Paint or Stain?

I've just built a queen size bed out of pine. All the furniture in my house is black & my bed sheets are black & white so I want this bed to be black also. I was just going to spray it black as I've done this before to pine & you can get it to look nice if done correctly. I'd really like to see the grain though & so now I'm wondering can you buy a black stain & if so would it give me a nice matt finish with grain visible or should I stick to my original plan?

The best stain I know that still allows grain to show through is Spirit Stain.

We have Chestnut Finishes over here but you must have something similar.

Check out Feast Watson and Wattyl stains at BUNNINGS , then you can coat with a satin varnish use water base if you can as it does not discolour with age, .

Jeff

Got Feast Watson Satin Black Varnish.

I got a quality brush & brushed the 1st coat on (maybe not best idea), wasn't happy with the finish so I thought I'd spray the 2nd coat but when I got spray gun out I saw that the person I'd lent it to last (who spray paints as part of his job) had left it in appalling condition :~ so I brushed the 2nd coat too. I wish I'd sprayed both coats really as I didn't get the professional finish I wanted but unless you look closely you can't see the imperfections (brush marks & the odd subtle run). It was hard to get an even coat without applying a thicker coat than intended. I might sand it back & spray it 1 day.

I didn't notice until I saw this pic that I had dust on my camera lens so it looks like grubby marks on the varnish but it's not.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/n...rojects037.jpg