How to Mix Your Own Wood Stain
by
Jen Burns
1 Material
Have you ever tried to match the stain color on a damaged floor or old dresser but every can on the store shelf was just a bit off? Or maybe you love a popular gel stain you've seen floating around Pinterest. It's starting to get cold out and the thought of staining that dresser outside isn't very appealing
Over the years I've spent countless hours staining and refinishing furniture with just about every brand of wood stain available. I've also learned through years of experience and training that stains straight out of a can almost 99% of the time will never match an existing color.
I've also learned that the fumes and harsh chemicals in oil based products do a number on your health. It also keeps me from letting my children jump in when they ask to "help mommy". So when I started using Unicorn SPiT one of the first things I wanted to do was create custom mixes that matched most of the common colors I use day to day. Unicorn SPiT is non-toxic and VOC free, which allows me to use it indoors and around my kids safely.
Using a few tools any refinisher or seasoned DIY addict should have handy, I spent the time to document my entire mixing journey.
I started by first creating my swatch board. I sectioned off a grid and labeled each spot with the color name. Then did a swatch of the original color to match on the top row.
I grabbed my color wheels and using my swatch board started matching the base and tone/tint for each one.
Since a Finisher's Color Wheel uses universal tints I substituted each one of those with a corresponding color of Unicorn SPiT stain. Then after mixing and testing for what seemed like forever, I used the bottom half of my swatch board to show the match I had created with Unicorn SPiT.
I then had color matches and ratios for some of the most popular stain colors.
If you want to get the full list of tools needed and the color match recipes I've used here, click on over to the blog for the full post.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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yes i would try this product . i love doing old furniture over so cant wait to try your stain& glace. lee
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