Hi, I’m back looking for more advice. My nephew is autistic. My SIL (sister-in-law) showed me a picture of an awards shelf from a catalog and asked me if I could make one for Nino (nephew). He is active in the Special Olympics, and has lots of medals to display. Basically simple, maybe a 3 foot long x 3/4x 16 inch back board, with 2 side brackets, and a top shelf across. 24 pegs, staggered for the medals to hang on. I can do this, My question is-I’m thinking of using pine for this, the local Lowes has some really good, no knots, pieces. I have some cherry stain left over from last years mangers I made. Any issues staining pine? Sand it down to 220, glue/assemble, stain? 

John, my apologies, I’m a dunderhead, I should have posted this in the Finishing forum. Could you move it for me  

Pine is notorious for blotching when using stain. I've had marginal success if the stain is dark and I put on 2 applications. I recently built a white pine bookshelf for my Mom and stained it walnut. I didn't look too bad. Painted poplar might be another choice. Both woods are usually available at the Borg.

 

Because it is for a younger person, maybe a dye would be better. They come in bright colors which might be cool.

 

If I'm fixing to stain something and am worried about blotching I will thin the stain one part stain and 10 parts thinner... I then spray it on with the paint gun cut back 2/3 thirds. Wait a few minutes if it needs to be darker and keep repeating until it suits me...

  something anyone can get good results using but don't know if it available where you live is a glaze product and use the glaze extender which is a clear mixture when needing to make something very light with stain. I mix a colored stain with more extender than color....Or paint it a solid color with maybe a different color raised trim around the edges. Lowes has some nice trim that will make anything look great..

I agree with Lew, pine can blotch pretty badly. You might consider a wipe on stain for pine.  

 

 

 

Artie, how about something like this?  I made one for each of my sons and painted one blue and the other one green.  The painted structure was poplar and the top and hooks were red oak.  It is an affordable project and the materials can be purchased most anywhere.   Plans are from WOOD magazine store.  Danl

 

Artie, pine is so so as others have said with.  Here is an example of pine stained with Dark Walnut.  No extenders just pure stain brushed on and wiped off.  These are the legs for my cat house / sawhorse project.  Goal here was a rustic look, with poly to protect against the elements.  If I am using wood inside for nicer stuff I tend to go with Ash, it takes just about any color well and is easy to work with.  As someone else said, maybe color this with a bright color or multiple colors.  Red on top, white in middle and blue on the bottom.  You can also produce a crisscross pattern of colors using tape.

 

 

 

Now for an inexpensive and easy, but takes some time finish, you could produce this marble like look such as on the cabinet of my TS.  This is created by using two coats of Rustoleum Aluminum paint, let it dry at least 24 hrs.  Then get some milk paint, dark grey in this case and take a plastic bag and make a pattern all across it.  Another day of drying.  Finally some Rustoleum Black and again with the plastic bag go crazy.  Let dry 24 hours.  You can topcoat with poly, oil base or latex, or as in this application Lacquer.  Give it a few days to dry, outside in the sun works well.  Fancy and easy to do, not real messy.

 

 

 

Artie does it have to be stained? Why not just varnish (or poly) it and get on with it?

A sign carving site I visit, claims that a "gun stock" stain does a good job on pine. MinWax sells one version....if ya want brown. Frankly, I'd paint it like Danl posted or follow Gerald's advice. 

17 hours ago, Danl said:

Artie, how about something like this?  I made one for each of my sons and painted one blue and the other one green.  The painted structure was poplar and the top and hooks were red oak.  It is an affordable project and the materials can be purchased most anywhere.   Plans are from WOOD magazine store.  Danl

 

That is very close to what I’m planning on making, and I like the looks of that color scheme. Thank you.

15 hours ago, Gerald said:

Artie does it have to be stained? Why not just varnish (or poly) it and get on with it?

I was thinking that plain pine, just sealed would look a little too much like one of those do it yourself projects, from the inexpensive stores.

19 hours ago, Gerald said:

Artie does it have to be stained? Why not just varnish (or poly) it and get on with it?

Shellac makes pine look wonderful.   Adds a lot of chatoyance.    As an added benefit, if there are knots or sappy spots, it seals them in.

I've always wanted to try this method. I bet you got some torches laying around @Artie ! My dad blow torched a ton of stuff he made when I was a kid, in the 70's it was quite popular.

 

 

John, I’m still trying to get the stuff I glue together to stay together. I put a torch to it, I’ll most likely burn the place down.

I'll have to add that I don't do much with pine.   But I've always heard to just use a gel stain.   I did some baseboards for the church last year.   One of the trustees just went to Lowe's and bought a bunch of base molding.  I got some GF Gel Stain that I assumed would be top quality, but it blotched worse than I thought.    Next time, if occurs, I'll try a shellac wash coat first.  

A few months later, I spruced up some lower kitchen cabinet doors there and used the same stain as a glaze between coats of finish and it worked fine for that.

I’ve got some very nice pine. No knots at all. I ordered a piece of cherry, for the top. I think I’m gonna make my own version of Danl’s shelf. It’s coming together in my head, we’ll see how that plays out it the shop.

23 hours ago, kmealy said:

I'll have to add that I don't do much with pine.   But I've always heard to just use a gel stain.   I did some baseboards for the church last year.   One of the trustees just went to Lowe's and bought a bunch of base molding.  I got some GF Gel Stain that I assumed would be top quality, but it blotched worse than I thought.    Next time, if occurs, I'll try a shellac wash coat first.  

A few months later, I spruced up some lower kitchen cabinet doors there and used the same stain as a glaze between coats of finish and it worked fine for that.

Dye pine to get a background color you like then seal with 2 lb cut of shellac then stain and you get good results.  Or spray a tinted shallac coat.  once done forget stain.

 

So I’m gonna try to duplicate the shelf in DanL’s picture. I bought a piece of Cherry for the top shelf, I bought a bunch of birch pegs for Nino to hang his medals on. I was gonna just put 3 coats of General finishes high performance finish on the Cherry and the pegs. In like the blue color in the picture, the blue in the picture will be all Pine. Now the only painting I’ve done is walls and ceilings  I’m just used to buying gallon cans of latex from one of the BORGs. What king of paint do I want to consider? I’m looking for a slightly brighter, shinier color than the blue in the picture. Latex? Acrylic? Enamel? Something else? All suggestions/opinions/advice wanted, Thank you 

On wood, I prefer an oil base paint for a first coat.  Then to put a flat latex, sand the oil based paint so that the latex will grab and your finish coat will last a long time.  This is an old way of doing it and I still do that 50 years later.    Can hardly wait to see some of the other processes posted by others with later experiences.  

13 minutes ago, FlGatorwood said:

Then to put a flat latex, sand the oil based paint so that the latex will grab and your finish coat will last a long time.

My Grandfather used this method.  I remember sanding the pieces....