Our laundry room renovation this winter was such a fun project! From Derek’s first tile installation, finding the perfect neutral paint color for the cabinets (“Mouse’s Back” by Farrow and Ball, aka “Mouse’s Turd lol), to adding the highly debated cafe skirts. HOWEVER, let me tell you, choosing the stain for the butcher block countertops almost did me in.
To those that know me, or have been following along for awhile, you know that I am incredibly indecisive, an overthinker, and a worrier (hi!). When I have too many options in front of me that’s usually never a good thing because it takes me forever to decide on something. Translate these known facts about me to stain choices for our countertops… and well, do you know how many wood stains exist in the world? Too many.
Determined to find one that I absolutely loved, I went to my local hardware store and picked out several Minwax stains to try. Prior to applying the stain options I used Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner for Oil-Based Stains which is good for soft woods. The butcher block we’re using is made of birch, which is a softer wood!
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I immediately eliminated two of the stain colors because one was too gray and one was too dark, and was left with three options: Espresso, Special Walnut, and Provincial. My top pick was Espresso followed by Special Walnut coming in at a close second. I loved the warmth of the espresso color and thought Special Walnut was pretty, BUT after they dried they both looked blotchy to me. Cue @wildflowerhomeblog, who informed me that I could use a gel stain (in the same colors!) and it would give me a “less blotchy” finished look. So back to the hardware store I went…
After sanding off the old stain on my test pieces of wood, I tried a coat of the gel stain in Walnut. At this point in the project, after what felt like the 87th coat of stain I’d painted, I REALLY, really wanted this color to be the one. Looking at the dried sample in the laundry room I could definitely tell the gel stain was less blotchy than the others that I had tried previously, but I wanted it to be darker so I added another layer of the gel stain - this was it, or so I thought.
