Expert: Eileen Cronk - 5/17/2010

Question
Hi Eileen,
You helped me out with pine kitchen cupboards a few months back.  Now I have a question regarding tongue and groove pine walls.  I stained 2 walls a few months back and our daughter went up a few weeks ago. She said you can really see the overlap of stain (darker) from where I would start the next section...about 6 feet apart.  
Any ideas of how I could blend that in before I put on the varathane?  My original thought is to try a bit of varsol/paint thinner.  I'd appreciate your thoughts.  
Thanks,
Nancy

Answer
Hi Nancy
Nice to hear from you.
This happens a lot when folks stain pine. Pine is tricky stuff to stain. You must work fast and in one continuious sweep. Pretty hard with walls though.
And its called exactly what you said..stain overlap.
The only way I know of to fix this is by applying another coat of stain over the entire walls.
The varsol in my opinion will highlight the problem more and really mess you up. You cannot rub this out with varsol. Paint stripper will remove a fraction of it but its penetrated deep into the pine.
This time, do one board from top to bottom at a time taking care not to let the stain get over on the next board although it should not cause stain overlap with the second coat. Use rags not a brush to apply the stain.
Nancy let me know how this goes. Sorry you have the problem.
Regards
Eileen