How to Stain Small Objects in Minutes

I love a good hack! My family would say I hack every time I cook or follow a recipe. It’s true; following a recipe is so conventional. I created this hack on the fly when I had to stain multiple wood embroidery hoops for these orbs. I had a paintbrush, deadline and I needed to find a way how to stain small objects.

There was more stain on my hands than on the embroidery hoops. It was more labor intensive than I anticipated; technically there are four sides to each hoop and the area around the hardware.

It was a messy process and each hoop required additional coats and touchups.

Staining each embroidery hoop one by one was slower than waiting for a load of towels to dry… while standing in front of the dryer. It was a brain drain technique.

This hack shows how to stain lots of objects in minutes.

I loved this hack when I painted dozens of cabinet pulls without incident, meaning they did not wobble and smudge the freshly spray painted cabinet pulls.

I grabbed an aluminum tray from the upcycle bin the stack of take-out trays and I poured just enough of the stain into the shallow aluminum tray. And, then I dunked the embroidery hoops into the tray; like an Oreo cookie into a glass of milk.

I completed this stain hack with a sturdy piece of cardboard under the aluminum tray.

Instant stain…on all sides of the hoop ( interior, exterior, and the narrow sides). The stain reached the nooks and crannies around the hoop’s hardware where the paintbrush just missed those same nooks.

It was a great way to stain small objects.

How to Stain Small Objects