So you have taken the plunge and bought a piece of bare wood furniture. Congrats! It is an excellent value for the money, and with proper care, can last for many years.

Optimistically, before you made the investment, you already had a clear idea what you wanted to do with the piece, but if not, then before you pick up the first tool and begin to work, it's time to plan! A bit investment in time now will save you a great number of hassles down the road.

Where bare wood furniture is concerned, you essentially have 3 alternatives for finishing the piece, and they are:

Leave the wood "naked"

Paint it

Stain it

All of these choices requires a bit of work on your part in order to protect your investment and increase the beauty and performance of the piece.

The easiest thing you can do is just "finish" your new piece of bare wood furniture is to let it stay in its natural condition. If you choose this option, you will probably wish to protect the wood by coating it in some type of wood protecting oil (linseed oil is normally used on a wide variety of bare wood), but there're other products available also. Always, always, always try out first by applying a small quantity of the oil you chose to an unseen corner of the wood to make sure that it will not cause any discoloration or other reaction in the wood. Once assured of this, you can safely apply your chosen protective oil to the whole piece.

If you choose to paint your bare wood furniture, you've quite many to think about, other than color selection. Sort of paint, for instance. If a piece is to be positioned in a bathroom, you'll possibly desire to gravitate toward a glossy paint, as these stand up well to the high moist environment. For high traffic/heavily used pieces, semi-gloss paints provide a good balance of good looks and durability, and if the piece is intended for a lower traffic/lower intensity environment, then flat or satin finishes will help you fine.

Now's also the time to consider whether or not you'll have any sort of border or scrollwork on your bare wood furniture. If you are not specifically artistically inclined, there're many attractive stencils you can use, readily available at home shops (Lowe's, Home Depot), arts and craft shops (Michael's), and often at chain retail outlets (Wal-Mart, Target), so you've got many options. Certainly, if you're artistically inclined or know someone who is, a hand painted border is a great approach to really personalize the piece!

Finally, you might choose to stain your new piece of furniture. This is my own favorite technique of finishing pieces, even though it takes the longest, and if this is the direction you wish to go, again, you have got various decisions to make, beginning with the type of stain you will use. Stains come in oil-based, water-based, or gel, and while my own preference runs to oil based, you'll wish to experiment to check which works best for you. Surely, you don't wish to experiment directly on your new piece of furniture, so I suggest purchasing an unfinished wood shelf of the same form of wood from your local home shop and experiment on that. Once you make a firm selection, you can proceed with confidence and begin working on your bare wood furniture direct.

Make a plan, have some fun, and enjoy your new piece of bare wood furniture, no matter how you choose to finish it!

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