Staining Our Red Oak Trim to Look Original

The original woodwork in our house is one of my favorite things about it. The warmth! the craftsmanship! the fact that it's been just as it is for over 100 years! It's what sealed the deal for me the second I stepped through the front door for the first time.

So, naturally, I wanted to replicate it in our kitchen. The previous kitchen had small, stock trim painted white, and it was jarring to look through the rest of the house into the kitchen. The flow was all off. The vibes weren't vibin'.

Briefly it crossed my mind after our floors were finished and our countertops were in, that if the trim was stained too it would all be too much wood. But I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't know if that's possible. Now that (almost) all of the trim is stained, I love it. Finally, the flow and cohesion I was looking for!

The Trim

All of our trim was done in red oak to match the rest of the first floor.

I can't tell you much about the install because the mastermind was my Dad, but what I do know is there was a lot of studying the profiles of the original trim, some measuring, and a marathon trip to Menards. Then lots of painstaking custom cuts because apparently wood isn't milled in the same sizes as it was in the early 1900's, a lot of routing and sanding, and then nailing it all in place.

There is very little room for error in finish carpentry - especially if you're staining it and not using caulk. If I had attempted to do this by myself, I would have almost definitely abandoned ship.

Finishing the Trim

Conditioner - While our trim is red oak, our actual windows are pine. Pine is infamously bad at taking stain evenly so it's common practice to use wood conditioner prior to staining. I brushed it on with a cheapo wood handle paint brush, wiped it off with a tack cloth and let it dry for 30 minutes before moving on. I used this only on the pine.

Also, note this was far and away the smelliest part of the whole project.

Stain - I did lots of sampling to figure out what stain color would best match the red oak trim throughout our first floor and ended up with the color called - you guessed it - red oak.

I applied this stain with my favorite brush. It's technically a paint brush (not a stain brush) but I find it to work really well and it is nice for when you're trying to be precise getting your stain into a tight corner without getting it on everything. I lay stain on pretty thick, apply as much as I can in 5-10 minutes, then wipe off the excess.

I did two coats of stain with a 2 hour dry in between coats. The main benefits of two coats (because I don't do them unless there is a clear reason!) are more even coverage, and covering any spots missed on the first pass. Then I left it to dry overnight.

Shellac - I chose shellac as a finish for our trim because:

1. It's period-appropriate (unlike a polyurethane or a lacquer).
2. As far as I can tell, it's what was used on the trim in the rest of the first floor.
3. The amber hued shellac over the red oak stain gave me a really good match for the rest of our trim when sampling.

I had never used shellac before this project, but I am a convert! It's easy to use, easy to fix mistakes, gives a durable finish (at least for trim!), and doesn't feel like it's burning your nose, airways, and lungs when you're using it.

I found it best to build up several thin layers rather than do a couple thicker ones. Again I used my favorite brush for this. Shellac dries really quickly, so while the can may have said something different, I found once I finished a window or door, it was dry enough I could move on with the next coat. I did 2 or 3 layers like this, then let them dry for a couple hours, sanded lightly with 400 grit sandpaper, and applied a final thin coat.

One important thing to know when working with shellac is that it dissolves itself. Meaning if you have a drag or any unevenness in a layer, it will disappear into the next one. This makes it really easy to correct mistakes! You want all your layers to be flat and even, but really your final coat is the most important.

Okay so hilariously in our original renovation timeline, I had "trim" (meaning getting everything trimmed and stained) as a one weekend project. It has taken more weekends than I care to count, but I really, really love it.

Just placing and finishing the trim in ONE ROOM was a lot of work, and to think the men who built our house 100+ years ago did the whole thing without the benefits of modern power tools and a local hardware store. I am in awe!