Color matching in home projects can be difficult. For example, have you ever tried to touch up a piece of white trim (maybe your dog scratched it while you were away from the store) with a white that you swore was similar? Have you tried to stain a kitchen table to bring back the original beauty from years of people not using coasters? It’s not easy to color match when you bring age and time into the equation. While working from home, one of our application scientists wanted to begin a project that she’s been putting off: staining a side table.
Many people don’t like different tones of woods in their house – but when you are picking wood pieces individually it’s hard to keep the tones similar. This is where stain comes in.
Wood stain has the same basic components as paint (pigment, solvent, and binder) but the ratios are vastly different. Stain typically has more solvent than paint. They also contain lower amounts of binder than paint. To effectively stain your old table preparation and cleaning is important.
Issues can arise when you are trying to color match a stain to a different piece of furniture. The age, porosity, and type of wood can change how the piece accepts the stain. It’s helpful to have a few different stains on hand and do test patches before committing to a color.
Stephanie chose two different stains for this project. She used a BLACK-Comet to help her measure the delta E (color difference) of the original coffee table and the side table she is looking to refinish. How did her color matching experiment turn out? Watch the video and check out some of her data above. For more info about color measurement visit our color measurement system’s webpage or contactus@stellarnet.us.
