They used the same material on your pine cabinets vs a pine sample made up for this?

You have to eliminate the maple sample as it won't absorb stain as easy.

Was the pine conditioned before it was stained.

I had a similar problem with the floor stain. But it turned out that how it was applied to the sample wood was different than how it ended up on the floors. FORTUNATELY we did the initial floor staining in a closet, and were able to modify it so it worked the way I wanted it through the rest of the house. It wasn't the stain per se, it was absorption in specific wood, and, more importantly - since we did also stain some actual flooring scraps early on -- HOW it was applied.

I doubt anyone would admit to not using wood conditioner. How could I tell for sure?

Artemis_ma what do you mean by “how it was applied”? What aspect of application differed?

The conditioner works by penetrating and temporarily sealing the wood to even out the rate of absorption, thereby creating a much more uniform stain coat

The doors appears to have multi-coats of stain applied in a quick succession. Who stains 6 doors to test? What type of stain is that in the first place?

BTW: There are two types of wood conditioners: for water based stains and another for oil based stains. You have to stain quickly (20 min) after the conditioner applied.

Test it someplace else. I test everything I stain. To see 1 coat vs 2 coats vs 3 coats. Sometimes my third coat was a different mix all together until you get the desired look.

BTW: The only stains that are foolproof are gel stains, everything else needs work.

Matching maple prefinished cabs (usually sprayed) to anything on pine... hmm

Looks like the pine samples are on pine veneer, but the door panels look to be solid, with lots of soft grain to absorb more... the panels are darker than the stiles & rails, which might be veneer.

Your only leg to stand on is the match between sample on pine vs pine doors, but I'm guessing they applied the approved stain.

Talk to the builder.

Wood will vary piece to piece.

Thanks Jeffery for that information. Would the stainer or builder be at fault if the stain color was matched for pine using the maple sample? I have heard that custom color matches need to be based specifically with the stain on the same species of wood. Is that true?

@millworkman

> Ugh, I have seen and heard of way more people making a hot mess out of gel stain than vice versa.

Nature must be inventing a better fools nowaday .. may be those metal stains are not all equal.

I have pictures to prove that they go awesome [stairs, table bottoms, legs etc - except top we made pretty looking custom stain], poplar baseboards and trim, old historic s4it color looking trim much nicer with gels

Each wood species take stain differently and maple is quite different than pine. Each has to be sampled on site in your light. Same process (amount of stain and set time before wipe off) has to be tracked and repeated for desired results. Mixing wood tones is not a big problem. What is your flooring?

Well we figured it out. The builder changed the color of the stain a few months after we picked it out without notifying us. They left the name of the stain the same so the strainers thought they were using the stain we selected. On the left is the sample we used to pick out the stain. Nothing alike...

So now what?

Pine is soft wood, so the softer areas of the wood will absorb more stain in comparison to the harder areas and the results could have a huge color variation.

Before staining pine the wood must be conditioned to avoid what grain reversal. Using wood conditioner helps to achieve a more even finish.

It's a process when staining pine and if you skip the necessary prep steps and just apply stain to the raw wood you can end up with dark blotches.

Looks like they stained it a walnut, should be more of a fruitwood color.

They are redoing it with the right stain.

Very happy for you. Good that you pursued. Hope no other big problems as you move forward. Good luck.

"They are redoing it with the right stain."

Redoing? Or new doors? If attempting to restain get in writing that they will look like your sample stain as changes are almost nil that they will match once you end up with two coats of stain.

Good point. They have been sub par on many aspects of our build so we’re going to have to make sure they actually replace the doors. There is no way they are going to be able to take the wood back down to natural after using that dark stain.

You need a change notice signed off by builder with NO CHARGE, for new doors. Period.

"They have been sub par on many aspects of our build so we’re going to have to make sure they actually replace the doors. "

Good luck with that. I don't see them throwing out $1000 worth of doors. But one never knows. Definitely get it in writing.

Using conditioner is an extra step, not a required one. Asking the painters to use it may come with an upcharge. I know that I would not do it for free.