Is the minwax conditioner the oil-based kind (like it always was)? You don't do water-soluble stain over paint thinner (basically what minwax conditioner is). It's always a good idea to stir and mix your products thoroughly before applying. I think you can make acrylic stain more translucent (weaker in effect) by mixing with matte medium, fwiw. A far better sealer for acrylic stain is a thinned-down coat of matte medium, or a wash coat of shellac. Either method is going to better limit the uneven effect than paint thinner. Casey

@mindshift: We have decided on going with paint. I did a lot of research. And it comes down to the look you want, the wood you use, weather etc. Since we wanted a clean look with little grains showing we went with pain. We also used redwood clear select for our fencing .This is NOT premier high end wood ( like IPE or Managris or Mahagony) and I did not think a dark stain would hold well on it and paint would be a good cover up. If I was not fixated on a black fence I would have stained it clear and gone for the premium quality wood and let the wood do all the talking :-) Also weather here ( Northern California) is decent for painted fences.

My crystal ball is not here . We need pictures please .

I wanted to follow up on my own post with photos of how our floors came out because others may have this same issue. We ended up using Bona Nutmeg stain with a coat of Naturale sealer and two coats of Traffic HD Satin. Not sure how the photos will read but in person they look rich and warm without being orangey.