Using Oil Paint as Furniture Stain

A Quick Tutorial on how to Use Oil Paint as a Wood Stain:

1) Gather materials of tubed oil paint, mineral spirits, rags or paper towels, a container for mixing the stain (disposable), a stirring utensil (plastic fork), linseed oil, a little patience and elbow grease;

2) Now squeeze out about a two inch ribbon of paint from the tube and mix it with about a 1/4 cup linseed oil and 1 cup minerals spirits. The mineral spirits will help dissolve the oil and allow the paint to spread more easily.

3) Mix the paint, the oil and the minerals spirits really well. But don't worry if it does not have a thoroughly incorporated texture, because that is where the elbow grease comes in (by rubbing the paint mixture onto the wood);

4) Apply the paint, mineral spirits and linseed oil mixture directly to the wood. In this case, I purchased a table top from the local home improvement center;

5) Allow to dry for a few days as the linseed oil needs to soak into the wood;


6) Apply an acrylic protection over the stained wood - - even a spray acrylic covering works fine. Let the acrylic dry for several hours before final use.

The finished table topper is shown at the left as used on our pato to hold colorful summer annuals.

This particular batch of stain made enough to cover the table top, and to give a spring refreshment of stain and oil to the accompanying patio rocker.

A Good Recipe for Oil Stains

Have you needed a certain color stain for wood and did not know how to come up with an oil and paint formula?  Stains (colored) will allow the grain of the wood to show through, and are an attractive alternative to opaque paints.

In staining wood chairs, picture frames and even wooden siding on a small outdoor utility house, I have mixed together turpentine, oil paints and linseed oil in various proportions. Now I find a real formula for creating a stain! Here is the formula given from the site Antiquerestorers ...

This is an unfinished wood frame purchased at a craft store for an 8" x 10" oil that I am working on.  I got the canvas first, then found the open backed wood frame with the same dimensions.  Now all I need to do is paint the picture, and stain the unfinished wooden frame.

Later:  below is a picture of poppies (oil medium) in progress, along with that same wooden open backed frame shown above, but now stained with red and yellow oil paints, turpentine and linseed oil.

The frame colors will exactly complement the colors in the poppies, and will alleviate the need for a costly framing job.

The reason that the colors are an exact match is because they came out of the same tubes as the paints used in creating the poppies.  Otherwise, you could never find a "finished" frame in the colors as the ones used in an original artwork.

This idea and stain formula works for wooden chairs, too!

Wooden Rocker painted, stained and donated (for Hospice   Chair-ity Fundraiser)

What is Happening Today

1.  Corneal abrasion two weeks ago on Libby Sweetpea's right eye with emergency call visit.  Not healed yesterday, so 2nd vet visit.  A plastic lens on the eye to hold in strong antibiotics with an Elizabethan Collar of Shame that has to be worn for four days.  But OUCH, out came the plastic lens in the middle of the night, and a 3rd visit to the vet again this afternoon for another lens stain and abrasion.

2.  A baby sweater being knitted up for Jackie who is in her third trimester with Jackson.  Jackie is a huge Denver Broncos  football fan, and I am sure she will be ensuring Baby Jackson will be also. This is almost finished:

Orange and blue buttons, of course, with a contrasting grosgrain ribbon to back the buttons.  The self striping sock yarn came all the way from New Zealand, hand dyed by Stray Cats.  The shipping was costly, but where else have you ever seen orange and blue sock yarn?  The pattern is Beyond Puerperium, by Kelly Brooker and is an ingenious little knit.

3.  An outdoor decades old rocker that needs a re-finish.  Sanded and ready for new stain:

The stain mix: an ounce of oil paint, a scant cup of turpentine, a scant quarter cup of boiled linseed oil.  Stay tuned.  A previous post here explains it all.  Also this post gives a true recipe for wood stain.

4. Chicken Tikki Masala for dinner. The hub will grill the chicken and likely make the recipe if I can convince him that I am still refinishing that rocker.  (He does NOT like painting.)

Linking up with  Tami at Work in Progress Wednesday

Oil Paints on Wood Furniture; Minwax Wipe-On Poly

Last summer, I posted about painting a wooden table top with fine art oils. You know the type of medium: the small tubes of paint found at craft stores for canvas work. The individual tube of oil paint costs about $5. Compared with buying a new quart of paint for repainting a small project, this type refinishing product that you can mix up yourself is less expensive, and gives a stained result that allows the wood grain to show through the color.

A wooden rocker, painted for donation seven years ago for Hospice of Western Colorado, needed a face lift. It had set for about 2,500 days in a sunny east window of a business owner who generously purchased the rocker for the Hospice CHAIR-ity Fundraiser. He proudly shows off the CHAIR for CHAIR-ity in his waiting room, where his clients made good use of it. However, after seven years of strong sunlight exposure, the back slats were VERY washed out, as shown below:

So it was definitely time for a quick face lift to freshen up the red color. DH picked up the rocker from our accountant's office and carted it home so I could do a little color tuning on it. Here is how it the colorization was done:

Gather materials of oil paint, mineral spirits, rags or paper towels, a container for mixing the stain, a disposable stirring utensil, linseed oil, and rubber gloves for skin protection.

Squeeze out about a two inch ribbon of paint from the tube and mix it with about a 1/3 cup linseed oil and 1/3 cup minerals spirits. The mineral spirits will help dissolve the oil and allow the paint to spread more easily.

Spread the mixture over the wood (first primed with a light sandpaper brush to take off that old and faded top layer). Use several coats for thorough coverage. Let it dry for several days and then apply a polyurethane gloss for durability. I found a clear gloss product, Minwax Wipe-On Poly, that worked very well on the rocker. "Hand rubbed beauty with polyurethane protection" is labeled on the front of the can. It was accurate; truth in labeling definitely applied to Minwax.

Here is a picture of the rocker with its original colors (the yellow flower was not repainted):

Refurbishing it made a HUGE difference in the looks of the rocker, and its backside is a bright new red. It is again ready to face the sun with a shiny new finish.

Now this rocker, donated and painted with butterflies and poppies in 2003, is the next one up for a face lift:

Making Your Own Footstool

My dad had given me a framed piece of needlepoint several years ago that his aunt had made in the 1920's. The glass was cloudy and the frame was in pretty bad shape. It was definitely not something I would use as it was put together all those years ago. But the piece of needlepoint using deep shades of greens and reds was beautifully executed and in perfect condition under the glass.

Isn't that pretty?

To preserve that nostalgic old piece of needle crafted art, I decided to make a footstool and place on the top of it the rose needle-pointed in wool.

I measured the unframed piece of work, discarding the glass and frame. Those measurements determined what size box was needed in order to have an adequate base for the footstool. Then I determined how high the footstool should be in accordance with my favorite reading chair. My father-in-law made a hollow pine box base, so half the battle was over.

Coordinating upholstery fabric in reds, greens and blues was purchased. Bagged polyester filling was place on top of the box, and then the needlepoint rose was secured to the top of the box with a sturdy staple gun. I bought fabric three times the diameter of the box and the appropriate height of the box. It was all fairly intuitive after that as far as cutting, hemming, gathering the fabric and sewing the skirt.

The skirt was also attached to the box by staples. Where the edges of the top and skirt came together, I hot glued a length of cording all around it and attached tassels to each corner.

The dogs immediately destroyed the cute corner tassels, but it still looks nice enough to use and display that vintage piece of fiber art.

After the first footstool turned out so well, I decided to make a more simplified one without fabric on the bottom. Instead, a nicely crafted pine box supplied by my woodworking friend was used for the base. I stained the wood and put a quick acrylic spray on the wood when the stain dried. The top of the box was covered in the same manner previously described, but using a striped fabric for the top.

There was even enough fabric left over to make a matching pillow.

Only after making these two footstools did I find an article from the Carol Duval television show that explained how to make a footstool step-by-step. Those directions can be found at Carol Duval.

Another footstool using a metal planter as a base is shown with directions given by DIY, DIY Decorating & Design host Nancy Golden. All the tools she used are included at that site.

I was pleased with the results of making these two footstools, and happy to preserve my Aunt Lula’s needlepoint. To sum up, who could say it better than Mark Twain?

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.--Mark Twain