Have you ever been sanding a piece of wood furniture and then you go a little too far, just to discover that parts of it were a veneer? Yeah, me either :P

But if you did, you would know, that once you get to that point, you can’t go back. So you have to move on to plan B. And I have the best plan B for you! Let me tell you how you can get the wood look without the wood!

When I went to redo this dresser for my girls room, I planned on sanding it down to its natural wood and giving it a nice topcoat. But then I discovered the unthinkable, parts of it weren’t real wood and I sanded it down too far. Enter Retique It Liquid Wood. This stuff is amazing!!!

Tools & Materials

• Retique It Grained Finish Kit - Includes Primer, Gel Stain + Graining Tools {I found it better to use the gel stain for the graining part and then a glaze for the stain. The Pecan color I wanted didn’t come in a stain, only a glaze}

• Gel Glaze - Pecan

• Polycrylic Topcoat - Matte finish

• Antique Brass Knobs

*These links contain affiliate links. Meaning if you purchase through my link, while it’s the same cost to you, I get a small commission – see my full disclosure here*

Step 1: Prep

The kit says that you don’t need to do any prep work, but I always do just for good measure. The last thing you want is to do all that work for it to not adhere properly. I already had this piece fully prepped since my Plan A was to get it to the bare wood. If I knew this was going to be what I was going to do from the get go, I wouldn’t have sanded down so much. But every piece is different in the prep work it may or may not need. My rule of thumb is to always start with a lower grit and then work my way up, finishing it off with a 220 grit sandpaper.

Step 2: Prime

This stuff is craziness! Containing over 60% wood fibers, this is what will help with making it look like real wood. Although the directions say to do 2 coats, I found that 3 generous coats worked best, allowing 2 hours for it to fully dry between coats.

Step 3: Wood Grain with Gel Stain

Where the magic happens. This step had a learning curve to it and was the most stressful, in my opinion. BUT {and there is a big BUT}…the great thing about it is that if you don’t like it, you just redo it. If you know right away that you don’t like how they grain looks, you simply brush over it and redo the grain. If you don’t decide until after you stain (step 4), you simply re-prime and start over. Both of these happened to me and it was really easy to fix.

Okay, now back to the grain. Using the gel stain that came with the kit, I brushed it over the piece in small sections {you need it to be wet}. Then I took the grain tool and would go over the gel stain, wobbling my hand back and forth. This took me a few times to get right; if I didn’t like it right away, I would just take the brush and start over. Once I got that section how I wanted it, I moved to the next one.

Step 4: Gel Glaze Stain

Where it all comes together. This step was simple and way less stressful than the graining step. I used this gel glaze in the color Pecan and the application was easy. I used a brush to apply on top of the grain. The more coats you do, the darker it come out. I did 2 coats to achieve this look, letting it dry 2 hours between each coat.

Step 5: Finishing touches

I used Polycrylic in a matte finish to give the piece extra durability with a top coat. Applying the topcoat correctly has it’s own learning curve {I’m thinking of all the times I botched it in the past that I now want to fix :P}. Anyway! I applied 3 coats of the topcoat, allowing 2 hours between each coat.

And the final finishing touch! These Antique Brass Knobs have become a favorite of mine and finished off this piece perfectly!

a few notes

• I spoke with some people who used the gel glaze stain to do the wood grain and liked it. The gel glaze is a little more runny, and I personally didn’t like how it looked with the graining tool. Because I was set on the color Pecan that only came in the glaze, I used this method. If the color you want comes with the gel stain, you would use that for both the grain and the glaze.

• In the end, I didn’t do as much grain as I originally thought I was going to. When you are going over with the grain tool, your instinct is to grain it like crazy. However, because the primer contains wood fibers, there is a already a natural grain that will occur when you do the stain on top. My first go around, I added so much grain on the top and it was so busy {and grainy} when I added the stain on top.

And there you have it. This product is awesome! I was very impressed and already have plans on using it again.

Do you have a piece you would like to try this on? Let me know!

with love, andi

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