Staining Baseboards?
My whole house has wood baseboards, with what appears to be a dark (Cherrywood?) stain on them. The doors and all other trim are the same colour. Well, I'm painting my ensuite bathroom. The baseboards are pretty disgusting - a little faded, some cracks/chips, old paint on them, etc... I'd love to replace them with new baseboards. How do I go about matching the stain up with what I currently have? And does how the stain turn out also based on what type of wood the baseboards are made out of? What do you guys recommend? And what sort of procedure for staining the new boards? The best thing to do is to get sample pieces of the trim you will be using and take them to a paint shop like Sherwin Williams or Diamond Vogel and have them match the stain for you. They're experienced in doing that and won't usually steer you wrong. I've found that oak trim is the easiest to match. It stains up consistantly, so getting the color right is pretty easy. The only problem you sometimes have with oak is the open grain getting too dark (turning black) with certain dark kinds of stain. Pine is often difficult to match because it just doesn't stain up very well- not like the way hemlock trim (another species of pine was very common but has almost disappeared from use today) used to stain up. Pine usually turns out a lot lighter than what you expect it to, based on the color samples on the cans or on the sample strips. You also need to use wood conditioner with pine, which you don't have to do with oak. You can certainly attempt to match the color yourself- I'd recommend Minwax oil stain, since they show you a color sample on the front of the can that is pretty good at representing how it will turn out. Oak will look almost exactly like the color sample, pine will generally turn out a little lighter. Get some samples and do some experimenting. Some stores will even help you open up some cans and try the stain out before buying it. I agree that having a paint store match the stain is the way to go. Buy a few extra feet of base and then take a sample of the base along with a piece of the old base to the paint store. Most paint stores will help you get the correct stain [may entail custom tinting] for no extra charge. Originally Posted by marksr I agree that having a paint store match the stain is the way to go. Buy a few extra feet of base and then take a sample of the base along with a piece of the old base to the paint store. Most paint stores will help you get the correct stain [may entail custom tinting] for no extra charge. So the paint store might actually apply a sample to the wood to get an almost exact match? Wow - that's the customer service I don't think I'd get at home depot. Definetely worth the couple extra dollars. Are my only choices for baseboards pine and oak? It sounds like Pine isn't the way to go for a good finish (Since it'll require a lot of experimentation), and I'm assuming Oak is rather expensive... In my area, baseboard is usually available in: white pine poplar maple oak But it depends where you are shopping. Box stores often won't have every profile known to man, while a good lumberyard or millwork distrubutor will. White pine and poplar are the least expensive, but also aren't real attractive to my tastes. Maple and oak will be similarly priced and are likely twice the price of pine and poplar. I've found that trying to use cheaper woods (pine, etc.) - ends up being more expensive in the long run because I have to use multiple stains to get the desired look. Oak (I love Oak) - is a bit more expensive - but takes stain beautifully. I consider my labor to be worth something (my wife doesn't agree).... and will pay the 50% more for oak to get the proper match (or close to it)...... Our local Home Depot has Hemslock trim - the grain to it looks nice, and it's not as expensive as Oak. The gentlemen who worked there said it would stain well - what do you guys think? Can I save a bit here, or do I need to go for oak? Hemlock does stain up well. It's becoming less and less common to find real hemlock, however. Some places sell #1 white pine and call it hemlock, even though the two are completely different and don't stain the same at all. If it really is hemlock, I'd buy it! With the exception of the crown mould my master bed rm is trimmed in hemlock. It stained and finshed well. Of course I could be prejudice since I cut down the tree and hauled the logs to the saw mill. Wow, that sounds cool, Marksr! I wish we had decent trees around here to do that with! Did they make the mouldings for you or did you take it someplace else to have that done? My dad's got 20 acres of mainly cedar, mulberry, cottonwood that he's always dreamed of thinning out and logging. Too bad it's not all cherry, oak, hickory and walnut. If it was, it would be my retirement fund growing out there! I let them dry in the barn and used a planer and a router to make my mouldings. I have 15+ acres, all wooded but it ain't no picnic to cut load and haul.
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