# Paint first or stain first?



## colindunn (Dec 13, 2010)

Greetings!

I have a few basic questions regarding staining and painting and was hoping someone could educate me a bit on the subject. 

I am in the process of constructing a backgammon board and was wondering when I should paint the pattern onto the board: before or after I stain the wood? I want to have really dark markings on the board, so my current plan is to create a stencil and spray paint the board with black paint. I wasn't sure how nice this would look and have been thinking about staining the pattern on instead. Is it possible to achieve a very dark marking with only stain? Is there any reason to do so, or is paint a better option? And if so is there a better option than spray paint? 

In case it is of any significance, I am fairly certain the wood is teak. Unfortunately I cannot say for certain.

Photo of my board: http://twitpic.com/3fp81l


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

colindunn said:


> Greetings!
> 
> I have a few basic questions regarding staining and painting and was hoping someone could educate me a bit on the subject.
> 
> ...


*WELCOME TO THE FORUM*

It's a bit confusing. If you want the grain to show, you should use a stain. If you just use stains and want two different colors of stain, you will likely get bleed through from one to the other.

If you want a combo of stain and paint, I would stain first, tape off for the paint, and then paint.












 









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## jack warner (Oct 15, 2010)

interesting

if your stain first it will be problematic to get your tape to stick to the stained surface, and depending on what paint your useing may have a bond prob. on top of stain.so if your gonna stain first i would put a coat of finish or a sealer over the stain then paint, then leave or finish coat over. i would finish over to keep paint from waring off.

if you paint first you can stain over but will give your paint an antique look ( may look cool ) then top coat. I would use a gell stain, imo would be less chance of reacting with the paint.

ive made a few gamon boards but mostly vaneer inlayed

i like cab-mans idea of dif color stains. lightest color to darkest. the key to that is after masking everything off spray many light coats of the stain and that will eliminate the bleed. i use that process for furniture.


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## colindunn (Dec 13, 2010)

@jack warner



> if you paint first you can stain over but will give your paint an antique look ( may look cool ) then top coat


I like it — I will experiment with this method and see how it looks. 



> i like cab-mans idea of dif color stains. lightest color to darkest. the key to that is after masking everything off spray many light coats of the stain and that will eliminate the bleed. i use that process for furniture.


My plan is to use only one color and differentiate by using filled and outlined triangles. The most important criteria is that the lines are really crisp and really clear. Using the method you described of masking and spraying, do you think it is possible to achieve a super-dark and crisp line while still allowing the wood grain to show through?


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## jack warner (Oct 15, 2010)

supper dark usually means you got to cover up the surface, so i dont think youl see grain.

in trying to understand, the lines you say would be the ones out linning the non painted triangles right. if thats the case, those would be very thin, and would not matter if the grain showed.


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## colindunn (Dec 13, 2010)

Well its a thick outline, about .5 cm thick.

Thanks for your help, I will follow up if I learn anything worth sharing.


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