The Best Stain for Pine: How to Avoid a Blotchy, Uneven Finish

I tested popular oil-based stains, water-based stains, and gel stains to see which is actually the best stain for pine. Plus I’m sharing how several popular stain colors really look on pine.

I use pine in a lot of my DIY building projects. It’s readily available at my local home improvement stores, it comes in all different sizes and dimensions, and it’s usually way cheaper than any other type of wood.

Unfortunately, pine also has some downsides. It’s a pretty soft wood and it’s notoriously difficult to stain. Pine tends to absorb stain unevenly which can lead to blotchiness and lots of color variation.

I’ve stained pine quite a few times over the years. Sometimes I’ve gotten great results, but there have been other times when I’ve been pretty disappointed with the outcome. So I decided it was time to finally figure out which stains actually work best on pine.

When I started researching what stains other people recommend for pine, I found that most articles and videos were really just showing which Minwax stain colors they like best on pine. I like Minwax penetrating stain as much as any other DIYer, but it certainly isn’t the only stain option out there. In fact, it isn’t even the only type of stain out there.

So instead of just showing how different colors of stain look on pine, I want to share what type of stain actually works best on pine. I’m testing three major types of stain on pine: oil-based stain, water-based stain, and gel stain to see which ones give the best finish with the most beautiful, even, and consistent color.

And then, yes, after all that, I’m also sharing how different color stains look on pine. Because while stain color isn’t the most important thing, it’s still pretty important.

I also created a Youtube video of this stain test. If you’d rather watch the video, you can find it at the bottom of this post!

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Testing the stains

To find out which type of stain actually gives the best finish on pine, I tested five different stains on a few scrap pine boards.

These are the stains I tested:

• Minwax penetrating stain in Special Walnut (oil-based)
• Varathane premium wood stain in Early American (oil-based)
• Behr fast drying water-based wood stain in English Chestnut (water-based)
• General Finishes water-based wood stain in Antique Brown (water-based)
• General Finishes gel stain in antique walnut (gel stain)

(I also ended up testing a second gel stain, Varathane gel stain, but it wasn’t part of the initial group.)

First, I prepped my boards for stain. This is extra important any time you are staining pine – it helps cut down as much as possible on unevenness and dark patches.

I sanded each board with several grits of sandpaper, starting with 80 grit and ending with 240 grit. Then I applied pre-stain wood conditioner to each board.

Tip: As you are moving from low grit to higher grit sandpaper, don’t skip more than 60 grit at a time. For example, you can go from 60 grit to 120 grit in one step, but not from 60 grit to 150 grit.

One board was treated with Minwax oil-based wood conditionerPre-stain wood conditioner is an absolute must any time you are staining pine. It really helps the stain go on a lot more evenly.

I used painter’s tape to separate each board into three different sections to make it easy to tell my different stains apart.

Following the instructions for each specific stain, I applied the first coat and wiped away the excess. Here’s how my boards looked after one coat of stain:

I was already starting to see some differences but I knew I needed to apply a couple more coats before I could really make any conclusions.

Here are my boards after the second coat:

And after the third and final coat:

By the time the third coat of each stain had dried, it was clear there were some major difference between the different stains I tested.

Note: One of my boards was pretty rough to begin with and I ended up with quite a few sanding marks from rushing the sanding. This is particularly noticeable in the Varathane oil-based stain section. These sanding marks are due to my own user error and in no way reflect a problem with the stain.

Oil-based stains on pine

First I want to talk about the oil-based stains I tested, since oil-based stain is by far the most popular stain choice. I tested two oil-based stains, Minwax penetrating stain and Varathane premium wood stain.

Oil-based stains are sometimes also called penetrating stains because they literally penetrate into the wood. This can give the finish more depth of color, but when you are staining pine, it can be a bit of a problem.

Pine often absorbs stain very unevenly which leads to a blotchy, uneven finish with random light and dark spots. Prepping your wood properly by sanding and using wood conditioner can help minimize this blotchiness.

But even though I sanded my wood and used pre-stain wood conditioner, I still found that the oil-based stains were the trickiest to get right. I didn’t have any really noticeable blotchiness in this test like I have seen in the past, but there was still a lot of unevenness.

The stain seemed to really highlight any imperfections in the wood – and with inexpensive pine, it can be really difficult to get your boards completely perfect. The knots in the wood were very dark compared to the rest of the finish and the stain was also extra dark in a few places where the wood was a bit split.

There was also a bit of a stippled look to the wood, almost as if there were tiny white dots all throughout the finish.

The oil-based stains also gave a far less saturated color than the other types of stain, although the color did build nicely with multiple coats of stain. On other types of wood, I would have expected all five stain colors I used to be fairly similar, but you can see the oil-based stains were much lighter on the pine.

Some of the unevenness and imperfections may have been due to errors on my part, but I think that’s the sticking point for oil-based stains. They’re just much more difficult to use well on pine. Any imperfections in the wood, any small mistakes you make applying it, lead to noticeable flaws in the finish.

Water-based stains on Pine

The next two stains I tested were water-based stains: Behr fast drying water-based wood stain and General Finishes water-based wood stain.

Unlike oil-based stains which are absorbed into the wood, water-based stains stay more on the surface of the wood. Since pine tends to absorb stain very unevenly, I was hoping that these stains might give a more even finish since they aren’t really being absorbed.

Overall, I do think the water-based stains gave a more even, consistent finish. There was none of the whitish stipling that I saw with the oil-based stains. And the stain also didn’t highlight the imperfections in the wood or the pine knots. Instead, they seemed to blend in much better.

I was surprised at how much the color of these stains changed as I added more coats. After the first coat of stain, I absolutely hated the color of the General Finishes Antique Brown stain. It looked like a mustardy-green color, not the nice medium brown I was expecting. On the other hand, the Behr English Chestnut looked very muted and grayish. But by the third coat, they had both turned a nice rich brown.

In the end, the color on both of these stains was much richer and more saturated than the oil-based stains.

Water-based stains dry very quickly which can be both a great thing and a hard one. It’s great when you are trying to get a project done quickly because you can add multiple coats of stain within just a few hours. But when you are working on staining a large project, it can be really hard to apply your stain quickly enough to prevent it from drying as you are still smoothing it out.

Water-based stains can also be a bit more tricky to apply smoothly. Because it sits on top of the wood, more like paint, if you don’t wipe all the excess away before it dries, you can be left with streaky or dark looking patches where there was a bit too much stain build-up.

I did also notice a few differences between the two water-based stains I chose. Both gave a nice, rich color, but The General Finishes stain definitely gave a more even finish while the Behr stain seemed to bring out the wood grain more.

Gel stain on pine

In this initial test, I also tested on gel stain: General Finishes gel stain.

Like water-based stains, gel stains also sit mostly on top of the wood, rather than being absorbed. Gel stain has a very different texture than other stains, it’s more of a pudding texture than a liquid. This actually makes it very easy to apply because the stain is easy to control.

The gel stain went on very evenly from the very first coat. Unlike the other stains I tried, the gel stain had a nice even, saturated color from the beginning and didn’t change much with subsequent coats of stain.

The gel stain also gave a very even, consistent finish. There was no stipling and it didn’t draw attention to imperfections in the wood. The wood grain still shines through clearly, but overall the color and finish is very consistent.

One of the big downsides to gel stains is they come in a pretty limited range of colors compared to other types of stains. You can layer different colors to make new shades of stain, but this works best for medium to dark tones. If you are wanting a specific light or grayish tone, it may be hard to achieve with gel stain.

What is the Best Stain for Pine?

After examining the finishes and weighing all the pros and cons, I have to declare gel stain the best stain for pine.

I know there are probably master carpenters out there who are throwing up their hands in dismay at the idea anyone would declare gel stain the best. But then again, master carpenters probably aren’t really building much with pine because it really isn’t the best wood either.

But for all the rest of use who are out here building a bunch of stuff out of pine because it’s the most affordable wood, gel stain is a great option.

It’s very easy to apply, gives a nice consistent finish, and makes it easy to get rich, saturated colors.

Gel stains do come in a limited color palette, so my second choice would be to use a good water-based stain. They require a bit more care to apply, but still give a nice, even finish and typically help mask the imperfections in pine.

And if you just really love using oil-based stain, it can also work. Just know that it will be trickier to apply and your results are going to be much more unpredictable.

Also, keep in mind that most stain colors will go on pine looking several shades lighter than the advertised color and it can be very difficult to get darker, more saturated colors on pine with an oil-based stain.

Gel stain colors on pine

After doing a bit of poking around online, I found that there are very few good examples of how different gel stains look on pine. Most sample photos show gel stain on maple or oak, since those woods are more popular with professional woodworkers.

But the same color of stain can look completely different on different types of wood. It can look much darker or lighter and also have different undertones. So I grabbed a few more cans of gel stain that I want to try on future projects and made a sample board showing how each color looks on pine.

The gel stains show from left to right are:

• General Finishes gel stain in Brown Mahogany
• General Finishes gel stain in Antique Walnut
• General Finishes gel stain in Colonial Maple
• General Finishes gel stain in American Oak
• Varathane Gel Stain in Ipswich Pine

The Brown Mahogany definitely has noticeable red undertones, while the Antique Walnut is more of a straight brown.

The three lighter colors I tested are all fairly similar, though the American oak has a bit more of a yellow undertone which might read more orange at times.

Of these five shades, my personal favorites are the Antique Walnut and Colonial Maple, though I definitely want to try out the Varathane gel stain a bit more as well.

The Varathane gel stain seemed very similar to the General Finishes gel stain in a lot of ways, though it did seem to give more color variation around knots and imperfections. But it is around half the cost of the General Finishes stain, so if you are looking for a budget-friendly alternative, it’s definitely worth a try.

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Now that I’ve got my stain all squared away, I’m very excited to dive into staining a table top I just built! I’ll be sharing lots more detail on how to stain pine for the best results soon.

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