Thanks! Yes, SW = Sherwin Williams We used a stain on the beams named Early American, purchased at Home Depot/Lowe's. I'll have to ask DH the manufacturer. Be sure and take a sample of scrap wood(s) to find the colors you want. I took a 4 ft long piece the yard ripped for me to the store. We must have put on 8 stains before I found exactly what I was looking for. The veranda ceilings all have T&G spruce. I worked with the head painter to come up with a mix for that - used a 50/50 mix of stains so that it would be the same as the trim/beams. Used Dark Walnut on the oak flooring. Good luck with your project!

I dont really use gel stains. Im aware of what they do and all that jive but dont use them. You can try a big box store. Home depot ect. Or like a sherwin williams or equivilant paint store should carry it. Since youre looking to just do a single board and not he entire floor. I wouldnt be too concerned about a specific brand. Just make sure its a gel stain.

Now you got me started. I was going to comment that the molding and the floors look wonderful and should stay the colors they are. In many older houses with stained ww, the floor is lighter, giving some interest to the room. Then you got me started on base shoe, my FAVORITE topic. IMHO, you must put the base shoe up. It's the finishing touch on fine woodwork. I've always wondered why it is called base shoe and finally determined that it's like putting on your best clothing and then going barefoot. It just looks unfinished. My former house had all natural molding, what I wouldn't give to have it now. I love my house, but the white moldings can go...and the upkeep. My guess is if you're using the original baseshoe and it's held up all these years, it'll will hold up for many more. New stuff, unless you buy oak, not so much. Have fun. The house is beautiful.

For any finishing procedure it is best to practice the entire process so that you aren't surprised at the end. (I turned a whole maple floor pumpkin orange one time, recovering from that taught a lifelong lesson). Where you don't have a piece of wood that was used in the project you can either use something similar, or an out-of sight part of your bookshelf-- like the bottom or the underneath side of the bottom shelf. Color especially will change as you go through the different finishing steps. Set up a space with good ventilation, as little dust as possible, and excellent, very bright lighting from several sides, with strong sidelighting to allow you to see the surface in detail. Prior to staining, sand to P150-P220 grit using a random orbit sander. (At least P220 if hand sanding) Don't skip any grits and sand until the scratches from the previous grit disappear, they will never go away later, and will pop up like a sore thumb when you apply finish. Vacuum the surface with a brush head and then use a tack rag (either a traditional sticky one of a microfiber rag) to get all the dust you can. Stain, if you need to. I prefer using trans-tint dyes in denatured alcohol, but some people (I'm not one of them) have good success with oil stains. Very lightly hand sand with P320 to knock off any nits. Repeat with the tack rag. Apply a coat of gloss oil-base polyurethane from the can. Use either a good natural bristle brush (Purdy or Wooster make OK ones at $15-20 for a 2-1/2" brush.) Don't mess with cheap brushes, they are pure frustration. Throwaway foam brushes also work well with poly, and may well be your best choice. Buy several and throw them away rather than trying to clean them for re-use. Work quickly to get finish onto a surface, then finish with very light strokes as long as possible with the grain of the board (called "tipping off"). Then stop, don't mess with it any more. Watch for sags ad drips, and catch them before the finish starts to set up. They greatly complicate the rest of the process. Allow the finish to dry thoroughly. Usually several days. You want it to come off as dust when you sand, not globs of glue on your sanding pad. Sand with P220-280 using a ROS, or 320 by hand. Sand until most of your brush marks are gone, nits are removed and the surface is smooth. Do not sand through your stain! Vacuum and tack off your work, and thoroughly clean your work area, then tack off you project again. Apply another coat of clear gloss finish. Allow to dry thoroughly again. Most woods take 3 coats to give a good surface. If you have a good uniform surface you can stop there, otherwise proceed to a third coat. Sand by hand with P320 to take off the nits. This is your "money coat", so become fanatical about dust control and removal. After tacking I will also use a microfiber rag dampened with mineral spirits or denatured alcohol to remove the last of the dust. Apply a third coat of finish. Use gloss if that's what you are aiming for, use a semi-gloss or matte poly if you are shooting for that. The more matte finishes are gloss poly with small particles added to break up the light. They also, to a small extent, obscure the wood. I prefer to use only gloss and then buff to the desired finish level. Allow to dry. If you are happy with what you see you are done. I like to rub out these finishes to give them a smoother more pleasing surface. How much you do is a function of where you want the finish to end up. Getting to a high gloss is a lot of work, and I'm not going to get into that here. Allow the finish to dry completely-- 2-3 weeks at least in most cases, a couple of months is better. (So this is not good as a production method, better suited for weekend warriors) It won't work if the finish is still sticky at all. The idea is to burnish the surface. I start with 0000 steel wool and rub down the entire surface. Strokes with the grain are preferred, you will see shiny spots around the dust motes you missed, rub until these are all gone. Change pads as the surface fills, or re-fold to expose fresh steel wool. The finish should come off as a tiny bit of very fine white dust as you're doing this. You will notice that the surface feels much nicer than it did before. If you'd like a bit more shine you can wax the surface. Do not use grocery store furniture polish. There are a variety of products from woodworking supply places or Amazon that are primarily carnauba wax, softened with beeswax and solvent. Trewax and Briwax are two good brands. Run don't walk from products that don't tell you what's in them, promise miracles, or have any form of silicone. Antique cans of Simonize car wax are also good! Apply the wax to the whole piece then buff with a clean soft cloth (old t shirt or flannel). You will work up a sweat in this process, these are not "instant gratification" products. Once done you are finished and your project will stand up for years of use and abuse. Hope this helps. It's a lot of work and takes a long time, but the results are pretty decent and it's very satisfying. This post was edited by rwiegand on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 10:09