Can you stain pine doors?
Herein, can you stain pine?
Pine is hard to stain for a couple of reasons. First, its grain is unevenly dense. Typical wood stains cause grain reversal because they color only the porous earlywood; they can't penetrate the dense latewood. In a nutshell, the conditioner partially seals the wood's surface to control blotching.
Just so, how do you stain pine doors darker?
A trick to help stain wood dark (not sure if it will work for pine) is to 'pop the grain'. Wipe the door down with a wet rag which will raise the grain and open the pores to accept more stain.
There are gray wood stain colors available on the market which can be used if you just want a simple gray stain. I tested out all of these grey stains on pine wood. Do keep in mind though that stain can look different on different species and types of wood, as well as in different lighting scenarios.