White Wood Stain and Whitewash Wood Finish

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Whitewash Wood Finish

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Whitewashing, sometimes referred to as "pickling" because it is done with other colors other than white, is usually just pastel color staining.

Whitewashing can be done with white stain or a tinted clear coat. Some wood finishers will make their own white wash by thinning down paint. You always have to be careful when making your own home -made brew, particularly with latex paint. Latex if thinned too much (oil will too, but latex is more sensitive) which will ruin the adhesion of the paint. I don't see any need for making your own whitewash stain, since commercially manufactured stains are available. Minwax makes a oil and a latex whitewash stain - Winter White and Pickled Oak.

Whitewashing oak - see Pickled Oak

It is easier to whitewash oak, because oak has wood pores that will hold a (paste-like) stain. Thicken the stain with "whiting" for this purpose.

In this article I want to review how to whitewash smooth woods, typically pine or birch are used for doors and trim (when oak is not used), pine is the most common wood used for trim and doors in residential construction.

The problem: Pine is blond

The problem with white washing the commonly used pine is that the wood itself is quite blond to start with and will not show the whitewash. Because of this, the first thing

you have to do with pine (or birch) is to stain it. You can use oil or (I assume) latex stains for this. Waterbased stains require a pre-stain conditioner to help prevent grain from raising. Latex stains can sometime activate some substances in certain woods causing discoloration.. Oil can be applied directly unless the wood is porous, in such cases, you may need to pre-condition the wood.. The conditioners for waterbased stains are not the same as used for oil based stains. I use a thinned shellac wash for oil, there are special pre-conditioners for latex stains.

PreStaining

The first staining should bring some color to the wood, it really doesn't have to be a specific color, just as long as it is a light, natural wood color.

My own version of the pre-stain is a coral / pinkish beige color. I came up with this pre-stain color so that I could match pickled pine with pickled oak. Oak, when white washed, has a pinkish cast to it, so on jobs that use mixed woods (of pine and oak) I needed to get the end product to look the same. I did so, by pre-staining the pine.

The above two colors are approximations of the pre-stain color range that I have used on blond woods like pine or birch before whitewashing. You can find pastel stains (Minwax) for this, or use an oil based paint and thin it with mineral spirits and clear stain tinting base.

Sealing the pre-stain

You need to seal the pre-stain (as a rule) to prevent it from being re-wetted by the following whitewash and turning into "mud" color.

You can use a very thin coat of "shellac wash" (see Shellac) and even tint it very lightly with white (use white pigmented shellac "BIN" to tint the clear shellac wash. DON'T USE TOO MUCH WHITE in this seal coat. Under-do-it rather than over-do-it. Tinted clear coats are harder to apply

clears can be messy looking if not applied skillfully. White stains (particularly oil) take longer to dry, and will allow for more “working time” to get clean joints and edges.

If you use shellac as your sealer, you should use oil (white) stain over the top because many waterbased stains won’t adhere to shellac. Note: Never use steel wool to smooth out whitewashed woodwork, it will gray the stain and ruin the coloring, use sandpaper (carefully) only.

White wash application

1.Paint / Glaze

Using faux finish glaze, you will make a white glaze (wash), consisting of about 1/3 oil glaze, 1/3 white alkyd satin sheen paint, 1/3 mineral spirits. These proportions are not set in stone, adjust according to the dictates of your glaze, application conditions and other requirements.

Flogging

You will brush this glaze on as you would a toning varnish, i.e. follow the direction of the wood grain, and do a clean job on the joints where you have directional changes. A glaze is opaque enough that is will show brush dragging lines. To break these up, you can pat them with the flat sides of your brush to break them up. This is known as "flogging" to woodgraiiners. Flogging is optional, you can just brush out the white wash, but I think it looks better if you break up the dragging.

White tinted shellac

This is harder to use than glaze, but it won't leave noticeable brush marks. This is a toning "varnish", (see Shading and Toning Varnish). You must keep the white in each coat to a minimum, or you will get lap marks (you still have to be very careful of lapping - this is what makes this harder to use).

Why shellac?

Admittedly, shellac because of it's fast dry makes it somewhat difficult to use, but it does not yellow like varnish or (oil) polyurethane. A waterbased (tinted white) clear coat might work for this step, but I have not gone down that road (there used to be some reservations with latex causing yellowing over a oil glaze, adhesion could also be an issue depending on how much sheen your paint and glaze have). so I will leave that to you to test.

Shellac has excellent adhesion. BIN, pigmented shellac primer adheres to almost anything that is paintable, and the same is true for clear shellac. I always like to keep latex with latex (and then be sure the sheen is low enough for re-coating and then I still feel it needs to be deglossed to be safe. This system has good adhesion, both the oil and the shellac, and it is reasonably non-yellowing. The oil stain is the "weakest link" in terms of yellowing, but the Minwax oil stain (Pickled Oak), has been pretty good in my experience, particularly when overcoated with a thin coat or two of (lightly) tinted white shellac wash. Note: method #2 is a bit harder to apply, but it bypasses the white oil stain totally.

Finish off with a clear shellac coat

This is optional. The one problem with using shading or tinted finish coats is that they will show wear more than with a clear coat. The color wears away with the finish in the case of shading finishes. To prevent this, protect your tinted coats with a final this wash coat of shellac. Keep it thin to prevent any ambering from the shellac. You must not re-brush areas when using shellac over shellac or you will re-wet the previous coat (of tinted white) shellac. This will be noticeable with tinted shellac, so work quickly and efficiently.

A sample brush out of white stain over an appropriatly colored light wood tone.

My system - 1

Oil pre-stain

Shellac wash (can be slightly tinted with white)

White oil stain or white oil paint/glaze (This allows more working time than tinted shellac, and is easier to work with)

Shellac (slightly tinted with white)

Clear shellac

My system -2

Oil pre stain

White tinted shellac

White tinted shellac

(White tinted shellac)

if needed for color reasons

Clear shellac

I know most DIY’ers like to avoid oil, so I have listed an alternate waterbased system (I can’t personally vouch for this system)I have always used oil, but the latex system should work - but test it out on a scrap piece of wood first and test for “look” and adhesion of the final product)

Alternate waterbased system

Waterbased pre-stain conditioner (a must)

Waterbased pre-stain

Waterbased clear coat (use a low sheen satin)

Light sanding to degloss (careful not to sand through the finish - don’t be too aggressive - just degloss the clear coat)

Waterbased white paint/glaze

Clear waterbased finish

Note: One advantage with a latex system is that it should not yellow over time. I have had good results with Minwax’s white oil stain in terms of minimal yellowing. I use shellac with this because shellac does not yellow with age like a oil varnish will. Use thin shellac wash coats because shellac, while it doesn’t yellow over time, it has a slight amber cast which you want to avoid. Keep it thin, and add a little white to minimize or eliminate this from affecting your final finish.

White paint / glaze flogged onto pine trim.

(click on photo to enlarge)

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