All custom woodworking projects—a built-in entertainment center, staircase or furniture piece—will require a finish choice: paint, stain, or natural wood. Picking the right wood finish relates to the overall look of a project, and has the potential to make the piece look really fabulous. We at Marvelous Woodworking are in love with the look of natural wood, but we always put the customer’s vision first and guide them to the best options in order to achieve the result they are looking for. Below we offer some tips on how to go about choosing the best wood finish for your project:

Complement Your Home’s Design

It makes sense to pick a finish that will go with the rest of the interior of your house. Entertainment systems, built-in cabinetry, fireplace mantels and staircases are naturally going to be part of the structure of a room. They will stand out oddly if their finish doesn’t complement their surroundings. Built-ins are often painted in order to fit into the style of the home, such as the entertainment system below.

Custom furniture with a quality finish, however, should go with just about anything. Pieces that stand by themselves have more flexibility in what they have to match.

We built a shelving unit with benches in a 1950’s bungalow style home. We took great care in custom milling trim pieces so it would match the rest of the home’s interior architecture. The paint in the rest of the home had been redone many times over the years by do-it-yourselfers, resutling in thick layers of brushed-on paint finish. We matched that look by coating several layers of paint on the trim ourselves. A high-gloss smooth finish would not have looked right.

Choose Your Wood Species Carefully

When you are working with a custom woodworker to create a piece, you have the option to choose your type of wood and finish. If you are looking for a particular color through stain not paint, we recommend you start with your type of wood first. It makes sense to choose a dark wood if you want your project to have a rich look, rather than choosing a light wood first, then trying to stain it a deeper color. Pine, for instance, is a light wood that does not take stain well, and can turn out blotchy. The color of the wood you choose does not affect the cost—darker woods are not necessarily more expensive than lighter woods, and vice versa. What affects cost is availability and the ease of processing. There are many species of wood to accommodate many hues and shades. Your local home fix-it store has a very limited number of species to choose from but a professional custom woodworker will know where to get anything you want, and will know how to stain it correctly.

Some woods, like cherry, mahoganies, and teaks, will look darker and richer over time. In these cases, you can place a lighter stain on your project, knowing that as it ages the color will deepen. The main consideration with stains is that you have to think about heaviness and tint. Typical stain categories are browns, reds, and yellow-oranges—preference as well as matching other pieces of furniture can play a part in deciding both richness and hue of your stain.

Select Your Shine

If you are going with a natural wood or stain, you will want to use a clear coat or finish for protection. These products come in three options—glossy, semi-glossy, and satin. Glossy and semi-glossy look sleek and shiny, but also easily accumulate dust and fingerprints, requiring more maintenance. Satin is more durable and forgiving, and is often used on wood floors.

Consider Pricing

Stains and paints are not necessarily more expensive, but talk it over with your woodworker. Not having to apply that finish will save labor hours; it may even be that you could use an expensive (and more unique) wood for your piece and pay the same price as if you used a less-expensive ordinary wood, but had it stained or painted.

In the end, your finish choice is determined by what look you want for your piece and home. We at Marvelous Woodworking have experience with a wide variety of processes and know what it takes to give you the best result. We take the time to explain the pros and cons of all options and let you decide. Contact us here or call (317) 679-5890 to discuss your custom woodworking project.