Stain on the Brain: Is this a fix?

Well, two good things happened today which means I’m in a much better frame of mind than I was yesterday.

1.) I had a blast learning the tricks of the trade from some old-timers at Habitat today (yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll share them… but you have to wait until tomorrow.)

2.) I stopped at my favorite paint store (John’s Color Concepts in Toledo) and god love the guys that work there — after I fell on my knees to repent for having my cedar beams factory stained, they mixed up a semi-transparent stain to go over it and make them way less maroon.

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The only problem is that MysteryMan is not a huge fan of “dark” wood, and probably the only way to fix this is to darken it up a bit.

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As you can see… we’re definitely darker than the doors. Really– despite my freak-out– I can see why I thought the original color would be a good match. While I like the darker, we also have to consider we have a deck and railings that will be this color, and I’m not building a house that MysteryMan hates.

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So, at least we have options, but now the question remains… too red, or too dark? Sigh. Will the decisions never end?

I may try an even lighter coat of the dark (spray maybe?) and see if we end up at a happy medium.

3 Responses

  1. Ask the guys at paint store if they can mix the stain in with a glazing for exteriors. That should make Mystery Man happy. It will tone down the red but still give it some darker streaks in wood. Envision the grain of the wood being darker over the red and I think you will both be very happy.

    OR if they cannot do that then use the time honored trick of painting a light coating of stain on and wiping off with rag. Same basic affect.

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