How to stain wood moderately easily:
You will need:
* Five small foam brushes
* A small can of *water* *based* stain in your desired color
* A small can of clear polyurethane with your desired level of gloss
* Fine grit sand paper
* Newspaper or a tarp to work on
Lay out the newspaper or tarp. (We'll assume it's paper.) Take your wood to be stained and place it on the paper. Open the can of stain. Dip the tip of one of the brushes in the stain for a second or two, then apply the stain to the wood. Quickly brush the stain all over the wood. Repeat dipping and application as needed until you have covered the wood on all external surfaces. (Internal surfaces are optional.) You may apply more stain to areas which received less stain if the coating looks uneven. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE THE DESIRED DARKNESS OF STAIN. Rinse out the brush you used in clean water, squeeze out excess water, and allow it to dry. Close the can of stain.
Allow the stain to mostly dry (several hours) before concerning yourself with its level of darkness. If it's not dark enough, open the stain, get the brush you used previously, and apply another coating. Close the can, clean the brush, and allow everything to dry again. Repeat as necessary until it looks *approximately* as dark as you desire, perhaps a little lighter. Remember that it will darken slightly and the grain of the wood will be more obvious when you apply polyurethane.
Allow the wood to dry THOROUGHLY. This usually takes one to three days. It should feel smooth and dry to the touch.
Open the polyurethane, and using the brush you previously used, apply one thin layer of polyurethane. Try to get fairly little of it on the brush at a time, not big gobs of it, and spread it out on the wood as thinly as you can to get an even coat. Close the can, discard the brush, and allow everything to dry for the time the polyurethane says on the can.
Using the fine grit sandpaper, quickly and *very gently* sand the surface of the wood that was coated with polyurethane. Remember that you're not trying to remove the polyurethane, you're just trying to very gently smooth off any bumps on its surface. Gently blow off any resulting dust.
Open the polyurethane, get another brush, and put on another thin coat. Allow to dry as directed. Repeat sanding and coating with polyurethane for a total of at least 2 and up to 5 coats. Do not sand the last coat.
It's important that you use a water based stain because it allows you a lot more flexibility in terms of evening out the color and applying more layers to get the right level of darkness. Other stains are much less forgiving.
