I'm confused by banister options!

[BelfastSmile]

When we moved into our house, the banisters had been painted white, not very well (it looked like the previous owners had just painted everything in the house with white primer). The paint started to flake off and generally looked a mess, so I started sanding it and realised that there is nice wood underneath the paint.

So, I'm gradually sanding it all back and want to stain it once I'm finished, but I'm very confused about my options.

First of all, there are a couple of bits where the wood is a much lighter type than the rest. I'm not sure what the main wood is; it's fairly light in colour, but not totally pale, whereas there are a couple of bits of trim which look to have been added later, and they're some sort of quite pale wood. So, I'm thinking they may need a couple of layers of colour to bring them to the same tone as the darker bits.

Secondly, what do I actually use to stain it? I looked in Homebase, but all the wood stain they had was exterior stain - can I use that or do I need interior stuff? They had wax and oil and for interior use - am I meant to use that instead?

I had imagined that I'd buy some sort of medium oak stain, and do a layer of that everywhere, plus an extra layer on the lighter bits, and then maybe some sort of protective layer of something to finish it off and make it nice and shiny, but now I don't know what I'm supposed to do! Please help!

@BelfastSmile you need to look at wood dye. You can get acrylic (water based) or solvent based. I've used Morrells in the past.

Thank you! Is wood dye different from wood stain? Or are they different names for the same thing?

There’s no real difference between internal and external materials, just that the exterior ones are made to withstand more stress and adverse conditions. I often use them as they are tougher.

Outdoor stains tend to be the dye and a finish all in one. Some internal ones are like this too.

I find it better to go with dye, get the colour right, you can even mix different dyes or as you mentioned use additional coats. And then you can finish with a varnish or oil depending on the finish you want.

Thank you! Is there a 'usual' topcoat that would be added to a banister handrail? I want it to be nice and smooth and shiny, and not sticky or tacky.

Or if you want different colours similar to Gloss Satinwood won’t yellow