Vinegar and Tea Staining

Let me say first off that I LOVE vinegar and tea (or sometimes vinegar and coffee) staining. It is one of my favorite “finishes” and is so fun to make and use. Because it’s not a commercial stain, and reacts with the tannins in each piece of wood differently, you never really know what you’re going to get aside from weathered looking wood.

I first found out about it when we were just starting to remodel our house 8 years many eons ago and was dying to try it on our kitchen table when we actually had a finished kitchen. At the time, it was still a relatively new thing in the crafting world and the only people I had really heard using it were some locals who liked to stain their gun barrel stocks with it (we live in a town of less than 100 so its a common thing here).

Aside from just hearing about staining with vinegar, I had a heck of a time finding any tutorials on the best way to go about it. Finally, I came across a blog post on vinegar and tea staining but it wasn’t very descriptive but I was bound and determined to figure it out and stain my table with it.

First, you’re going to start with a quart of white vinegar. I’ve heard some people say you can use apple cider vinegar also, but I have never personally tried it. Sometimes, if I’m feeling uber crafty, I’ll use a half gallon. It can sit a long time before you need to make a new batch. My last batch is going on a couple of months old, and looks like swamp water but still works great.

(This post contains affiliate links to make your shopping easier and to support this blog!)

Now we have our quart of white vinegar. Next, we are going to tear apart just one of the 0000 Steel Wool into small pieces and put it in the jar with the vinegar. Put the lid on, shake a couple of times to get the steel wool wet then leave at least 24 hours. After 24 hours, there might now be any color change in the jar (it might look just the same as it did when you put the steel wool in) but that’s OK, it’ll still work!

Whatever you’re staining needs to be raw wood. I prefer rough cut wood. Like if you run your hand over it, you’ll get a splinter, type of wood. It seems the really smooth planks just do not absorb the stain as well. This stain works wonderfully on pallet boards and you’ll see photos of my dining room table below.

Sand your wood some, so you don’t actually get a splinter then fully coat the board(s) in the vinegar/steel wool elixir with a paint brush (Dollar Store paint brushes work great for this). At first, you wont notice much of a difference, but as it dries the wood will become darker and darker. It’s also OK to keep the remaining steel wool in the vinegar mix and just dip the paint brush in. The steel wool will continue to break down the longer it’s left in the jar, and become more potent.

Let the wood dry completely and while it’s drying, make yourself up a batch of strong tea. I make a pint of tea with hot water and 4-5 tea bags. It really doesn’t matter what type of tea you use. I’ve used everything from plain Lipton tea to peppermint, raspberry and more. The different teas do seem to bring out different tones in the wood (red, green, purple, etc.) depending on what type of tea is used.

Now, once the wood is completely dry and your tea has steeped for 10 minutes or so, brush a coat of your tea on the wood (strong coffee can also be substituted instead of tea and works similar).

 

Let the wood fully dry again then start the process over, repeating the steps of vinegar then tea, until the desired stain color is achieved. I recommend testing this stain out on a hidden test piece of wood first, as with any stain or product.

If you have new wood and are looking for just a lightly weathered look, see how just the vinegar and steel wool mix looks first before adding the tea or coffee. A lot of times, that alone can do the trick for the look I am trying to achieve.

As always, don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions and be sure to check out the video tutorial for this process below.