staining or painting a varnished gate?

[ukflyer]

I have got a bit of a dilemma. I have a just got a new front gate.It was given to me by a friend that had made it but then decided not to use it.It is made of planned pine and he has given it a couple of light coats of varnish.
My problem is,my fence is stained dark oak.I would like to stain the gate so it is all the same colour. Any suggestions as to what the best course of action is?
Do i paint it with out door paint or is there a way to stain it now its varnished?

 

[toneekc]

Hi ukflyer

It's going to be hard espcaly if it's just pine; the first coat will have really soaked in and sealed the wood so the stain will not be able to penatrat.

That the end of the day you can try a couple of things and if they don't turn out as a last resort it can always be painted.

Again Nitromores or pop it round to a door dipper; the thing is if as I said it penatrated the pine you may get deffrent shades of stain, it's trail and erro.

Good luck with it

T

http://hubpages.com/hub/Painting-Tips-and-Tricks

 

[Robbie uk]

Give it a good rub down as best as you can and apply a couple of coats of water based stain, like Ronseal or sadolin, although this will really only stay on the surface it will cover quite well. Water based stain does not penetrate into the surface of any wood like an oil based one will.