Hi Everyone – We purchased a 60’s era home with original mahogany features. With it came a very small amount of the original stain. It is oil based, not clear, as there are some chocolate-colored opague solids that gives a combination deep golden/deep brown relief with a low gloss finish (see photo of closet doors and trim, which is through the entire home). Is there anywhere I can go to have this analyzed and replicated? The house was built in ’66 and we’re planning to expand upon the wood features with some custom cabinetry, but matching this is the first critical step before the carpentry kicks off. Any advice is appreciated.
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It's not just the stain, but the wood it's going on. 60 year old wood with stain and finish has changed. That same exact stain on new wood will be a different color.
You'll really have to try a bunch of stains and combos of stains on the new wood to try and match the color. Trying to duplicate what's in the can won't get you where you want to go.
There were about a billion of those Luan doors made in the 50s-70s. They most often weren't stained, just finished with an oil based poly, which gave them their color.
Remove a door and carry it to a place that can replicate and color match your Luan. I suspect that the door will turn out to be hollow and not very heavy.
So, for example where I shop for finishes they have on staff a color expert a "colorest?" That's a thing I guess. They ,a person that does this all day everyday plus the computer matching software can often get it correct and save a great deal of time because otherwise your playing with the chemistry set on your own and possible spending a lot of money on " oops that not it products" along the way. Those kind of services are also available to come to your home but it can be expensive that way.
That works great for paint. I find it not useful for stain. Stain is to some degree transparent, so the wood you put it on, light or dark, will effect the color. Then the topcoat can change it too. A water based poly is very clear. Oil based finishes add a lot of yellow and orange tones. So whatever they mix at the store never works out in practice, unless it's paint.
That wood is easy to stain and control color with a gel stain, general finishes gel stain would be my go to product, I’m sure you can match the color : https://generalfinishes.com/wood-finishes-retail/oil-based-wood-stains-sealers/gel-stains