ᐅ Should pine wood chairs be stained, varnished, or treated differently?

Hello everyone, I’m not sure if this is the right subforum, but I have a question and haven’t found a suitable answer through Google or elsewhere. I have pine wood chairs from Ikea (see photo). We have oak parquet flooring and a relatively dark oak dining table. The natural pine chairs don’t really match the color tone of the oak. At first, I wanted to whitewash them, but I didn’t like the result. Now I’m considering an oak-colored wood stain, which would match the tone better. However, I’m not sure if a stain is the right finish for dining chairs. What do you think? Alternatively, I have a varnish stain that is slightly darker. I’m concerned that in a few years it might all end up looking “shabby style.” We already have something like that with some chairs (see photos... but those are around 15 years old). Also, I want to prevent the chairs from chipping if they bump against the wall. This looked awful in our old apartment.

At the hardware store, the salesperson tried to sell me a thick-layer wood finish meant for windows and doors. That didn’t sound very convincing to me. What are your thoughts?

Stain and then seal with clear varnish.

...buy suitable chairs through classifieds

SumsumBiene schrieb:

...buy suitable chairs through classified ads

Or replace the floor and table.

Of course, a wood stain can be suitable, but what matters is its composition and which ingredients are excluded. For indoor use / for furniture, this should at least be indicated on the can. Resistance to abrasion, water, and alcohol is also important. If all these criteria are met, painting the chairs is definitely an option. However, pine will always be pine. Even if the color matches, it is still a different type of wood, which will always be noticeable. Therefore, I would tend to recommend purchasing matching oak chairs, especially since some are already available on the market for under 100 euros per piece.

Oiling could be an option if preserving the wood grain is important to you. Otherwise, @AxelH. is right—pine will never look like oak. I would recommend going for contrast instead. Nothing is worse than having five different wood tones in the same room. It’s better to choose an opaque color right away, such as acrylic paint, and then pick a color you like.