New Video! Easy 3-Step Woodgraining: Make Your Painted Furniture Look Like Stained Wood

John's pretty much finished with his big Sherlock room build, so now we're just waiting to install it. (WOOT WOOT!) In the meantime, and by popular request, we thought we'd share a little furniture building secret:

LOOK HOW PRETTY

The secret here is this is NOT stained wood. It's painted. 

See? Totally different wood grain, with none of that ugly pine pattern showing through.

Here's the complete surround without the fireplace in it, so you can see the painted inner edges: 

The sunlight makes it glow extra red; I'll show you a more accurate color match in a sec.

 

This faux finish lets us use cheap plywood, so it's great for budget builds, and best of all it's easy to do! There are only 3 steps, using materials you can find at any hardware store. A more complex piece like this could be a little tricky because of the angles, but flat sides or shelves are super simple:

(This is a more accurate color match; you can see the wood finish is less red and more true brown.) 

Several of you asked for a tutorial when I shared those in my Stories, and then John surprised me by filming one! So take it away, John:

Awww yeah. MY MAN.

SUPPLIES:

Here's what John used, in case you want the same exact wood finish

-  Sherwin William "Reynard" in satin latex paint

- Minwax Clear Polyurethane, satin (do NOT use Polycrylic)

- PolyShades "Mission Oak" in satin, diluted by half with the clear polyurethane

- The glaze John used is no longer made, but any acrylic glaze should work. Tint it with brown and black acrylic craft paint. 

If you use those products/colors you should end up with a near-exact match to our finish.

You can buy the PolyShades here on Amazon, along with the clear polyurethane,  chip brushes and even acrylic glaze. The only thing I don't think you can buy online is the base coat, but check your garage! Any satin interior paint in a yellow, beige, or orange color will work just fine, and you can always combine leftover latex paints (and/or acrylic craft paints) to mix your own color. Just do samples first with all 3 layers, so you can play around to find the wood tone you like best.

 I'll save everything John used (except the base color) to our Amazon "Craft Materials" list, in case you need to reference that in the future. Be sure to bookmark it!

I hope this was useful, and maybe gives you some new crafting ideas this month! John's talking about doing more quick garage videos, so help me encourage him to do that by shouting out suggestions in the comments. Next he wants to show you how he fixed a warped cooking pan, because he was SO HAPPY when he saved his favorite pan after it startled wobbling around on our flat-top stove, ha. Interested? Let him know!

*****

That reminds me, have you bookmarked our Epbot Amazon shop front?

 I have lots of fun lists for you to browse, and I work hard to add new things every week. Anything you purchase - even if it's not on my lists - gives a little back to me and John and helps keep Epbot running, so thank you for supporting us when you order online! We love you guys!