Finishing poplar doors

i almost never use stain on anything , i usually use paint or clearcoat . i can only tell you first hand that poplar can be quite pretty with a clearcoat on it , but it may not be the color your looking for . ive also heard people say they had problems staining poplar . with that said you may well have problems with about anything your not used to doing . maybe your painter does this a lot and wont have any problem . i might suggest if its possible to see the doors not the pics . pics can play tricks especially with colors . ill add this , in years long gone we used to build a lot of staircases out of poplar that got stained and or clearcoated . i dont remember there being any problems . thats the best i can offer you on it !

MrTrim….thanks for the advice on the doors…..the issues I’ve heard of are it staining out blotchy like pine can/will if you don’t treat it or use a tint like TransTint instead of stain. Not want to spend a lifetime finishing these doors BUT wanting them to run out nice I’m a little worried that I’ll run into issues that I would not have it I just go with oak, pricing is not that much different between the two. Part of my problem is we do like the look of the light and dark grains in the poplar vs. the grain in white oak. We were planing on not staining anything and just putting a finish coat, 3 or 4, on the floors and doors. We are using Waterlox satin on the floors and it would be the top coat on the doors as well. We looked at staining/coloring the poplar doors because of the green coloring in the wood, not having any experience with poplar I’m not sure if I just top coated them if the green would darken, turn brown, like I’m told it does naturally. . So I guess a second part to the question would be; if I just put the Waterlox product on them would the green tint turn brown, which would be o.k., wife doesn’t think the green would look good

Thanks for any and all help.
confused in TN

-- Todd, Thomas Construction - Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †

this is an cabinet that stays out on my carport , the faceframe is poplar with a clearcoat of minwax helmsman . the green usually turns what id call a golden brown.

the rails were made of the green color poplar , you can see the sap wood at the very bottom . the stiles were made of the straight white color poplar .

Thomas, Poplar is a soft wood, so if the ware and tear is not too bad, this is not a problem. It will stain very dark, because it is not a dense wood. It will paint just fine. It is easy to mill, but during milling it is not very stable; it might worp on you. Once it is finished it is just fine.

I would buy some poplar and take it to your painter and start sampling some stains and paint before you get too far along.

The frame around the doors is made of poplar, the doors are clear pine.

-- http://www.twinoaksgrowers.com

Thanks PaBull…...I think I will do just as you guys suggest…samples..Not sure if the ware and tear would be to bad but they are doors and doors seem to get allot of ware and tear…....got my prices from the trim guy yesterday and they are not any better than the prices I got from Jeld Wen for Oak doors…..
these are the interior doors we are looking at.
http://www.jeld-wen.com/attributes/universal_large_image.cfm/attribute_id/8001/property_id/47078

and this is the exterior door.
http://www.jeld-wen.com/attributes/universal_large_image.cfm/attribute_id/6409/property_id/34498

Thanks for all your help….and PaBull the fireplace and wall unit looks great!

-- Todd, Thomas Construction - Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †

Thanks TT, and good luck with your project. I like the choice of doors.

-- http://www.twinoaksgrowers.com

As posted in other areas popplar does work very well but you would want to use a pre stainer, sealer, the wood does sometime and places will have a mismatched stain look. Like pine.

I apologize for not getting around to this sooner but it is hard to find time to get over here from LJs. Here is a post I put up a while ago on this same subject. It contains some pictures of stained poplar doors that we put in our finished basement. We did the entire area in poplar trim to match the doors as well. Basically I treated poplar similar to pine and put a conditioner on it before staining. The green tint that is present in some of the wood will fade to a nice brown after with time.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Scott, I looked at your pictures. The stain worked well on the Poplar doors. I would not have been able to guess that these doors were poplar.

-- http://www.twinoaksgrowers.com

Scott your doors look great…now I just need to decide if I want to go through the extra step with all the doors…..not sure what to do the way your doors look I might want to do it. Thanks again

-- Todd, Thomas Construction - Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †

Wood conditioner is a great way to keep the “blotchy” look away. As has been said if your just going to lacquer them then it isn’t necessary.

-- Dion, www.richinscarpentry.com

thanks for all the responses….you’ve all been very helpful…..I’ll let you know how it turns oout

-- Todd, Thomas Construction - Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †

Poplar takes very well to priming and painting. As smooth or smoother than MDF. I have also heard that if it is treated properly it can be made to look like Cherry. That would require a wood conditioner to make sure it stains evenly. As far as the rest of the process I am not sure. Try doing a Google on it. Or perhaps your trim guy knows a good painter that could stain them for you. Its grain is very nice but it will take some doing to make it come out the way you want. I would suggest you get yourself a board of it. I believe Home Depot calls it white wood which is a joke because half the time its green not white.

Thanks for all the good responses…...we ended up getting the doors from my lumber guy…...in oak…same style….we thought oak would take the beating from the grandkids better than poplar and wouldn’t have to deal with the staining issues…I am going to make and stain something out of poplar…I like the different colors in the grain…so I’m going to try some of the ideas I got here and will let you know how it turns out…..

-- Todd, Thomas Construction - Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †

poplar is a very vag term. True poplar stains great when sprayed.

-- Quality hardwood moldings

Poplar is the wood of choice for paint grade mouldings from hardwood wholesalers. It grows fast and produces wide, long, clear lumber for a bargain price. The sapwood is mostly white , some light and dark greens and then purple and black near the heart. Colors not an issue in paint grade. Left natural, the white and greens will turn a fairly uniforn honey color. The purple and black will stay dark. Poplar can be stained to match cherry, walnut, mahogany and many other species with the correct finishing products. It is one of the best “bang for the buck” wood species available for millwork.