Weathered Wood Accelerator by Varathane – the Ultimate Guide!

Considering staining a project with Weathered Wood Accelerator? Did you know that stains 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.

Weathered Wood Accelerator

Weathered Wood Accelerator is a premium wood stain by Varathane, a sub-brand of Rustoleum. It is an oil based wood finish. You can use it on hardwood floors or wood furniture or DIY projects.

This is not a typical stain. It is actually meant to replicate and aging process and imitate what happens in nature with aged wood.

It’s a unique idea that is playing on the trend of rustic, weathered wood finishes.

It is gray in color with cool blue undertones.

My biggest complaint about this stain is that it tends to go blue/purple in certain wood types and in certain lights. When that happens, it’s not good and it doesn’t look natural at all.

Another complaint is that one coat of this stain on bare or untreated wood doesn’t always do much. We have found that you need to almost pool the stain on and then let it sit for a while before wiping to get the desired aged gray effect.

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 Weathered Wood Accelerator look on pine?

Weathered Wood Accelerator gives pine a gray tint. We have had it go fairly purple on pine if left to sit too long, however. Be sure to wipe it and then apply a second coat if you want to get it darker.

The yellow undertones of the pine still shine through this thin stain.

How does Weathered Wood Accelerator look on plywood?

Plywood took the stain color a bit more than the pine did. It gave the piece and overall gray look. You can kind of see how it looks a little blue, though. Be careful with that and be sure to test a swatch first.

How does Weathered Wood Accelerator look on poplar?

Poplar is naturally a bit green looking which i feel like works well with this stain to create a unique color. I think it did a nice job of reacting with the wood to highlight the natural grain.

How does Weathered Wood Accelerator look on whitewood?

This stain penetrates the wood grain of the white wood a lot more than the rest of it, leaving you with an inconsistent finish. However, if you want to really highlight the grain, this could be a good option for you.

How does Weathered Wood Accelerator look on oak?

Oak has a natural red tone to it and I really like the way that this stain cools that down. It adds almost white highlights to the grain. I think that this could be beautiful on hardwood floors or cabinets!

Projects using Weathered Wood Accelerator

Want to see Weathered Wood Accelerator in action? Here are some projects featuring this color:

• Mountains card holder
• DIY Console table
• Modern side tables
• Wooden triangle shelf brackets
• Three tiered plant propagation stand

We love how Weathered Wood Accelerator 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 Weathered Wood Accelerator 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!