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Stain color recommendations

16 years ago

I posted this on the flooring site but its hard to get any love from that site so maybe I can muster some help over here.

We have used antique heart pine flooring throughout our house. Due to costs and logistics, we elected not to use heart pine on the stair treads to the finished walkout basement and used southern yellow pine instead (SYP) and used poplar for the hand rails (didn't come in SYP). To have used heart pine on on the treads would have been another $2000 and we will be using a runner on them so only 6 inches will be showing at either end anyway. We chose poplar for the hand rail since it is a very even grain and neutral color and we figured it would stain similar to the pine. And, BTW, to have used heart pine for the rails would have been another 1,500 bucks and we are just "extra'd" out on this project!

So my question is, "Does anyone have a recommendation as to a stain color for the SYP treads and poplar rails that will come close to matching the natural color of the heart pine?" I cannot seem find anything specific out there.

The heart pine is top end material with 95-98% all heart with that nice deep pumpkin color. We are leaving the floors natural.

Thanks!

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Comments (2)

woodswell
16 years ago
breezy,
I'm surprised no one replied in Flooring. I didn't since I have not tried to match stains to an existing flooring. But I have heard from others that it is pretty much a trial and error process. Take some scraps of the new flooring and rail and test out various stains and mixes of stains. Be sure to apply finish to see how it looks in the final state.

For a real pumpkin color, try Sherwin Williams Wood Classics Golden Oak. In fact SW has some nice sample strips of their stains on various kinds of wood - you might want to pick up a full fan deck of those and see which look closest to your heart pine.

Another place to ask for help is in the Wood Working Forum - they probably play with adjusting color of stain more than flooring people. ;-)
Good Luck - I know the lack of response can be frustrating!
User
16 years ago
breezy 2-

Take a look at Sutherland Welles stains, they are pricey but offer an excellent quality product in some unusual colors. They will send you a small booklet with swatches of actual stain smeared on (high quality) paper so you get the feel of the colors. For a fee ($90 I think), they will stain a board of your flooring with their stain so you can see exactly how it will look. We used "Warm Heart Pine" on white oak in our kitchen and entry floors and they have that "warm pumpkin color" you describe.

Good luck-

sandyponder

Here is a link that might be useful: Sutherland Welles site
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