Littlefair's Wood Stain Water-Based - (Dark Walnut) – Non-Toxic, Eco-Friendly & Quick Drying - Easy-to-Apply, Concentrated Formula for All Wood Types – 500ml

I wanted a water based stain to soak into my wood and colour it. I do not really like using a coloured varnish, so wanted to do this in two stages. This stain is easy to work with. It has the same consistency as water, so if brushing, use a jam jar or something to help reduce the amount of stain on the brush. Then I found it best to quickly brush it out (almost scrubbing it) as far as possible. Overloading the brush will cause splashes, and pooling on the surface. The colour will not be very dense on a first pass like this, but it might be surprisingly nice and even. If I was doing the same job again, I might have actually stopped before developing the full colour. The first passes left a subtle colour and more prominent grain, which was nice. Using a dark stain (French Oak), this disappeared somewhat with further coats. The stain finish is very flat matt and actually begs to just be polished, but I had planned to finish with a satin varnish to make it look a little more saturated, and to protect the wood from splashes, and make for easy cleaning. I used the littlefriars water based varnish, but this was much more tricky than the stain. The water based varnish started picking up stain in seconds, and spreading it around like a coloured varnish (which I wanted to avoid as it is too easy to produce streaks). I am not sure if an oil based varnish would have had the same effect. It is probably best to test the system components before attacking the final product, but does anyone ever do that ? I dont as I am too impatient, so I can blame myself for shortcomings in the finish. With the water based varnish picking up some of the stain, it was inclined to leave darkened marks at the end of brush strokes. If ending brush strokes on the same line (as I would for painting). This produced noticable lines accross the work, so I started ending lines in a sawtooth to avoid straight lines. Grain differences seemed also to be exagerated by the varnish interaction with the stain. I now think that the first varnish coat needs to be applied reasonably thickly and very quickly , to avoid going back over the same patch (in total opposition to painting the stain). Returning to a patch even within seconds will result in picking up the stain in the varnish and moving it in an undesirable way, and probably resulting in patchy or streaked work. Most of my difficulty was with the varnish but this needs to be known when starting out. I still think this is what I wanted and think it relatively easy to use, it just needs care when finishing.

​I recently used the Little Fairs Water Based Woostain for a few DIY projects around the house, and I'm very happy with the results. I had a lot of questions about application, so I'll try to provide a detailed review for others. ​First off, the colors are beautiful and rich. I used the it on some shelves and it gave them a really classic, deep wood look without being overly dark. The stain itself is low-odor, which is a massive plus if you're working indoors. It also dries quite quickly, so you can do multiple coats in one day. ​Now for the "be prepared" part: this is a water-based stain, so it's a bit different to work with than traditional oil-based ones. It can raise the grain of the wood, so you'll want to do a very light sanding after the first coat. I also found that a good quality foam brush worked best for application to avoid streaks. It absorbs very quickly, so you need to work in small sections and wipe away the excess within a minute or two. Don't let it sit too long! ​Overall, I highly recommend this stain, especially if you're looking for a low-odor, quick-drying option. Just be sure to do a test patch first and get your application technique down. The end result is beautiful and long-lasting. I'll definitely be buying more for future projects.

Good product difficult to mix thoroughly very important that it is mixed extremely well had to scrape the bottom with a coffee stirrer to get the colour uniformed but when to was the finish is very pleasing

What an excellent product! I had bought 250ml of light oak first to stain some pine shelves, they only needed one coat but I am very happy with the result. Very easy to stain, after shaking the bottle I poured some into a glass jar and used a paint brush. They dried quickly outside. I then bought a 1l bottle to stain my new beech wood chairs, they looked nice with one coat but I ended up doing two coats, but you need to be careful as it can get patchy, I just got a damp cloth and wiped off the patchy bit which worked. I then waxed them with no problems. I like the fact it is water based too as I am very sensitive to lots of things and I did take an antihistamine before using this and I stained them outside, but I had no allergic reaction so very happy about that🙂 excellent product and i would definitely recommend 🥰

Brilliant little tester pots of wood dye. I'm seriously in to making dolls house furniture and these give me an economical way to try different colours. The light rosewood is lovely, I also tried an undercoat of rosewood with a top coat of light oak and that was just perfect.

Easy to apply but one coat of the golden pine dries almost black. The colour chart is incredibly inaccurate.

This is by far the best stain I have used so far. I applied this with a sponge brush and it gave outstanding results. It is so easy to apply and re - coat. I have never used a stain that is so forgiving in respect to the application, brush directions and going over it again when it is still wet make no difference, when it dries and it does so very quickly it leaves an unblemished uniform finish. I was staining light oak to black and this took a lot of coats to achieve the shade of black I wanted, but I didn’t find this a problem as the coats went on so easily and dries quickly between coats. Unlike other stains i have used you can literally go over areas that you have just stained and it doesn’t matter at all, it just soaks into the wood leaving a perfect finish. When using the foam brush I noticed it left a few tiny bubbles in some areas, so I went over the area again while still wet, but it still left a couple behind. I decided to leave them to see what it looked like when dry. It dried to a perfect finish. I thoroughly recommend this product and will purchase again.

very runny so be careful when applying with a brush. we used a sponge in the end to apply to the wood but was a perfect colour match

It went in smooth and consistent with zero bubbles or discoloration. The quality is high end and it's water based. Works well and is a great value for the money cost.

Sehr gut zu verarbeiten.

Don’t know what’s wrong but this turned out terrible on my wooden shelf.

Se da con mucha facilidad, quedando muy bien si tenemos la precaución de no dar pasadas con la brocha en zonas ya tintadas y hacerlo en el sentido de la veta, el único punto a tener en cuenta es que se debe agitar muy bien, y como esto no se puede hacer correctamente en el propio bote donde viene, al estar casi lleno, el fabricante en las instrucciones pone “Vierta la mitad del contenido en un recipiente apropiado y vuelva a colocar correctamente la tapa. Ahora puede agitar el envase con fuerza, asegurándose de que los ingredientes que se hayan asentado se mezclen por completo. Vierta el resto en el recipiente previsto y remuévalo todo junto. Agite a menudo durante el uso” Seca en uno o dos horas, yo le he dado cera incolora como capa protectora al final, para lo cual es preciso que el tinte seque preferiblemente durante toda la noche. No huele prácticamente nada cuando lo estamos aplicando, y la brocha se limpia con agua. Cunde mucho, ya que solo he gastado la mitad del bote de 1 litro para tintar las puertas de un armario empotrado que, en conjunto, miden 170 por 235 centímetros, por dentro y fuera mas los marcos.

Really easy to apply with a sponge and results in a smooth, consistent colour. Medium oak on the bedframe photo, some varnish applied as well. The medium oak was a tad lighter than expected (light oak on the left and medium oak on the right in the photo). Not a bad thing as it gives the wood a slightly warmer look than the light oak without becoming too dark.