Can anyone offer suggestions for a painless-as-could-be-expected way of staining birch plywood a deep, intense red color? Something almost cartoony red or maroon, as opposed to the reddish-brown colors one would expect from wood. Sample color:
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've checked out samples of the Minwax products. The water-based ones seemed more "colorful", but none of the reds seemed deep enough - and all were orangey reds, rather than blueish reds, which I'd prefer. The closest thing I saw was the Polyshades Bombay Mahogany... But I've seen mixed reviews of that product, and it seemed like it would completely hide the grain when used dark enough.
I'm an amateur, so grinding my own dyes with a mortar and pestle or similarly complex solutions may be beyond the scope of the current project.
As an aside - I'm living in New York City, and have pretty limited access to retailers of stuff like this. Any general suggestions for good woodworking supply shops in the NYC area would be most welcome. I went to Home Depot today, and almost had a brain aneurysm, their selection was so bad.