Staining Wood with Vinegar

I wrote in the Laundry Room Make over post about how I stained the pine shelves. I had seen a post on Pinterest about using steel wool and vinegar to stain wood.

As usually I looked at a lot of different ways to stain it and then didn’t follow the directions very closely.

I soaked a wad of steel wool in vinegar for about a week. They said a couple days would be long enough, but I got busy and it soaked for a week.

I started with plain pine and rubbed the steel wool over the wood. I made sure the steel wool was soaked with the vinegar solution.

After about 5-10 minutes the wood looked like this. (if you look closely at the top, you can see where I missed a spot)

The board on the right has been sitting for about 5 minutes; the one on the left was just wiped with the vinegar solution.

After the boards dried I wiped them down with a wet rag to get any residue off. Then waxed the boards give them a bit of a shine.