I have this vanity cabinet and am trying to match the stain for some trim. Any ideas what I should get?

The product line is Sandalwood detailed here [www.americanclassicsbath.com] )


Thanks,

Stavs

It looks like maple or fruitwood

I would email the company and tell them you want to match it.

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decocritter
I would email the company and tell them you want to match it.

I did that but I'm impatient

Also, since I would be buying off the shelf trim, would I be able to match oak or pine to this?

With the right stain you should. Get some samples of the trim you want, and test a few stain colors.

important???? take to a good paint store with sample of wood you are using and have them match. Take drawer with you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2007 05:21PM by slbett.

There are so many subtley different stains, I don't see how anyone could guess. Shoot, I have a hemlock door in our house that is stained with tung oil that looks a lot like that, but I'm sure that isn't what it is.

>>Also, since I would be buying off the shelf trim, would I be able to match oak or pine to this?

Most of our interior doors are fir, while the trim is pine. With the same stain the fir has a really nice reddish tint, but the pine is browner. So I would say probably not. I would experiment, as I found a stain that makes the pine much closer in color.

I'm guessing the wood is soft maple, but it could be anything. The stain could very well be a color they mix up themselves. And every wood has its own color. So, if you want to match the stain, I'd probably buy some sample trim, and mix up a bunch of stains and try them out. I'd probably go with oak, but red oak can be really red.

You can get some water-based stain and then use even something like watercolors to adjust the color. If it's oil-based stain you can use artists oil paints. The nice thing about using artists paints is you can buy just a couple tubes and, with a color wheel handy, really take the stain in whatever direction it needs to go.

>>>You can get some water-based stain and then use even something like watercolors to adjust the color. If it's oil-based stain you can use artists oil paints. The nice thing about using artists paints is you can buy just a couple tubes and, with a color wheel handy, really take the stain in whatever direction it needs to go.

That's a really cool idea. Do you mean the artist paint people would use to paint a picture? kj.

If you go to HD or Lowes, they usually have stain samples applied to a couple of different types of woods, usually pine is one of them. I would start looking there and then, like people have said, buy a small can of the stain that looks the closest and try it on a scrap of the trim.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

The manufacture was no help...they suggested Sherwin Williams. You would think they know what they use!

I'll probably go that route and get me sone maple trim from Dykes Lumber and do testing.

Could be birch, alder, or fruitwood. Grain doesn't look right for a maple species plus solid maple is rather pricey.

Do some research BEFORE staining pine or any other 'softwood'. Pine can be a real pain to get right.

Here's some tips:
[www.woodweb.com]
[www.woodweb.com]

WoodWeb.com has some good info buried in their KnowledgeBase.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2007 06:34PM by Panopticon.

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kj
That's a really cool idea. Do you mean the artist paint people would use to paint a picture? kj.

Yes. By far the most popular wood stains on the market are pigments in an oil-base. #2 is probably pigments in a water base. #3 is probably pigments and dye in an oil base.

Artists colors are pigments in either an oil base or water. The trick with oil paints is getting actual oil paints, instead of acrylics, which are usually waterbased (and which should be thus used to adjust waterbased stain.) Of course, the label usually tells you whether you clean up with water or mineral spiritis, so that's the best clue.

Expert wood finishers have a whole variety of pigments and dyes to choose from, but it's stuff you'd have to get mail order.

You can also mix artists paints into polyurethane to make a colored glaze coat. This can really add depth to a piece, especially if there's some sort of texture. Oh, and another cool wood stain is RIT dye. You can get very intense, vibrant colors with it. When you buy kids' furniture it's often dyed with RIT dye or something very like it.

Like slbett said: the manufacturer suggested Sherwin WIlliams because if you take a piece of the cabinet into the Sherwin Williams store and some of the trim you want to stain, they'll mix you up a batch of perfectly-matched stain. You will not have to guess or become an expert in paint chemistry and you will have your stain in half an hour or less if they aren't busy.

mixing colors into stains is a time honored tradition... go into a high end furniture store and get ahold of a knowledgeable old timer, and have him tell you finishing stories... how do think them fancy schmancy pieces of furniture they sell get looking so fancy schmancy??? (a whole lot of mix'n 'n match'n back in the North Carolina factory, back in the day... [before everything started being made cheaply overseas] ) the very desk I'm sitting at to type this, has some browns and reds mixed in with the salem maple stain I used to refinish it before laying on a few coats of tung oil (1982). similar projects such as bookcase (1976), speaker cabinets (1978), stereo rack (1979), dining table (1981), game table (1992), etc. finished w/ various pigments/paints added to stain to obtain desired coloration. just adding to theme of; take your time, take some samples, and experiment... you will be able to get the results that you want.

OK, disregard the TV stand (1988) that was made with four different kinds of wood and never looked right no matter how it was stained, so I painted it black... but highlighted it w/ some whitewash stain before Varathaneing it. Take your time, you can do this.

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Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



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Most hardware stores that sell Minwax stain have free sachets of stain that you can take home to try out. The type of wood you're using makes a huge difference to the final color. Therefore you should use the sachets on the wood you intend to stain and hold it up against your existing stained wood for comparison. Personally, I'd take a drawer from the stained cabinet along with a piece of wood from the project to the hardware store and rub the stain on there. Less trips that way.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

Best I can tell is that the vanity is eastern hardrock maple. Rap on the door and if it really hurts, it is. Commerical cabinets are usually "color sprayed" with the stain color in the first coat, then clear coated over. Matching is something colors used to be done by eye by paint stores. Now computers do the job. Therefore, going through my samples quickly, Minwax Fruitwood 241 is a start. I usually leave the final matching to the SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) . I have that "red-green" color problem. The trim wood will have to be of the same species. If you substitute pine, for example, it will take unevenly. A wipe of paint thinner before staining will make for a more even appearance. Hope this is helpful, we have been getting it "pretty good" for 37 years in the shop...