Dawn.of.a.Daydream's Furniture Flips Collection on LTK

Furniture Flips

By Dawn.of.a.Daydream

Refinishing secondhand furniture 🪑

It’s not you 👀
It’s your prep work.

Most people know they need to remove the old finish, sand, and clean off all the dust… but then they go straight in with stain and end up with a blotchy mess 😬

You’re skipping a vital step!

Wood conditioner (aka pre-stain).

This magical product does exactly what it sounds like, it conditions the wood so the stain absorbs evenly instead of soaking in too fast in some spots and not enough in others (which is what causes most blotchy finishes).

⚠️ Not ALL wood needs it.
Some woods really benefit from it (like pine, maple, and birch)
while others like oak are more forgiving and don’t always require it (and can even look a little less rich if you use it).

Not sure what wood you have? That’s ok! You don’t need to know the type just whether it will stain evenly

Here are two easy ways to tell:

💧The water test:
Lightly wipe the surface with a damp cloth
→ If it darkens quickly and looks patchy = use pre-stain
→ If it darkens evenly = you can usually skip it

🖌️ The safe test:
Try a patch test, staining with and without conditioner, somewhere hidden like inside a drawer, underneath or on a scrap piece.
This way you can see how the stain reacts before committing (especially important if you’re working with veneer where you don’t have a lot of thickness to sand)

This one step can completely change your results

If you have any other refinishing questions ask away in the comments! Or if you’re a staining pro add your best tip! ☺️

🔗 If you want the link to my favorite pre stain comment “DIY” and I’ll send it your way ☺️

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