My middle daughter and son in law want a dining table. My SIL wants to be a part of the build. They have 2 very active boys so they've decided on a hard maple top, and they want it a darker color to go with the room.

I've heard that maple is a difficult wood to stain without blotching so I'm looking for any advice on how to get an even result. Would dye be better than staining? I've always wiped on stain but I do have an hvlp sprayer that I bought long ago but never used so I have no spraying skills whatsoever.

I'm trying to minimize the number of times we have to sand the top back to bare wood and start over.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Cliff