How to tone down yellow in ash timber furniture?

[Dalinders]

Hi all, I bought these stools recently and I love them but the timber is just a tiny little too yellow for my liking. I don’t want to return them, is there a way to very subtly tone down the yellow? I’m ok if doing this darkens the timber a little as getting the colour as close to the floorboards is ideal.

Photos: 

 

The product is listed as being constructed in ash timber with an upholstered plywood seat.

TIA!

[EricL]

Hello @Dalinders

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's a pleasure to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about toning down the finish on your timber furniture.

I'm afraid there is no escaping it, if you wish to change the finish on your timber-sealed furniture it will need to be sanded down. However, there is a way to do some testing on the chair without it being too obvious. I suggest having a look underneath the chair and seeing if it has been sealed as well. If it has, you'll need to sand this portion down in order for you to have a testing spot.

Once the original seal has been sanded away, I propose bringing the chair and asking the paint specialist at the store for a recommendation on which stain and varnish will bring you closer to your floor finish. I suggest asking the paint team member if it would be possible to test the finish on the exposed timber under the seat so that you can see if it is close to the finish that you like.

You can also have a look at the varnish sample board near the paint desk. There you'll see a variety of finishes of the different brands available at the store. Once you find one that's close to your floor colour, you can test it on your chair.

Here is a handy step-by-step guide: How to restore wooden furniture

Let me call on our experienced members @prettyliving and @lifestylebymari for their recommendations.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[prettyliving]

Hi @Dalinders 

As Eric @EricL advised it would be best to test a small patch first (under the seat if possible) and experiment with some stains until you get a colour you are happy with. 
You could also sand it back and test using some brown paint mixed with water, I’ve done this a few times to stain wood. You can adjust the tone of the brown by adding a small amount of white or black to the mixture depending if you wanted to go darker or lighter and then wipe the water/paint mixture on with a cloth. Once you are happy with the colour you can then reseal it with a clear top coat. 

[lifestylebymari · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dalinders and thank you for the tag @EricL 

What I have done before to remove the yellowish from timber is by using the Feast Watson 250ml Liming White Satin Stain & Varnish. I found that by using this product it toned down the yellow and gave my pieces a more ashy look. 

If you do use it make sure to give a lightly sand with a 240 grid sanding paper and then apply a light coat therefore gives you more flexibility to achieve your preferred colour. 

[Dalinders]

Thank you! I did this using the teeniest tiniest amount of lining white and it’s come up a treat. May not be super obvious in the photo, but in the natural light...all yellow is toned right down  

 

[MitchellMc]

Amazing work, @Dalinders! The difference is night and day with all that yellow tinge gone. The timber's natural beauty is the centrepiece now instead of being detracted from by that yellow/honey-coloured hue. I'm sure @prettyliving, @lifestylebymari and @EricL will also be suitably impressed by your work.

Great work, and many thanks for sharing your results.

Mitchell

[lifestylebymari]

Amazing job! 

[EricL]

Hi @Dalinders

That's awesome work! I'm glad you got to tone down the yellow finish of the chairs. I'm sure that it blends in nicely with your floor now or at least will not stand out with a big difference. Thank you so much for posting that photo update. I'm sure the information you shared will be quite useful to our members who are thinking of doing the same thing to their timber furniture.

Again, thank you for sharing such a wonderful repainting project.

Eric

[prettyliving]

It looks great 👌🏻 @Dalinders