Why does pine furniture turn orange? When pine is exposed to sunlight it causes a chemical change in the wood the results in the wood taking on a golden or orange tint. This is a natural part of the aging process for pine. When pine is stained, it can make the orange effect even more pronounced.
After your piece has been sanded and any finish has been removed, it's time to apply the Liming Wax. This white wash helps to neutralize the orange, and lighten it up. I used a small paint brush I already owned to paint in on, then a rag to wipe off the excess. It leaves a faint, white wash on the wood.
Oak will always look more orange when wet. For this particular piece of wood, I ended up going back over it with an almost full-strength stain but wiping it away almost immediately. That worked very well to neutralize those orange wood hues.
Unfortunately the ageing colour is more about the type of oak used rather than the finish. UV light will eventually turn most oak orange. Keeping the light off it is the only way... not very practical. Some finishes help.
Padauk is a very dense exotic wood known for its bright red to orange color. Padauk is often times mixed with other species to create color contrast within a given project.
Method 2: Add some Green to your Stain
Take a look at the color wheel below. Notice how green is opposite of red on the color wheel. This means that adding some green to a stain will help neutralize or hide the red in red oak. Plus anytime you mix a primary color with its opposite on the color wheel, you get brown.
As the pine wood ages, with the help of UV from the sunlight it tends to turn more of an orange colour. In a similar way, as Oak oxidises with time, it tends to darken to a very dark brown and in some cases, black.
Try using a gel stain on those dated orange-yellow honey oak cabinets to give your kitchen a new look. There are a lot of good reasons to gel stain cabinets when you want to refresh the color of wood cabinetry. It's an easy way to give your kitchen or bathroom a new look without sanding or stripping.
If your floors are particularly orange, you may want to consider painting them. You can either paint them a solid color or pick a paint color with a lot of pigment so that it will help tone down the orange. You can also use area rugs to help cover up some of the oranges and add visual interest.
In order to bleach the wood, you want to oppose the orange color or brassiness in the wood. So apply a water-based stain with a neutralizing greenish tone. It doesn't need to be green, but it does need to counteract orange. Since the stain is just for this purpose, you can dilute it with a lot of water.
If your wooden cabinets are stained a shade that pulls orange, you can do this by changing your wall paint color and cabinet door hardware. Choose a paint color that works with the cabinets to tone down the orange. Lots of recommendations include greige or beige colors.
Use a Sealant Coat
Your white oak floors will stain easily if you leave them without a coat. Not only that, but the planks will also feel like raw wood when you step on them. In return, you get to preserve the original look and feel of the wood for a little while.
In plain simple English, certain colors cancel out others. Purple cancels out yellow. Blue cancels out orange. Green cancels out red.
As you can see from the color wheel, the color opposite to orange it on the color wheel is blue, as well as blue-green. So the way to neutralize the orange would therefore be to use blue-based colors.
Pine takes on a pale yellow-orange tone after exposure to sunlight. Most finishes exacerbate the problem leaving wood which ages to a "cigarette yellow" tone. The best way to create a pale bleached effect is to treat with a thin coat of diluted White Wood Dye after sanding.
Presoak (the method of soaking a stained article in warm water before laundering it) in a solution of 1 quart warm water, 1/2 teaspoon liquid dishwashing or laundry detergent, and 1 tablespoon white vinegar for 15 minutes. Rinse well with water and launder as soon as possible.
Mix a 50/50 solution of vinegar and warm water and pour it into a spray bottle. Mist on cabinets, let sit for a minute or two and then wipe clean with a soft cloth. Add a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent to the vinegar and water solution to clean extremely grimy cabinets.
Colors with warm undertones like cream, beige, and warm greens will minimize the orange in the oak. Cool colors such as gray, blue, or purple will actually make the orange stand out. Learn how to choose kitchen paint colors that go with oak cabinets here.
: the wood of the orange tree used especially in turnery and carving.
Padauk: Medium to hard wood, deep orange red that ages to a deep orange brown, moderately course grain with straight to interlocking grain patterns. Found in Africa. Pecan: Heartwood tends to be light to medium brown with a red hue. Found in Texas, USA and Mexico.
Many hardwood floors still look orange for a good reason. Most of the coating products that have been used on floors from the late 19th century through about 1990 had a strong yellow undertone. So almost all old floors, regardless of wood type, have a distinctly golden tinge.
Overall, if you're looking for a reliable and effective solution to achieve a beautiful, lighter look on your hardwood floor, Bona Red Out is an ideal product for you. While it may not completely eliminate red and pink hues, it does lighten up the look and works well with our current finish systems.