Triangle color theory for wood finishing

triangle color diagram

How to use the triangle color theory for wood finishing

Color is an important element in the finishing process. The color is one thing that always be viewed by the furniture buyers. The reason why people want to finish his furniture is because he expects a specific color for his furniture. That way the color is very important in the finishing process. The coloring in a finishing process is done by stain application. The selection of the stain and the application need to be done correctly to produce the right color.

One tool that can be used to simplify the color selection is to with the color triangle theory. In or previous article we already write an article about how to use the triangle color theory for mix color. Now I will try to explain how to use the triangle theory to choose stain in the wood finishing with transparent color. Transparent color is finishing with the final color is still showing the basic color of the substrate. Transparent color is much preferred for finishing to the wood furniture, because it will show the beauty of the wood grains and pores, the unique value of wooden furniture. For this finish, the final color is obtained from the color mixing from the wood base color and the stain used. Then it requires the proper selection stain to obtain the right final color.

The most widely color used for transparent finishing is brown. However there are a lot of brown color, such as reddish brown, dark brown, light brown, yellowish brown, etc.
To finish on a light-colored wood (white) the stain color is about the same color to the desired final color. But the fact is each type of wood has a certain basic colors, for example: mahogany wood has a red color, oak has green brown color, pine has yellow color, etc. The wood always has a basic color that is already there, what we can do is to choose the appropriate color stain that will blend with the wood color to produce the desired final finishing color.

To help the selection stain we can use the law in the triangle color theory : "mixing color towards to the center will produce brown color"  The more explanation are in the mixing color diagram below.

Orange and Blue is Brown

Orange and Black is Brown

Green and Red is Brown

Purple and Yellow is Brown

For example we need to finish mahogany wood to a dark brown color. The mahogany wood has red color, how to bring the color to dark brown? From the color wheel and color mixing table above we see that to produce the brown color red color must be mixed with green color. Therefore, to end up with dark brown color, the red mahogany wood need green stain or a greenish brown stain.

The same way to the select the color for equalizer stain and sap stain. For example we need to finish the wood with varied base colors as shown. In the picture you can see that there is a wood furniture with many color from part to part.
 

unfinished wood furniture with variation base color

There are some different color in the wood base of the furniture: red, light yellow and white. We need to event color first before we do staining this suit to bring to final color. We need to even color with the appropriate stain. The selection of the stain used is depending on the wood color; usually do to bring the varied base color to a brown, even color.

The red part is stained with a green stain; the yellow is stained with purple stain, while the white part is stained with a brown stain. All the stain applied are to bring the varied color of wood to be an even brown color. After we get the even wood color than we can apply the other finishing materials such as body stain, sealer, top coat and glaze colors to achieve the desired results. By this process we can expect to get better match final color.

This same principle is also can be use at the time when we apply pad to even the final color. In the finishing process sometime we find that after top coat or sealer the result color is slightly away from the target, such as a reddish, greenish or yellowish. To bring the color to the desired color, we need to tone down the in correct color. The pad stain color  for correction  purpose is selected in the same way. The red color is toned down with green stain,  the  yellow stain is used to kill the dark purple color, etc. The principle is that to tone the incorrect color and bring to the brown we use the opposite color in the triangle color diagram.

Please consider that this scheme is just for guide not a magic to solve your coloring problem. To coloring your furniture is not such as easy. You need lot of learning and practicing to build your sense in mixing and making color.