Wood Bleach Tutorial: How to Make Red Oak Look Like White Oak!

Wood Bleach Tutorial: How to Make Red Oak Look Like White Oak! We'll show you how to remove the natural colour from ANY bare wood (and lighten the colour of stained wood) with easy to use Circa 1850 Wood Bleach!

Have you ever wondered if you could make a set of red oak stairs look more like white oak? We have (many times actually). Luckily, as it turns out, you can- and its pretty darn effective too! The solution is to bleach the wood, stripping it of its natural colour, and then to neutralize that bleach after to process is complete.

For our project, we used Circa 1850 wood bleach, a two component oxygen bleach that comes in an easy to use (and easy to find) kit. It's also ideal for removing the greying effect that results from weathering and exposure sunlight. It's capable of lightening all wood types, including walnut, mahogany and teak (and even wood that has darkened from age)! We'll link the product below, and as usual, if you have any questions, let us know in the comments section!

Looking for more 'infotainment' from the Refresh guys? Follow the links below for more DIY-friendly home renovation tips, as well as tons of satisfying, easy to watch videos on our other social media pages!

[savanahandrade]

I love it!! I want to do the same thing to my honey colored oak kitchen cabinets.

[GF-zhsv]

No painter's tape, real nice hand brotha. Those stairs look great

[HonestAbe]

When you painted the stringer you didn't protect the stair treat from getting some paint on them?

[whoaskedforthisbs]

Short and sweet, with normal audio Thank you!

[jessicatellier]

Love this! How many coats of the bleaching product did you use for your project?

[trevorm]

What type of top coat do you use to try to preserve the white oak look?

[jamipiehler]

I cannot find this bleach product in stock anywhere. Please advise on where to purchase. Thanks!

[kollectiveluvphotographyby]

Hi! have you tried liquid sandpaper instead of manually sanding? Want to bleach my window trims and sanding it manually looks too hard. Second question, if I do need to really manually sand, do I just buff or it needs to be done hard?

[klalazarian]

Wow, you did an amazing job! Getting that Bin shellac on perfectly like that is epic! My question is I am refinishing a table and painting a portion and want to bleach the top and bottom of small table for a natural wood look. I believe it's red oak. I sanded down the finish with 80 sander yesterday then wipe it down with water and it was a light color. Woke up this morning to further work on it and it was red again! I'm a newbie. Is this normal? Do I need to sand more? Also, I bought a wood bleaching kit by Zinsser? Is that ok? Thank you!

[michelefausnacht]

Wow! I was getting ready to paint pickled oak cabinets. Would i get the white oak look with this technique?

[marciacornell]

I had my red oak wood staircase sanded and stained (no top finish/varnish yet…) by a professional but the color is horrible. I want it to match my new white oak floors. Can you use this on wood that has just been stained but no sealant… will it work?

[tfwoodcraft]

would this work on alder, or does it only work on red oak? looks great!

[litadex]

Any similar product in the us, I can't find it anywhere.

[gilhernandez]

What grey did you use on the stairs after (I guess) sealing the wood (last few seconds of the video) we have red oak stairs and want to make them a dark grey.

[wesmontgomery]

Did the process cause the wood to splinter or damage it in any way?

[Captain-Awesome]

That came out really good!! I am a custom home builder in the Dallas, Texas area. I have some rift cut white oak cabinets that I need to even out and this looks like it will do the trick. Your welcome to come hang out and make a video.

[JuJuLona]

This looks amazing!! Do you think it would work on kitchen cabinets?

[susiea]

Can I do this with Chinese rosewood or will it go back to red when exposed to light?

[egf]

Nice job, but why did you spend that much time bleaching and NOT tape off while painting white???

[mross]

Did you use 180 sandpaper the whole time?