Staining to match discolored wood tongue and groove ceiling

DIY808 · 01-02-2012, 10:31 PM

We have a beautiful high vaulted ceiling in our grand room that is natural wood tongue and groove panels. We are in the middle of a major kitchen remodel and recently took down the track lighting from the kitchen. The lighting doesn't work where it use to be in our new kitchen configuration. The wood was considerably lighter where the track lighting was located. The painter told us to sand it and try to stain match it. We did but it now looks worse and we can't seem to match the color of the wood. Where we sand is very light and the stain doesn't seem to take as well in that section. What can we do? I would like to fix this section and not sand the whole ceiling. Plus I'm afraid if we do that we may see dark lines between the grooves when we clear coat.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

joecaption · 01-02-2012, 10:40 PM

It's all trial and error. Always better to have it to light and be able to add more stain to make it darker. Once you go to dark you have to sand it all back to bare wood.
I use Gel stains ever possible not liquid stains. It give you more control and less mess.
Keep in mind if the color looks close more stain can be added to make it darker. I like to get it just slightly lighter because the sealer is going to darken it up more.

DIY808 · 01-02-2012, 10:44 PM

Thanks for the reply. I thought I'd add a photo to give you a better understanding of our problem. We just stained the beams a few days ago.

joecaption · 01-02-2012, 10:50 PM

If your talking about that dark area, it's all got to sanded again back to bare wood.
It looks like a stain called natural or there no stain just poly with no stain.

DIY808 · 01-02-2012, 10:54 PM

The darker portion is where my husband used the clear coat that we are going to use on the whole ceiling to seal it. He was experimenting with stains on different parts and then tried the quick 15 clear coat over it to see how it would look. We are concerned about the lighter portion and getting it to match the rest of the ceiling so that when we clear coat the whole ceiling will match. The stain doesn't seem to take too well to the lighter portion where the track lighting was.

joecaption · 01-03-2012, 09:10 AM

There's a chance someone applyed what's called sanding sealer to all the wood before it was installed, which would block the stain. If your trying to use Min-Wax Polyshades, STOP. I've never had to much luck with it and it tends to take in some areas and not in others.
http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/...Fcfe4AodOF68OQ