Coloured Stains

We are currently looking to do some internal joinery with that exposed ply edge look for the frames and thinking of staining the ply doors. But we wish to use brightly coloured stains on these doors as opposed to the usual woody colours. These doors would be then finished in satin polyurethane as they will be in the bathroom/laundry areas.

Where do we find such coloured stains - YES I know about the water dyes from U-Beaut. But we have a lot of doors, about 10.0 sqm at least and those dyes may not be answer in terms of coverage and colour consistency.

The doors will be in select grade Hoop Pine ply. As these doors will be in wet areas is it wise to use marine grade ply or is this a over kill

Looking forward to the wise advice
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Cheers <o></o>

I have successfully made DIY coloured stains by thinning gloss enamel with turps about 1:10 (guessing). Mostly I've used the small "fiddly bits" tins of enamel in standard colours but you could use a custom colour paint. You will need to test to get the dilution correct and also see what colour you end up with once you factor in the timber grain showing through and top coats of Estapol (or similar).

Steph

Hi
do you want to use a tint that will stain the timber but show the grain?
I think feast watson? proof tints can be mixed with shellac to give a bright colour that you can then poly over. Ive used these to create graining and fantasy finishes and the colour is quite strong. comes in bright blues green red etc and can be conbined to make other colours
astrid

a small bottle costs about $12 and goes a long way mixed with shellac
test it in an off cut
astrid

Thanks all

I'll give these hints a try

Cheers

As Astrid says, mixing Feast Watson colours with shellac gives a finish which does not obscure the grain at all. If you want to see the result look at my submission of my new vanity unit in woodwork pictures. I used blond shellac with FW red stain so there was no orange component which might have occurred had I used ordinary orange shellac. The wood was Sydney blue gum which has a fairly subtle grain.

Jerry