Wooden Bench Makeover – Staining Using a Sock!

My aunt gave us this wooden bench a few months ago. She said they bought it at a wood shop, where you buy wooden products and finish them yourself, but she never got around to doing it. It’s been sitting in our dining room since we got it from her, and I wanted to try out the stain we bought for our bedroom furniture, so I thought this would be the perfect test item! I do like how it looks here, but Charlie thought it would look better darker, and he was right…

 Here’s the stain we bought…I was a little hesitant at first to buy a stain and polyurethane in one, but this Minwax Polyshades stuff is awesome! Everything Minwax that we have bought so far is awesome!

 I read somewhere that applying stain with a sock is easier and goes on smoother with no lines. Whelp, I decided to test that out – and it’s true! I wear a rubber glove underneath, then put a sock over it and it works perfectly. Obviously the sock is forever ruined, so use some old socks you can’t find the match to (you should have a lot of those since every time you do laundry socks seem to disappear…or is that just me? lol).

 And here she is 2 coats later! I LOVE the color! I’ll take better pictures when it’s inside and all pretty, I swear. When you use Polyshades, you do one coat, leave it for at least 6 hours, then do a second coat. It should be perfect after 2 coats, but if not, do another! The bench turned out awesome with 2 coats. I’m very happy with it!

What do you all think? Have you ever tried Polyshades by Minwax or any other kind of 2 in one stain product? How did you like it?