Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - How to stain wood in navy blue?

Does anyone have ideas on how to finish furniture in a navy blue that looks like it is stained and polyurethaned? We just bought unfinished furniture for our son's first bedroom and can picture shiny navy blue finish with the wood grain showing through. The nearest big box store tinted a can of stain for us "as dark blue as we can make it", but it's blue, not navy. We can't return it but they say they'll adjust it if we tell them how. Can they add black and will that result in navy blue? Is there something I can/should do with navy blue paint? Any other ideas?

There are colored stains available, you may have to shop around a bit to find them. I will look around the house for an ad I saw recently so I can at least tell you which brand to look for.

You can thin down navy blue paint to get a stain effect and then poly over it. This would work best with a flat oil paint but I doubt you could find it in a dark base. It is possible to do it with latex, just a little harder to do IMO. It would be best to do a test piece on some scrap of wood first.

I did a kid's table and chairs from an un-finished furniture store, and did the legs in red and blue. I used a water-based stain they sold, that came in at least a dozen colors besides the traditional wood colors. I used a fairly bright blue, but they had much darker available. I followed up with a water-based urethane finish - looks good, and has held up well (it is a kid's table after all).

Sherwin Williams has some blue stain colors, so as mentioned, you will be able to find blue stain somewhere.

A friend of mine at the lumber yard recently did a project where he made his own tinted polyurethane. He used water-based poly, and added some paint pigment to it to achieve the right color. Tipping off the poly with a brush worked the pigment into the grain. One coat was all he did to achieve the right color- the next few coats were with untinted poly and went on clear. I thought his project turned out nice. I'll have to experiment with that someday!

If you can't find a stain to your liking, marksr's idea about thinning the desired color paint sounds like the best advice to me.

He used water-based poly, and added some paint pigment to it to achieve the right color.



This is basically a home made latex version of minwax polyshades. I have done this often with oil base varnish/poly. It does take some care/skill to apply without lap marks which would result in a double coat of color.

Ah, you got all kinda options.

First off, take the can to them and tell them to put some Gilsonite in it (and ask for a small cup, say, a few ounces, extra so you can add it yourself if you want more). Gilsonite is kinda black, but it is a pigment that will get into the grain of your wood and make it POP. Will look pretty good with a dark blue stain.


Here are some alternatives you can try:

1) Find a local wood finish dealer, such as a refinishers warehouse or a Woodcraft and buy a Navy Blue dye. You can buy good, dark blue dye from Craft Supplies USA. I buy from them on occasion and they are great people, great products (they cater specifically to wood turners/pen makers but their dye will do you wonders). Get one blue and one black, play with the mix to get what you want. You can topcoat with polyurethane. This dye is alcohol-based and dries very quickly.
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=119-0103



2) Buy Navy Blue RIT dye from the grocery store. I PROMISE this works. It does fade a bit over time, but it depends on how much direct sunlight it gets. If these are supposed to only last as long as your boy is a lil sprout, use RIT dye. Let it totally dry and topcoat with polyurethane. I've used RIT on woodturnings before (just mix the powder with water).

Hope this helps!

Matt