 stain on that. However, I will say that if you put a clear stain on it, the cedar is still going to darken over time. So another option is to stain it, and I would use a solid color stain, which is 100% opaque, so you can't see through it, but you still see all the grains. It doesn't necessarily look like paint, but it does last a lot longer than if you use, say, a semi-transparent stain.