar and add the dye one drop at a time into that jar until you get something close to the finish you are after. Apply some of the finish to the underside of the board. Once dried you will be able to determine if that is what you are after in terms of finish. The second coat of finish applied to the board will tend to make it a little darker.