Before beginning the staining process, we opened windows for ventilation, laid down heavy duty sheets of plastic to protect the flooring, and put on rubber gloves.
For the best coverage, we separated the desk legs & front drawer panels from the desk tops.
Then, we prepped all the (bare/untreated) wood pieces with wood conditioner & allowed to dry about 15 minutes.
Next, we applied 1 coat of interior wood finish (oil based) as evenly as we could (…the consistency was very thin & “runny”) & allowed to dry for 8 hours.
Since the color looked to be about where we wanted & was pretty much dry to the touch, we applied a polyurethane semi-gloss to finish.
Products Used on Red Oak (bare) Wood Desk:
- Minwax Wood Pre-Stain Conditioner
- Minwax Interior Wood Finish, in Red Mahogany
- Minwax Wood Fast-Drying Polyurethane Semi-Gloss Finish
- 2″ Wood Finish staining brushes
- 2″ Polyurethane brushes
- Heavy Duty Plastic Sheeting
- Rubber Gloves
- Rags
This was our first time staining anything, and it was fun working on our soon-to-be work desks together!
See more photos of the finished desks here.
One thing I will mention is the smell. Whoo-Whew!
Plenty of ventilation is needed when staining, even after the finish has dried. It seemed like the smell had gotten louder, the following days after the staining was complete.
