Light wood to Dark wood finish

My wife recently changed all furniture to dark wood and she complains that aquarium not matching with living room furniture. Is there way I can change light wood stand to dark wood something like cherry wood?

I have no knowledge about painting, so please guide me if it's easy to paint or to get new stand from craigslist? Also if its need to be painted it should be done at living room with fishes and corals in it. I have attached my tank pic(1st one) and (2nd pic)closest new color I need.

 

You could stain it the color your wife wants in place. You will want to remove the canopy and keep your place well ventilated until the project is done. Your local Lowe's or Home Depot can give the details for to do it.

 

you can but I would do it slowly or take the tank off the stand and do the whole thing at once.

just make sure to sand the outer coat really well before you stain it.

 

I tried to stain mine in place but it was a pain IME

 

Is there a smooth finish on it? If so, ya may need to sand that off for paint to stick. The best way to do it would be to sand it down and stain it the darker color, but I wouldn't want to do that with the aquarium on top of it!

If there's not a smooth finish on it, and it feels like wood, you could just apply a layer of primer on it, then paint it whatever color you want. If theres a smooth finish on it, I'd cover my tank real good, and hand sand it before priming.

EDIT, if it feels like wood, you can try to just stain over it with the darker color, it may look ok, but may come out ugly, its hard to say.

 

You could sand your stand down a bunch and then stain it the color you want.

I'd say it would be easier to then paint the trim on the tank black as you'll have a bugger of a time getting paint a close color to match the stain.

 

Thank you all . It looks like big pain doing this with tank on it. It will be even bigger pain to take down 80 gallon tank with all that live rock and corals in it and catching those fishes and setting up again. I will try to cover tank completely and sand it. It looks like real wood though no shinny finish so I believe good sanding and strain should work. Will try to do back side and see how it comes, if its good will do rest, if not will try to convince her :-/

how about trim of the tank, it doesn't look like wood but very smooth finish, does sand + strain go on it or need primer + paint?

 

I can imagine that !

 

Cant you just get a dark oak varnish? Then keep coating it until you it comes to the desired colour, if you use an oil based varnish rub it down lightly with fine wire wool between coats and clean off with white spirit. A bit smelly for indoor work but the best finish,

If you use a water based varnish dont rub down between coats, just coat up until the right colour is achieved, make sure you follow any existing grain, this is probaly the best to use indoors but not the best finish.

 

i stained my stand darker, when i ordered it i ordered a cherry wood and sent a picture of the color stain i wanted, when it came in it was lighter than i wanted so i just got the stain out and rubbed another coat of stain onto it, with the direction of the wood.
mine was not a sealed/shinny wood so it took the stain very well. maybe you could test yours on the inside of the cabinet to see how it will take.

i have wood floors so carpet wasn't an issue. be careful to protect your floors/rugs. one more thing i did mine in august and even with the air conditioner on it took time to dry, and i ended up having to fix a spot i touched that was still wet. all in all i would do it again it worked out well for me. the stand now matches my floors

with my last tank before i touched spots up on that with stain. it was an oceanic stand and it took the stain well. but i wasn't changing the color i was just touching it up where it had started to show ware and tear