THAT PainterLady.com

This was interesting… I had a question about faux dark wood paint and what colors to actually use. That's not the most interesting part. 

The problem was that this client was trying to work on wood window frames that had already been painted white… instead of what he ordered.

Here is the letter:

I requested site finish on the new Pella windows that I ordered for my  house.  I took a look at them today and they came primed in white.  They  should have been natural unfinished wood.  

I need them to match the color of my molding in the house.  The color I need is similar to the color of  the door (not the close up)near the bottom of the page on your web site  at: 

http://www.thatpainterlady.com/colors-and-technique-to-create-a-faux-wood-door/

The color may be a little lighter and with not as much red. 

It took around 20 days for the windows to get here so I  don't want to reorder.  Thank you in advance for your help.  Tommy

I did have some ideas for Tommy:

The picture just above the dark door (the close up) is actually base
coated in a "yellow ochre" color… which isn't yellow, more like a
color between butter and honey.

Of course you can see that in the other pictures.

So you need to start with a base coat color that is bright enough to
show through the glaze.

The glaze does change the base coat color as it's being applied.

A bit confusing huh?

So… I am going to guess… since I can't see exactly what color you
are going for.

But the key here is to use a yellow/brown under coat paint… and then
the glaze shouldn't have any "red" tint to it.

When you look at that page of pictures… You would think that picture 2
and picture 3 were two different colored glazes… but they were taken
at the same time.

And the way computer monitors work… I don't see the exact same colors
as you do…

So I just have to create this guessing game of colors.

The theory is that if you look at the wood you already have… and you
don't see any red… or black in the grain… then you just have browns
and golds right?

Am I helping yet?  

Then… I get a quick note back from Iris:

That is true, we can not see the exact same colors. I did  not even think of that. The color I am looking for is a medium dark walnut.  That says it without going into pictures on your site.    Thanks, Iris

So… the guessing game continued:

Walnut isn't yellow or red…the base coat should look more like mocha coffee…
And the glaze should be Raw Umber

see this chart for the difference between raw umber and burnt umber:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_umber_(color)

I must have helped… I didn't get anymore questions about faux dark wood paint.  

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 9:35 pm and is filed under Faux Wood Graining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.