What we have here is a failure to communicate. long story short the home owner was not clear on what color the stain was to be. The painters matched the stain to 1 of 3 stain colors in the room. Turns out that it was the least favorite of the three by the wife. the door and window are both stained and have sanding sealer on them what can be done to darken the color to match one of the other colors found in the room???????
Stumped in SD
Replies
Sounds like you need to drop back five yards, and punt.
Depending on how good you are with a brush.... this can be fixed. I've done it a number of times, but mostly with items that were not yet installed.
Take a piece of scrap trim (or two or three) and stain/varnish it exactly as you did with the pieces that need fixing. Using these, find a "varnish-stain" product that is the correct color to add the darkness that you need. I'm talking about those all-in-one products that are both varnish and stain.
Once you've found the product, you just need to apply it so that there are no streaks or brushmarks. (Not a small feat -- if the items were not yet installed, I'd tell yo to spray them. Lots easier.)
Good luck.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
how are you with a touch up gun? It gets easier yet. Use blonde dewaxed shellac, very thin cut, just enough to play the role of binder. Add dyes. Spray light coats, tweaking as you go. You can change colors in a hurry, and it goes on very very thin. You'd have 20 coats on before you saw a sheen, and 20 coats would get you from raw oak to dark mahogany in small increments. (And about an hour of time)
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
Tint some finish,
Buy the oil based stain that will produce the color you're looking for, add it to oil based varnish starting at about 5 parts varnish to one part stain and spray it on a sample piece. You may be able to add the stain up to a one to three ratio. Once you've got the color right shoot another top coat of clear finish on top. Brushing might be doable but spraying is easier if you can handle it.
Tinted varnish is one of the tricks of the trade, well, furniture trade, that is. It uniforms beautifully.
Lee
I have yet to meet a sanding sealer that couldn't be tinted. Once you get it correct, one more coat of sanding sealer will work just fine.
Or as Lee says, tint the topcoat if you're not looking for a particularly deep finish.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Edited 11/10/2005 9:04 am ET by VaTom