Staining Separate Birch pieces

[Meredithfurniture]

Real novice here….I ordered wood record storage boxes off Etsy. They are made of Birch and the company says you can paint or stain them. The painting went very smoothly, But the staining is not going very well. I’m trying to stain the top three pieces for them. The toppers which I guess are made of birch veneer plywood are coming out totally different colors from each other, even though I am doing them at the same time in the exact same manner. Any suggestions? Am I mostly out of luck and just need to paint them?

[fptahoe]

You may have done this, but I found out the hard way to use pre stain conditioner on any light wood that gets stain.  It minimizes the color variation from piece to piece, or even on the same piece and I think is well worth the extra step.

[mr_skittle]

Birch is notorious for staining unevenly. And no matter what species, plywood veneer rarely stains the same as solid wood. If you've already stained them, it's probably too late to do much about the color. You could go darker until everything evens out, or maybe a layer of gel stain on top might give a more uniform look. Next time a prestain conditioner of some sort will really help.