Have seen recently on several HGTV shows -the faux wood graining with the wood graining tool.
I want to try it on a white painted surface. I would like it to look like a medium oak. What color base coat paint would you use? Any ideas of how to make this work?

For a medium oak you want to start with a woody yellow as a base.

Here is a list of the colors you will need to create faux wood:

Faux Wood Graining

Hi

I'm not sure if I'm understanding the question totally. But, it you want the end result to look like a medium oak, the white will have to go. The base coat should be in the camel family and the top coat should just be at least 1/3 darker. I used to teach this at Home Depot when I was the Dept. Manager of the Paint Dept. for five years. Hope this helps.

Wood graining also known as decorative wood finishing is a timeless decorative finish that adds warmth and beauty to any space. It can be utilized in almost any style of décor from a Mahogany Gentlemen's Pub to a bleached oak farmhouse dining room. When wood graining, choose surfaces that are realistically made of wood, such as baseboards, moldings, panels, mantels, columns or tabletops.


Wood graining techniques can be utilized for effects such as; how to make metal doors look like real wood, how to lighten up the interior of your log home walls or siding, kitchen or bathroom cabinets refinishing without the high cost of stain removal. Many log home owners look to professional painters and painting contractors for the purpose of restoring their interior log home at a fraction of the cost.

By learning the skill of wood graining, dark wood no longer has to be stripped of stain and varnish. With the proper wood graining techniques and practices your log home, kitchen or bathroom cabinets can look brand new again.

1. INTRODUCTION
Woodgraining is the process of creating the warmth, richness, and beauty of real wood on
any finish or surface. Woodgraining has come a long way from the days when a skilled craftsman used a brush and/or bird feather dipped into secret formulas to simulate the look and beauty of wood. Now the Old Masters® method uses a serrated squeegee (the graining tool) and Wiping Stain to produce the grains and patterns of real wood. Whereas historically to get a realistic woodgrain pattern, a person had to be a craftsman with a gift in the arts - now with Old Masters®, the average do-it-yourselfer can have good success and justifiable pride in his or her creations.


Quick Guide How to Wood Grain / Grain Wood


AN OVERVIEW
THE WOOD GRAINING PROCESS
4 STEPS TO THE WARMTH & BEAUTY OF WOOD


1. Apply the Old Masters® Graining Base with a good quality natural bristle brush and allow to dry 24 hours.

2. Apply the first coat of Old Masters® Wiping Stain with a foam brush and let dry 12 hours.

3. Apply the second coat of Old Masters® Wiping Stain same as above, except while wet, rearrange with the Old Masters®
graining tool, “feather” or “dry brush”, and then let dry 12 hours.

1. Protect the finish with the Old Masters® Polyurethane, by applying it with a natural bristle brush and letting it dry 12
hours.

I know I am chiming in a bit late here. There are a lot of good answers thus far - just want to add a few comments.

The base coat for a medium oak would be a "warm' buff color. The graining glaze color should be kind of a carmel brown.

See here for both base and glaze color samples as well as how to use the rocker to make plain sawn oak Plain Sawn Medium Oak Graining

If you want to do the whole thing in latex the base coat can be done with Zinsser's Bullseye primer and an excellent woodgraining glaze is Modern Masters Tintable Glaze which is a waterbase glaze.

To get professional results with the rocker you will need to put down a background under glaze layer. This is commonly done by "flogging" (patting the glaze with the flat edge of the brush bristles), then after drying proceed to grain the primary grain with the rocker.

I am striving for a cherry wood look but in the cherry wood stain that has a dark brown appearance rather that a reddish tone. What undercoat color and glaze would you use to accomplish that look?

Generally speaking, you will use the lightest color in the sample of wood you are trying to match as the base coat color and the darkest color in the wood as your glaze color.

Thank you!

I have a question about woodgraining door trim and baseboards. That Painter Lady's technique should work fine on the dooros with the "grain" already in place, but what about baseboards and window sill trim?

I'm getting ready to paint my master bedroom and my interior doors, window sill trim and baseboards will need to be treated to get rid of that horrid builder's white...