Paint vs. Wood Dye
Earlier in the year I decided to refinish two different chairs, one using black dye on the wood and the other using sort-of-black paint named 'Wrought Iron'. The outcomes were very different, and I thought this would be a useful reference - for others or for my future self - when deciding whether to sand a piece of furniture down to bare wood in order to dye the wood or just paint it. Sanding is an unpleasant chore, so sanding down a whole piece can be quite the investment in time and clean-up energy.
Here are the two chairs, the splat-back (left) and the angular colonial reproduction (right).
A little bit closer view, the left chair was sanded and dyed and finished with furniture wax. The chair on the right was painted with a variation in Benjamin Moore 'Wrought Iron' that I had to bring back to have more dark pigment added. The hardware store folks were really nice about adding more pigment to try to get me to the 'soft black' color I had in my mind.....but I'm not sure it exists in reality.
The tricky part about sanding and dyeing is that you have to remove EVERY. SINGLE. PART of the old finish before dyeing. If you miss any spots while sanding you will get places on the chair that resist the dye, and show up as light spots. This shouldn't be a problem if you are working with raw wood, but for furniture makeovers it is something to consider if you plan to use any sort of chemical or mechanical stripper.
Here are the two chairs, the splat-back (left) and the angular colonial reproduction (right).
A little bit closer view, the left chair was sanded and dyed and finished with furniture wax. The chair on the right was painted with a variation in Benjamin Moore 'Wrought Iron' that I had to bring back to have more dark pigment added. The hardware store folks were really nice about adding more pigment to try to get me to the 'soft black' color I had in my mind.....but I'm not sure it exists in reality.
The tricky part about sanding and dyeing is that you have to remove EVERY. SINGLE. PART of the old finish before dyeing. If you miss any spots while sanding you will get places on the chair that resist the dye, and show up as light spots. This shouldn't be a problem if you are working with raw wood, but for furniture makeovers it is something to consider if you plan to use any sort of chemical or mechanical stripper.
Conclusion
If I were working with raw wood, or wood that was confidently fully sanded, I would use the dye. The way the color sinks into the wood while leaving the grain slightly visible is a much more satisfying look. What's the word I'm looking for instead of satisfying: maybe authentic? aged? natural? organic? inviting? woody? Something along those lines. However, in the case of chairs with lots of spindles, if the chair already had a finish on it I'd try to get the right kind of paint to apply over the existing finish. Sanding spindles sucks.
Happy freestyling!