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.