Classic Gray wood stain by Minwax – the Ultimate Guide

Considering staining a project with Classic Gray wood stain? Did you know that Classic Gray looks different on every wood species? That should be a big factor before you buy the stain or wood.

Here is everything you need to know about it, before making the purchase.

Classic Gray by Minwax

Classic Gray is a premium wood stain by Minwax. It is an oil based wood finish. You can use it on hardwood floors or wood furniture or DIY projects.

It is gray in color with cool undertones.

This stain color can read a bit silver or almost blue in certain lights. It is a very light gray color.

You can find this stain on Amazon or at your local hardware store. A can of stain lasts a long time, so it can be used for several projects.

In general, it is always a good idea to do a test stain on a piece of wood to verify desired color.

We tested this stain on five types of wood to see how it looks – whitewood, poplar, plywood, pine, and oak.

How does Classic Gray look on pine?

Pine tends to take stain in a blotchy way, so be prepared to use wood conditioner first to get best results.

This stain goes on kind of thick and can mask a bit of the grain in pine. It comes across as a really beautiful rich color – and the longer that you let it sit on the wood surface, the darker it will get.

How does Classic Gray look on plywood?

The plywood that we tested didn’t have much natural wood grain to it, which helped this stain color absorb really evenly. I think that it enhances the natural wood nicely.

You can see on the plywood, however, how this color can read almost a purpley blue at times.

How does Classic Gray look on poplar?

Poplar naturally has green undertones, which I think plays nicely with this gray color. Once again, there is not much detail to the natural grain, so it looks pretty uniform and crisp.

How does Classic Gray look on whitewood?

Whitewood has a lot of natural grain variation to it, which gives it a bit of a streaky look when stained. If you like the vibe, this could work for you. It’s not my favorite.

How does Classic Gray look on oak?

They gray in this stain plays nicely to cool down the natural red undertones of the oak.

However, I would use this stain with caution. Like I mentioned above, it has a tendency to go on thick and foggy, and I wouldn’t want to risk covering up the beautiful natural wood grain of the oak.

Projects using Classic Gray wood stain

Want to see Classic Gray in action? Here are some projects featuring this color:

We love how Classic Gray looks and think that it is a great option if you are building furniture or DIY projects for your home. Try to pair this together with similar colors and tones in your home.

Click here to shop Classic Gray on Amazon!

Want to check out more stain colors? We tested 10 types of stain on 5 types of wood – check out the whole project!