Paint & Stain

We knew we wanted to white trim, a neutral wall color, and a stain that complimented our flooring choices on the main floor and bathrooms. There are so many options out there, that it is a little overwhelming, and even intimidating.

We knew we wanted white paint for our trim and some cabinets. We didn’t want one that had cream undertones and one that wasn’t too stark either. Pure white was a solid choice. For the wall paint color, we debated on a few tried-and-true colors, and ultimately landed on Agreeable Gray.

Stain was a little tricky. We wanted something that wasn’t too dark, not honey oak, but light enough you could see the grains of the wood. We tested several options on a scrap piece of poplar wood – the wood species we were using in our house. The top two stain contenders are pictured with swatches of our paint colors and a sample of our main living area flooring. After lots of debating and contemplation, we decided on one we thought would be the right match (the lighter option in the upper left side of the picture). After the stain was on the wood, the paint contractor added lacquer, polyurethane, and a sealer to make the wood waterproof.

This is when reality set in. We realized we made the wrong decision in our stain choice.

Some of the wood looked great, but others were just all wrong (like the lower doors on the buffet and island). Since the flooring is covered, you can't really tell, but the stain completely clashed with our main living area flooring. What we didn’t know when picking the stain color is poplar wood doesn’t take stain evenly. The wood has a lot of varying grains and for it to look its best, it really needs to be stained dark because the grain layers don’t take the stain evenly. Additionally, the processes to make the wood waterproof can create a yellowish hue on a light stain.

Our stain choice was a big design mess up. Since the wood is sealed to be waterproof, even if you sand it down, the sealer is still in the spaces of the wood and so it can’t take stain evenly again. To fix it, we were left with 3 options. First, dry brush the wood with an oil-based stain (which comes in limited colors and may not look even – especially in corners on cabinet doors). Second, get new cabinets made (which is costly and time consuming). Lastly, enamel the wood with paint (which changes the look and feel we wanted).

None of the options seemed right. After lots of tears were shed (mostly from anger at myself for picking the wrong color), we landed on the third option – to enamel the stained wood that is next to our main living area floor (our built-in buffet, kitchen island, and entry lockers). The big paint color debate was back on... stay tuned for what we landed on!