There are so many different ways to lighten stained wood, but I learned a few different tips that made it so much easier than I imagined!
Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below, but these are products I recommend. I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified and/or personally used.
Before we get into the details of this DIY project, I need to tell you something.
You were created to do hard things.
You were created to thrive on challenges and struggles.
Recently, I found myself lying on the living room floor exhausted from a week of renovating apartments, cleaning the house, working in the garden, transitioning our adopted daughter to life with us, finalizing homeschool details for this year, and working on blog posts and YouTube videos.
While I was face down on the floor, I thought, “Who in their right mind does this to themselves? I have no one to blame but myself for how exhausted I am.”
The very next morning I was reading a blog post that reminded me I’m doing all of this because I know what I’ve been called to.
I felt it so much to my core that I had to tell you.
I don’t know what you’re going through, or what you’re working on right now.
But what I do know is that you can see it through to the other side.
What calls you out into the world-to your destiny – is not ease.
Jordan Peterson
Okay, now let’s get into these tips to lighten stained wood.
If you’re a visual person make sure you head over to YouTube and watch the video I created to show you how I did this project!
The Best Advice for Natural Wood Finish Furniture Projects
I’m putting this at the top because it was the best advice I found and I don’t want you to miss it.
It’s how I was able to successfully give this dark and dated coffee table a beautiful raw wood finish look.
Work in small sections.
This coffee table was intricate and took a lot of patience because of it.
But because I worked in small sections I was able to work for 1-1.5 hours at a time and not get frustrated. (with 3 little munchkins running around much more than that at one time is just not realistic.)
There is nothing more annoying and frustrating than trying to scrap stripper off your coffee table before it dries while your babies are screaming about how hungry they are.
Between you and me, this is exactly what happened on the first day.
I go lost in the project and tried to do too much in one sitting and before I knew it, it was dinner time and everyone was ready but me.
Lesson learned!
Work in small manageable sections.
Side note: By doing this you also give yourself little victories which carry you through the project.
Full Disclosure
It was on this day that I told my husband that I was going to light this coffee table on fire.
I hadn’t yet discovered the 2 techniques that helped me get a natural wood finish and I was annoyed.
So now that I’ve got that out of the way let’s get down to it!
Can you make dark stained wood lighter?
The short answer is YES!
There are many ways to make dark stained wood lighter.
- stripper
- sanding
- bleach (household or wood bleach)
- white wax
All of these techniques are how I got a beautiful light natural wood finish on our coffee table makeover.
Originally I thought that achieving this look was going to be impossible (hence my disclaimer above).
But after a little bit of research, I discovered even with this stubborn table I could have a raw wood look finish.
Lighten Stained Wood Furniture: The Techniques That Worked
Lighten Stained Wood : Household Bleach
You will not believe the impact a little bit of household bleach will have on wood.
I’ve never tried this before (probably because I’ve not found a piece so stubborn) but I’m in awe.
I was blown away at how effective this EASY technique was at getting a natural wood finish.
I will say it does rough up the wood.
The grain is raised after applying the bleach to it.
So you’ll need to sand it down after it dries.
I used 220 grit sandpaper and it smoothed it out nicely.
Lighten Stained Wood : White Wax
This is a nice soft top coat.
Soft in appearance and soft to the touch.
For this coffee table the white wax was perfect for giving it a light natural wood finish.
(I’ll talk about this more in the steps section, but the original top coat I used made the coffee table darker than I expected, and this white wax really helped bring it back to what I wanted.)
The other benefit of wax is that it protects the wood from everyday use.
The 3 Best Tools
Orbital Sander
The first tool that I have officially fallen in love with is the orbital sander.
Now that this project is done, I’m working on another and I’m using the orbital sander again.
The orbital sander is new to me, I’ve heard people talk about them and rave about them, but I had no idea how wonderful they were until I got one for myself.
If you like to do DIY projects this should be a must-have for you!
Gator Sanding Block
This little guy is perfect for getting into the tight corners.
If you have a large flat area, you won’t need this, but if you have corners and small areas I recommend this too.
The grip is so much nicer than folded sandpaper (Which I did do but after I discovered the gator sanding block on the workbench I didn’t do the folded sandpaper anymore.)
Straight Pick (Or Toothpicks)
This is also a great tool for tight spaces and corners.
I used it to help clean out the steal wool and sand particles.
I’ve heard of people using toothpicks for this too if you don’t have a straight pick.
Lighten Stained Wood : Supplies
- Stripper (of your choice)
- Steal Wool
- Mineral Spirits
- Sand Paper
- Orbital Sander
- Gator Sanding Block
- Straight Pick
- Household Bleach
- A couple rags
- A couple paint brushes you can throw away after you use them
- Danish Oil Natural Finish
- White Wax
- Tack Cloth
- Brush of choice to apply white wax
Lighten Stained Wood : Step-by-Step Process
Removing the Dark Stain
Step 1.
First strip the furniture with the stripper of your choice.
I tried Citristrip first, but that didn’t work, so I pulled out a tougher stripper and this one actually did work.
Let it sit on the piece of furniture for the allotted amount of time.
Mine required 15-20 minutes.
Step 2.
Next, clean up the stripper with steel wool and mineral spirits.
If your piece has large flat surfaces I’d use a scrapper to scrape off the majority of the stripper before I used the steel wool, so you don’t gunk it up as quickly.
Step 3.
After the stripper is cleaned up, the next thing you’ll do is sand the piece of furniture.
I used 80 grit for this project.
This is when the orbital sander and gator sanding block came into play.
They both made it so much easier to achieve the natural wood finish that I was going for.
Step 4.
After you’re done sanding it’s time to clean up the wood particles.
I used the straight pick, a rag, and a tack cloth to get most of the particles off the coffee table.
Step 5.
Very carefully apply household bleach.
Move the piece of furniture to an area where the sun can also help aid in the process of lightening the piece of furniture.
This helps dry the bleach faster so you can apply more coats if needed.
My coffee table required 2 coats in some areas.
Generally, I was blown away by how much this helped lighten stained wood!
Step 6.
Sanding the piece of furniture with 220 grit or higher sandpaper to make it smooth again.
I used the same sanding techniques that I used for the first time, but I changed the grit of the sandpaper from 80 to 220.
Adding Oil and Wax
Step 7.
Now that the wood is the desired color it’s time to add your top coats to protect it.
I used a natural finish danish oil for a couple reasons.
I bleached the wood and so I wanted to rehydrate it, and also because it is a natural finish.
That being said, it did darken the wood a little more than I was hoping.
After doing research this is one of the lightest natural wood finishes out there, but there is one product that leaves the wood lighter.
It’s called Flat Out Flat.
It’s a water-based topcoat.
Ultimately, I like the look I eventually got, but if you don’t want to add the next step like I did then I recommend using that product.
Step 8.
Because the danish oil made the wood a little bit darker than I hoped I decided to use a white wax for my top coat.
I originally planned on using clear wax, but because the danish oil made the coffee table darker and richer in color than I wanted, I thought maybe the white wax would soften it.
Guess what?!
It absolutely did!
Now that it’s done I’m not completely sure what I would do if I had to do it all over again.
I’m thinking about buying a bookcase for the basem*nt from Facebook marketplace, maybe I’ll refinish it and omit the danish oil?!
We’ll see haha!
I hope you were inspired and encouraged by this post.
You are capable of far more than you know, you just need to believe it for yourself!
If you’re interested in more wood projects that we’ve done you can check out some of these:
DIY WOODEN PEG RAIL
HOW TO REPAIR ANTIQUE FURNITURE
DIY BRACKETS FOR OPEN SHELVES
DIY SIDE TABLE
HOW TO ADD ADJUSTABLE SHELVES TO A CABINET
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Have a great week! XoXo
Open Your Doors,
Aliya
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