# Matching paint to Cherry wood



## Ole34

I looked at a job last night where a guy has a huge office made entirely of cherry cabinetry/built ins but for some reason the jamb/door are painted white .............any way to match the cherry with a paint finish or maybe just easier to rip it out ?


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## Ole34




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## woodcoyote

Your best* bet:

Grab a can of natural gel stain (varathane) if you can find it, and try to get it matched. Prime the door with wood tone color (like a soft yellow), and gel stain the door to match the wood. Then top coat once it's dry, usually over night. Just don't let anyone freak'n touch the door at all because they'll mark it with fingerprints etc. 


The above is probably the best alternative, def. not the easiest and if you don't have skill brushing these types of doors, def. don't try it lol. 


Alternative:
Get a trim paint matched to the color as close as you can. ProClassic or Solo enamel from SW, or if your a BM/other company kind of guy, their alternative. Save you a lot of time to paint it vs gel staining it, plus the paint won't need a top coat.


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## michael tust

Woodcoyote has a good approach to your situation .... Certainly Matching a Paint as close as possible takes away the High Contrast in Value and Color... But how much effort will be put into this project ? From the Photo,it seems to be a Very Nice Room. To me even a Perfect Paint Color will come up short though. It is also tough to help choose a Base Coat Color from a photo... Wood tones of course can vary from piece to piece.... And if its Stained.... I can give you a Basecoat Color that I use to when I Grain Cherry.... You could brush that out on a scrap piece of wood and then get a Stain to see what happens... Sometimes since I know the Paint Store Owner he will just take a small dab from a can and test it...... But I usually do a couple a layers to Match Cherry,so my Base May be Too Light.... This is a lot of work though... The Door and Frame are Unfortunately an Eyesore to a Nice Space.....

Michael Tust


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## Rbriggs82

I'd give him two prices. One to paint it matched as close as possible to the existing cherry stain, and one to grain the door if you're comfortable with your graining skills. Good luck :thumbup:


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## RH

Just paint it black.


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## ReNt A PaInTeR

RH said:


> Just paint it black.


Can he behr it?


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## ReNt A PaInTeR

Ole34 said:


> I looked at a job last night where a guy has a huge office made entirely of cherry cabinetry/built ins but for some reason the jamb/door are painted white .............any way to match the cherry with a paint finish or maybe just easier to rip it out ?


I did a mantel that was painted white. I chose a similar color to a fiberglass door and then dilute and brushed gel stain.
I will do the same and probably add a toner to help achieve that color on the woodwork and then topcoat.

here is the one I did..


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## Gough

Paint is a problem because of the uniformity of its appearance from so many angles. You might have a dead match from one spot, but have it look way off when you move a few feet. 

As others have mentioned, faux bois would be another approach, but one that takes a lot of practice to pull off, especially on doors with that panel/moulding detail. The jams wouldn't be so tough, but the door itself would be a different story.

What we've done in similar situation is grain the jamb and swap out the door for a new one. If they're too cheap to spring for a cherry door, a good quality fir door isn't that expensive and much easier to match to the cherry. I'm guessing that the white-painted door matches the trim on the other side, so painting one side of a cherry door would be a real shame.

The most recent one that we did was for a lawyer. The trim in most of the house was painted white, but his personal law library was all cherry. We did a split finish on the fir doors and it worked great.

We use a wash coat on the fir as a pre-stain. After it dries, we sand with 280 or 320 before we start staining. Depending on the color, we may have to "sneak up" on the final color with several steps: gel stain/another seal coat/toner/ finish. In some cases, we even do a aniline dye-stain before the wash coat.


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