Shade Painting with Stain

IC readers – you are in for a treat here! This weekend, at the Haven Conference, I got the chance to meet Nick and Beth, the authors of the blog Sawdust and Embryos. They are a DIY duo and it was a privilege to sit and talk with them for a little bit while at the conference. When I first saw Beth’s amazing shade technique I begged her to guest post to share it on here. Sit back and be amazed. She even says it is easy enough that I can do it! That, my friends, is a coffee table Beth painted and then shaded with stain.

Hey IC readers! My name is Bethany, and I co-author (with my man-boy Nick) DIY/family blog Sawdust and Embryos! We have WAY too much fun building, painting and creating together… all with our twin 2-year-old daughters in-tow . We’ve been chugging away at making our house a home, and love sharing tutorials and furniture transformations along the way!
When Beckie invited me to guest post, I was completely flabbergasted and so excited! I mean, this is the BIG TIME right here! She is such an inspiration to me, and has really been a pioneer to pave the way for this crazy DIY blogging ‘industry’. You don’t come by creativity like that just anywhere!! UGH, I could go on and on.

But let’s got down to business, because I have an amazing technique to show you today! I decided to try my hand at ‘shading with wood stain’… and well, let’s just say IT TOTALLY WORKS.

After doing that (above) Buffet, I knew I had to try this technique again because I loved it so much! I did this in an evening, and you can too… NO JOKE. I know it looks all intricate and impossible, but just please trust me! Let me show you how!
We started with this basic coffee table (below) that is a dime-a-dozen. I think we picked it up for $10 at a garage sale. Since there was nothing special about it, I knew it was the perfect candidate to give this a try. If it flops, we can just paint it turquoise. That seems to be everybody’s backup plan, right?!

Since I had dabbled in shading with stain and knew it worked, I was excited but a little nervous to try something more intricate. But what’s there to lose, right? A $10 coffee table that you can find in any dorm room?

When using stain, you always need to have a surface that’s raw smooth wood. So I stripped her down real quick, and sanded till she was smooth as a baby’s… cheek. (Stripping tutorial here)

I did a google image search for ‘lily’ and sketched out the outline of a lily that I liked using a pencil. You can hardly see it here, but you get the point, right?

Then, using a craft paint brush, I started applying stain a little at a time.

Similar to drawing with charcoal, you just scrub it to smear (shade) it. You’ll know where to shade, because you’ll choose a direction that the ‘light’ is shining on your flower. So on the side of the light, there will be NO STAIN, and it will gradually get darker toward the opposite side of each petal.

The whole time I was doing this, I kept saying… ‘this is NOT turning out!’. But I just kept going, because what’s there to lose? A $10 coffee table? There was no turning back! …But then I stepped back and said SNAP! Not bad sister! And patted myself on the back.

After sealing it with a glossy poly, it really deepened the shade of the stain, but I like it this way too! And we chose to paint the base a glossy black, because we wanted the top to really stand out!

Of all the furniture we’ve done, this one is one of my favorites. Nothing gives me more joy than making something tragic look AMAZING. It’s so satisfying! If you decide to give this staining technique a try, definitely check out the more in-depth tutorial here, and feel free to ask any questions at all!

We hope you’ll stop over to our blog Sawdust and Embryos and say hi! And feel free to snoop around our other furniture revamps, various tutorials and refinishing techniques! And below are some of our popular projects!