Matching Finish On Old Woodwork

Rich

I have a 50 year old house that appears to have all original pine trim. I believe it was left natural with the exception of poly. It has ofcourse darkened over the years. I am going to install some new six panel doors.
Any suggestions on getting the doors close to the color of the casings ?

Paul Burns

Rich,

I hope someone that knows more than I will answer, but I'll give 2 cents.

For sure, you will have to practice. I imagine that the varnish or whatever is on the old stuff has yellowed with time. You might have to stain the doors first. And you if they are pine, you probably have to condition them first to enable even staining. I would also guess that you will be making your own stain with a mixture of pre-tints, thinnning, etc.

There is also a way to put a thin coat of varnish or whatever you are finishing it with and THEN stain it. We've done this with lacquers and it worked great. You know how stain just SUCKS into those new pine doors? With a thin coat of lacquer applied first, it sort of lays on the surface. It penetrates some, but not like new, bare doors. So, if the stain isn't perfect, you can take a thinner rage and wipe it off real quick and try again. Without a primer clear coat, you are pretty much stuck with whatever stain hits it.

Hopefully, someone else will have a lot more experience than I do. You might even want to try a furniture refinisher. I would certainly put some clauses or other types of protection in the proposal. They will never match perfectly.

Good Luck.

Paul

slickshift

Yes, bring in some scrap and a door to your local Paint Shop
They should be willing to help you out

W/o seeing it I can't really offer any good suggestions
Except what Paul said, practice at home/workshop

The Paint Shop will either be able to match it right away, or may send you home with some suggestions and samples to try

Be sure to include this time/money spent in your bid/invoice

Exroadog

Raw umber universal tint into the poly. Start with a little, mix well, test on new scrap of wood. But like Slickshift said, without a pic its hard to say.

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wmass

Try using a coat or two (sometimes 3)of amber shellac. You can top coat it with Zinnser Seal Coat for a barrier coat and use any finish on top. Ive had good luck matching oak and pine that have been aged for a while. Like everyone said its hard to say with out seeing it.
Hope this helps

Teetorbilt

Pine from the 50's is certainly oil based varnish, we didn't have poly back then. Expect to spend a few days matching if you're experienced, more if you're not.

The basics are to use a wood sealer on the door and a good number of scraps. This keeps the stain from going too deeply into the softwood and provides for a more even finish.

Go to the local box store and buy 3 of those little cans of MinWax stain, some 4 oz cups and some small throwaway brushes, also pick up some cheap cooking measures (tbsp., tsp, 1/2 tbsp......). You want the stains to be from a little lighter to real close to pretty dark. Buy your final finish. Get a pencil and paper and prepare to become chemist.

Apply the sealer to your test sticks and then start mixing and matching, making notes all the way. I like a 2" X 2" sample with a 1" gap in between, you can get a lot of them on a 3' stick. Varnish before comparing as varnish generally makes the finish darker.

Have fun!

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go dart

we do as slickshift does with a local sherwin-williams. you have to be there with them and finess the matcher thru it though. also they are pine or maybe radiata and exspect lots of variables.

eastend

Rich:
washcoat the doors with SealCoat, to help provide even staining. Probably better to use a pigmented stain rather than a dye stain. Try mixing some Japan color in mineral spirits, add a dash of linseed oil. Try Raw Sienna, maybe Burnt Sienna, or French Yellow Ochre- depend on what color you need to match. lock that in with another coat of SealCoat, and then topcoat with varnish.

indasand

Your right about the amber shellac trick. We used it on the old brown stones by Wrigley Field (Cubs Park) to get that old effect but it depends how yellow your wood is and as the matching the color of the stain, like everyone else said bring it to a paint store (not home depot or menards) and they should do a good jod matching it. Also if the amber shellac is to yellow you can break it down with regular shellac but remember it drys fast so work quickly.