Going From Paint to Stain

For this project I have a wooden handrail that goes on top of a low wall in a staircase. The wood has several coats of paint on it and the owner of the home would like the wood to be replaced with a wood that has a cherry stain. Instead of replacing the wood I've talked him into stripping the original wood and staining it. His house was built in the 1970s and I know that underneath this paint will be some really nice wood. I know it's more work but I also know that if I were to replace the wood with a piece of wood from Home Depot I wouldn't be able to find a nice piece of wood without knots. This way the finished product will look much better than a new piece of wood that may have flaws in it. So, let's get to work.

Materials Needed for this job:

a Makita belt sander, a can of paint stripper, cherry stain (or the stain color of your choice), a finish glossy clear coat, 2 clean paint brushes, a putty knife

When sanding you might want to use a respirator or a great dust mask. You can't be too safe or sure that the paint that is on your wood is safe to breathe in.

Hey, the sanding is working pretty good. I can see at least four or five different coats of paint on here. Lol!


The sanding is working pretty good but I want to see how this paint stripper works for future projects.

I'm applying the paint stripper spray on the second plank just to see if I can save time. At $9 a can I'm a little skeptical.

Here's how it looks after I've sprayed the entire plank. Make sure you let it set for at least 15 minutes.

After about 15-20 minutes go ahead and start scraping off the layers of paint with a plastic putty knife. It's taking the paint off but it seems like it's only taking off one layer at a time. At 15-20 minutes per layer, I don't have that kind of time. Remember: time is money! So I prefer the sanding method.
I used a 50 grit piece of sand paper then after most of the paint was off I used an 80 grit and then used a 120 grit to make sure there were no rough edges. Like I said, this is a handrail....we don't want any splinters.


What'd I tell you about that 1970 wood? Told you there would be no knots. Just nice pretty grain (besides my pre-drilled holes that I put in to use to screw it into the wall)

Wow, look at that wood! Now let's get ready to stain it! Before you stain make sure that there is no dust or debris on your wood. You can use a tack cloth to take care of that problem.

We're using a Minwax wood finish cherry stain. Make sure you shake your quart up really well before you open it.

When applying your stain you don't have to use a real expensive brush. Just a cheap throw away one will be okay because you'll never be able to use it again anyway. VERY IMPORTANT: When you apply the stain make sure you go with the grain!

After applying the stain I usually grab a couple of paper towels and wipe it down being careful once again, to go with the grain. This helps it to really seal the wood and saves on drying time.

After about 20-30 minutes you can go ahead and apply your gloss (varnish). On this one I use a decent paint brush. This is the finished product and you want it to be smooth and shiny.

Again, with your paint brush you are going to go with the grain and the more coats you put on it the shinier it will get. For this project I'm just putting on two coats.

Remember what they looked like before....ooooooooh.....Take a look at what they look like now.........aaaaaahhh! Not bad huh? I think the owner will be pleased! Catch you guys on the next project!