Is this wood factory stained? Cannot match it, HD, Lowes, SW and Rockler no help.

[Andrew J Young]

https://imgur.com/gallery/Z5Px5Zj


A piece of trim from our Maple kitchen cabinets broke. I have tried 15 different colors of stain and none seem to match.

I am not sure what type of wood the existing trim is but I have been using pine as it is about all I can get.

I "think" the wood was stained at the factory but have no idea. Our purchase contract from when we built the house only calls them maple cabinets.

I tried to find prestained trim as well, but I am completely lost as to how to match this.


Any ideas of how I can try to match this? Getting desperate.

Thank you

[John TenEyck]

I'll bet money that color was done with a lacquer-based toner. You can see the white wood underneath; the color is all on the surface. Stain is never going to give you a good match. You need to use dye in the finish and spray it on, preferably in more than one coat so you can sneak up on the intensity.

You don't have to use solvent based lacquer to do this. I've done a lot of matching like this with waterborne topcoat with Transtint dye. What color to add? That's the 64K question, but I'll bet Transtint Brown Mahogany will get you close, though you'll probably need at least one other one, maybe green (seriously) to make it a little more brown. There is no shortcut on this, it takes lots of specimens and good notes to get it right. Here's one project where I had to match the color of some existing cabinets using General Finishes Enduro Clear poly with Transtint dyes as the toner, over Sealcoat shellac to seal up some of the pores in the wood. This is a multi-step process, but the idea is the same.




My cabinets are the ones left and right of the center one:



An additional challenge is getting the correct sheen. You might get lucky with semi-gloss being a close match. If not, you can buy gloss and flat and mix them until you get the right sheen.

No quick remedies here. Good luck.

John

[Jim Becker]

Factory finishes are not done with the kinds of stains, etc., that are typically premixed at the 'borg. The "colors" are not standard things and just made-up marketing names. Dyes can be used to "work up" to the color, both "in the wood" and in finish as a toner. It's an art to do this kind of color matching. And keep in mind that pine is going to react differently to coloring than maple will. You will need to work this out on scrap using multiple colors of dye, etc., until you figure out what looks the closest to your existing cabinetry. Please also be aware that as the wood you use naturally changes color over time, it can affect the match. The pine will get darker with oxidation and UV exposure over time like many species of wood.

[George Yetka]

I would replace all 4 corners of the island. It was contrasting to begin with so you will be able to get away with whatever you'd like. I would aim for more of a walnut colored stain if thats the way you go, get it closer to the panels

[John TenEyck]

Oh, good grief, I hadn't noticed that the OP was using pine. That will never, ever work. Get some maple or you'll never be successful.

John

[Lee Schierer]

If your cabinets are recently purchased or still available from the manufacturer, ask them for a sample of the stain. I did that when we remodeled our kitchen and KraftMaid sold me a can of matching stain. The pieces I made matched perfectly with the cabinets.

For a recent project at our church, I took a sample of the stained wood I was trying to match to Sherwin Williams paint and they matched the color with their scanner.

[Doug Garson]

Unless you have an extensive collection of dyes and tints, if John and Jim are right and it takes a mix of several dyes and tints, it could get expensive just buying all the dyes and tints especially if you are inexperienced in colour matching and it takes several attempts to get it right. Might be worth taking the piece to a furniture refinisher and have them match it and either finish the piece for you or supply the finish.