Paint of Stain first?

[retfr8flyr]

I am currently making a name and address sign, from Cypress, for my daughters new house. I will be routing out the numbers and letters and painting them black. The wood will be lightly stained and then covered with spar varnish. Would it be better to stain first and them paint the insides of the letters and numbers, or would painting first work better? I had planned to paint first but would appreciate any help from you more experienced members.

[Roly]

I am currently making a name and address sign, from Cypress, for my daughters new house. I will be routing out the numbers and letters and painting them black. The wood will be lightly stained and then covered with spar varnish. Would it be better to stain first and them paint the insides of the letters and numbers, or would painting first work better? I had planned to paint first but would appreciate any help from you more experienced members.

 I would probably stain first then a coat or 2 of clear coat then paint the letters and another coat of clear.   This way if any paint gets where you don't want it, it will wipe off.  Roly

[retfr8flyr]

 I would probably stain first then a coat or 2 of clear coat then paint the letters and another coat of clear.   This way if any paint gets where you don't want it, it will wipe off.  Roly

Thanks, I have been thinking more about it and decided to stain it first and then clear coat it. I hadn't thought about doing the first coat of clear and then painting the black parts. I will have to think on this some more but that sounds like a good way to go. I can't see the first coat of spar varnish affecting the black paint adhering but it would make it very easy to clean up any mistakes.

[Cooler]

If you paint the letters first you can go over the rest of the sign with a sander and remove any paint that strayed outside the lines.  Then I would stain and top coat with spar varnish.

[Ed in NC]

What Cooler said...I would test this process on scrap first. I have a feeling that the cypress will get darker with the and varnish than you like, and the black letters will not show up as well as you want...just another input

[Cooler]

What Cooler said...I would test this process on scrap first. I have a feeling that the cypress will get darker with the and varnish than you like, and the black letters will not show up as well as you want...just another input

He could mount little tiny LED lights in the grooves and light it up.