How to match stain for raw cane furniture?

[Tess60]

What colour stain should I buy to match the photo I've shared

 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Tess60. It's sensational to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about matching stains.

It would be super helpful if our members could hear a few more details on your project, which would allow them to make suggestions on stain type. Do you have raw cane and want to achieve the same look for a repair, or perhaps you have another furniture piece that you'd like to look similar? It's one thing to have the same timber and find a stain to match another, but it is an entirely different and more difficult process to try and get a different type of timber to match with a stain. The same stain on Pine versus hardwood produces vastly different results.

To my eyes, there might not be any stain involved here, just an oil-based polyurethane coating that has slightly yellowed to this orangey colour over time.

I look forward to more details. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell
 

[Tess60]

I would like to find a stain very similar colour to use on other raw cane furniture peices. Similar to to the colour of this couch(see photo). 

[MitchellMc]

Thanks for that info @Tess60. Then my suggestion would be the same as it appears only a clear oil-based polyurethane has been used and not a stain. Typically, cane furniture is just sprayed with a clear coat at the manufacturer. When the raw cane takes on the coating, it darkens the colour and provides this hue. However, as the poly ages, it turns more orange in hue, which is what you have here. There's no stain I know of that will send your raw cane to this colour, but you could take a sample into a store with you and check to see if a team member can test a few stains to be certain.

I'd recommend doing a test section on a section of raw cane to ensure the clear oil-based polyurethane provides the desired effect. Remember it needs to be the oil-based rather than the water-based, as that will be just a pure clearcoat with none of these orangey hues.

Mitchell

[Tess60]

So basically I can only use the oil based polyurethane and wait for my pieces  to age in order to achieve a similar colour. Thanks for that. Here is another question. If I wanted to stain raw pine. To get a similar colour to that of my picture. Is there any stain I could use. Even just similar. Doesn't have to match perfectly. 

[MitchellMc · Accepted solution]

Not exactly @Tess60. You could find a stain that mimics your furniture's current appearance, but it might be difficult to achieve a similar result because it is a natural aging process of a clear coating. It will be a similar issue whether it's cane or Pine, as they are similar shades. I've included below some of Cabot's stain colours on Pine. You'll see that none of them really reflect a similar colour to your cane furniture.

Below the stain colours, you'll see three examples of cane. The first has no coating, the second has a water-baser poly, and the third has an oil-based poly. The oil-based poly has likely also seen a few years of sunlight, which further causes the coating to yellow.

Mitchell

[Tess60]

Thankyou. You have been very helpful. Cheers Tess

[MitchellMc]

Keep us updated @Tess60, and please reach out again if you have further questions or get stuck.

Mitchell