So you've taken the plunge and purchased a piece of bare wood furniture. Congratulations! It is an excellent value for the money, and with appropriate care, can last for generations.

Optimistically, before you made the investment, you already had a clear idea what you wanted to do with the piece, but if not, then before you pick up the first tool and begin to work, it's time to plan! A little investment in time now will save you a great number of headaches down the road.

Where bare wood furniture is concerned, you essentially have three choices for finishing the piece, and they're:

Leave the wood "naked"

Paint it

Stain it

Each of these alternatives requires a bit of work on your part in order to protect your investment and increase the beauty and functionality of the piece.

The simplest thing you can to do "finish" your new piece of bare wood furniture is to let it stay in its usual state. If you choose this option, you will probably wish to protect the wood by coating it in some type of wood protecting oil (linseed oil is normally used on a wide variety of bare wood), but there are other products available as well. Always, always, always test first by applying a small quantity of the oil you selected to an unseen corner of the wood to ensure that it will not cause any discoloration or other reaction in the wood. Once assured of this, you can safely apply your chosen protective oil to the whole piece.

If you decide to paint your bare wood furniture, you have quite a lot to think about, other than color choosing. Kind of paint, for instance. If a piece is to be positioned in a bathroom, you'll possibly want to gravitate toward a glossy paint, as these stand up well to the high moisture environment. For high traffic/heavily used pieces, semi-gloss paints offer a good balance of good looks and durability, and if the piece is planned for a lower traffic/lower intensity environment, then flat or satin finishes will serve you fine.

Now's also the time to consider whether or not you'll have any sort of border or scrollwork on your bare wood furniture. If you're not particularly artistically inclined, there are many appealing stencils you can use, readily available at home stores (Lowe's, Home Depot), arts and craft shops (Michael's), and often at chain retail outlets (Wal-Mart, Target), so you've got many options. Of course, if you are artistically inclined or know someone who is, a hand painted border is a good approach to really personalize the piece!

At last, you might decide to stain your new piece of furniture. This is my own favorite technique of finishing pieces, even though it takes the longest, and if this is the direction you wish to go, again, you've got several decisions to make, beginning with the type of stain you'll use. Stains come in oil-based, water-based, or gel, and while my own preference runs to oil based, you will want to experiment to check which works best for you. Surely, you don't wish to experiment directly on your new piece of furniture, so I recommend buying an unfinished wood shelf of the same type of wood from your local home shop and experiment on that. When you make a firm selection, you can proceed with confidence and start working on your bare wood furniture direct.

Make a plan, have some fun, and enjoy your new piece of bare wood furniture, no matter how you choose to finish it!

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