When I built my house 26 years ago, I stained all of the skirting boards, door jambs, window surrounds etc with a system of stain that Wattyl used to make.

The time-consuming process that I used might have seemed crazy at the time as the alternative of simply painting on a tinted polyurethane would have been a lot simpler but the quality of the finish yielded by my labours has given me immense satisfaction whenever I have looked at it ever since that time. I even did items that the brochures suggest that I not do - like stair cases but all these years later, i continue to be really happy with the results.


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Now, in retirement, I have rekindled my love of woodwork and would like to once again achieve the same terrific stained finish that made open grained inexpensive timbers like Merranti look so stunning.

That system was called Colorwood, I think and it involved firstly rubbing on the pigmented stain and waiting for it to almost dry before wiping off the excess, and then when it was dry to wipe across the grain with a grain filler that would fill the open pores of the timber in a complementary colour and then painting on a couple of coats of clear Estapol. I think that these couple of hardened old tins from my garage are ones from that system...


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The system was well described in brochures plentifully available from paint shops and just made the whole exercise absolutely foolproof for mugs like me to achieve an awesomely good finish. They even told you what color of "Woodstop" putty to use to fill nail holes etc. It was an amazing system.


However, when I go into a Bunnings shop now looking for any of the above system, it does not seem to exist - at least on the shelves anyway. There are all some stains and fillers but the secret to the old "Colorwood" system was in the the brochures which told you exactly what colour of grain filler to use with what colour stain, wood putty, etc, and I don't see any evidence of that level of customer guidance on the shelves.

I have not asked the staff at Bunnings about this topic yet and have just poked around the shelves looking for the familiar system of materials and instructions but I thought that before I ask them, there may be people on this forum who might be better skilled to advise if the old Colorwood system still exists in some form or what is the best way to achieve the same results with current products. My favourite colour was "American Redwood" which gave a lovely rich, warm colour as seen on the staircase above.



In short, "Help!" (please!)




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