Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler stain/wood combination to match Boston Cherry

Anyone experimented and found a close wood/stain combination to Axiom's Boston Cherry finish? I need to build a stand for my VP150 for the new room.

Hey Murph:
I sent for a Boston Cherry sample a year ago, and every time I went to a hardware or paint store, I brought it with me. Unfortunately, I never found a good match.

I came to the conclusion, at the time, that I would end up having to buy and layer a bunch of different products on a test piece of cherry to find the right combination.

When do you plan on building it?

And, have you considered black? I hear it's the new black...

Thanks Mark. That's interesting to know and kind of what I expected.

I'm just back in scheming mode. I'm actually still contemplating a wall mount vs. a stand for the bottom. Some day I want to have a pair of centers above and below as it's a 106" screen so it might be nice to have the sound anchored to the center. In that case, maybe two wall mounted would match better?

And yes, black would work. Although my screen wall is a dark blue. Close enough though. The new black works with everything.

Not Boston Cherry exactly, but after Katrina we had the 'opportunity' to replace our wood flooring and along with it all the treads and railings on a flight of stairs. The flooring we put in was santos mahogany and luckily there was matching treads available. I was able to find santos mahogany handrails, but it would have cost in the neighborhood of $5k !! So we went with oak. I bought at least 15 individual stains and not one was right. So I started making 2-color blends, hoping that I didn't have to go to 3-color. I carefully measured the portions of each test sample so that I could duplicate a larger batch. I nailed it on the 3rd blend. So don't give up on trying to match the BC finish, it might be easier than you think. If I can find the pics, I'll post them.

Scott

Minwax mahogany is pretty close. You will need to let it sit longer than normal, or use several light coats (let each dry and re-coat).

Minwax is a good product. I used the stain and clearcoat when making a new railing for my stairway (in Oak), and it turned out beautiful. Needed to do several light sandings with 800 sandpaper between clearcoat layers.

Thanks all.

What type of wood are you putting the Minwax mahogany on for this result?

Straight grain cherry. You want to avoid curly. It's pretty, but a completely different look.

A couple of years ago I put down some 3/4 African Walnut hardwood on my main floor. My railing and trim on my staircase however, were a very conflicting natural oak finish so I went looking for a stain to match the flooring. Nothing I could find, was anywhere near the dark, red-tinged, brown(like chestnut but a little richer looking) so I bought myself a can of Minwax Antique Walnut in their polyshades line(the railing was varnished already so the polyshade was the better choice, imo...no sanding down to bare wood) and also bought a smaller can of black oak. I mixed, in a separate container, the Antique walnut and a touch of the black oak and tested it for colour. Once I felt it was close, I applied it and built it up with 5 coats. You can't tell the difference between the floor and the trim/railing as the combination of stains and the natural oak gave me the desired colour. If you're patient, you can mix up your own shade and darken it as required by adding more coats, or vary the next colour slightly...just don't start off too dark!

I couldn't find the test patches of the different stains, but the final results are on the last 3 pics on the "Photos' of My HT link.

Scott