Hello. I'm refinishing a piece to act as a TV stand in the livingroom.
It's a mid centuryish looking piece, Danish modern lines, veneer,
darker wood that I'm guessing is black walnut based on some grayer
tones that showed up when I carefully sanded it.

Okay, not being an experienced woodworker of any sort, I have to rely
on researching the heck out of things before I do them. On this
question I came up without much help. My first thought going in was
that I would sand the piece, get light wood and just poly it so it
would match my blonde kidney shaped coffee table. Oops. The wood had
different characteristics. Hmmmm. Next step was to experiment with
different wood bleaching techniques using an inner shelf that wouldn't
matter if it was ruined. I got a varying shades of light gray veneered
shelf (I sectioned off the shelf for the various techniques). Not the
desired result at all.

My final idea to get something close to what I'd like is this: A coat
of clear polyurethane, let it dry, fine sanding, followed by a mixture
of pickling stain, a drop or two of red stain (to get the slight warmth
in blonde wood), and clear polyurethane to retain the transparency
necessary to let the grain show through. Keeping in mind that I'm
aware of the need to use all like products (meaning all oil-based in
this case) has anyone got any technical reasons this is a no-go before
I move on?

One final thing. Some might wonder why I don't mix the stains THEN
poly, like normal people do. :-) Tried that already, and what happens
is the pickling stain pigment settles in the pores of the wood like
chalk. Very unattractive. I'm starting with an initial coat of poly
in order to seal the pores up.

Carmen