I think mixing woods can be an interesting way to keep your space from being too matchy . Maybe the woods you are working with all take stain differently so IMO do the bench and the dutch door the same since they will be seen together and be done if of course the woods are the same species BTW I love the walnut with the gray.

Thank you!! I agree with wood tones not all needing to match- I think mixing woods adds a lot of dimension and interest. I guess in this instance, I'm a little uncertain because our front door and our back door (which will be the Dutch Door I'm staining) will be our only stained doors- all of the other doors in our home are white and I'm painting the other two doors in the mudroom (one leads to a guest bedroom and one leads to the garage) the same color as the walls/cabinetry in the mudroom. I didn't know if cohesiveness would play better in this situation.

Also, I'm typically a light to mid tone wood fan and dark stains aren't what I gravitate to, but I do really like how it looks with the elements we have going on in the mudroom. I appreciate your compliment :)

Sherwin Williams did a custom mix for us. We were able to bring a piece of our floor to them so they had a reference, not sure if you can do that..

Stain will take differently on every different kind of wood- the same stain on your old wood, that butcher block bench, and your new door will be completely different even if they are the same species.

No I don't think the bench is too dark at all -- I think it looks terrific with the other elements in the room.

Liz-I've never heard of shellac for wood, I'll have to check it out!

Honestly, trying to decide if I like the look of the dark walnut in the space and to hell with trying to match the woods...or if it's worth the effort because it could potentially drive me crazy.

Wouldn't it be great if I could tell you in a few words what took more than 50 years to learn? I wish I could because my two page book would fly off the shelf while the dozens of books written by experts like Bob Flexner would geather dust because they take so much longer to read than "Klem's Silver Bullet Of Wood Finishing". Harsh? Rude? Maybe lies suit you better. Here's your first lesson in wood finishing. Go back and CARFULLY read all the instructions on the container that bench stain was in. What you missed is using conditioner on Pine. Use conditioner before staining another board like on the bench and you will be amazed at the difference. Good luck,study hard,experiment, practice on scrap wood and most important injoy it.

I love your mudroom and the stained bench works perfectly there. It looks to be pine, and as Hallett said, it will not take stain the same way that your old trim did, or your new Dutch door. If you're having the Dutch door professionally stained, ask to see a sample before you settle on a color. But as long as all the wood is compatible it doesn't need to match perfectly.

Klem1 believe it or not, I almost used wood conditioner! I read up about it a lot beforehand and saw it made a big difference to different types of wood. However, I noticed in blog posts and YouTube videos darker stains on pine did not yield very drastic results with the use of wood conditioner. I decided to skip it. It might be something I give a whirl in the future. Honestly, I think the bench is beautiful on its own, my conundrum is should I try to match the wood color on my original trim and front door or is it okay to let that go and do something different.

Diana, thank you! Responses on here and from friends and family seem to be that the bench works in this space - even though it's darker than I prefer, I agree, it does work. The bench is pine, I've made a lot of shelving, benches, and even a breakfast bar out of pine. I love the wood. I know it can be regarded as cheap and even busy looking because of the grain, but I personally love the look of pine. My Dutch Door is Fir, I believe, so definitely a different type of wood. I think I'm going to have to either land on compatibility with my stain colors OR I might pick the brain of the company staining my door, I'm sure I'm not the first customer trying to match stains. I understand different woods take stains differently, I was just hoping to get a really close match. That might be futile though.

I'm not sure if it's worth it, but I thought I'd share a different angle of the bench and a few pictures of my front door and trim from a distance. I really agree with someone above who said my trim has an amber color, such a great description and someone else mentioned that age will also affect the color of the wood- my original trim is 83 years old.

But nevertheless, here's a little look :)

New bench stained Dark Walnut:

Original Door:

Trim:

You have a gorgeous home! Don't overthink this. It all works just fine together.

There's a lot to unpack here, as Klem alluded to. To get the door to really match your existing woodwork, you'd need to do as Klem suggested and do lots of tests.

You'd also need to know what wood species your doors are made of. It looks like your bench is pine, and your original woodwork looks like it might be mahogany (but hard to tell from photos on a computer screen); mahogany does tend to have that amber glow even without shellac. (Amber shellac does indeed add warmth, but it also adds challenges of combining different types of finishes that may require different types of solvents). I didn't see any mention of the wood species of the door. Using the same color stain will not yield the same end result on two different wood species. However, there are lots of decisions you can make in other steps in the finishing process that can modify the color slightly and/or add warmth (e.g., whether to use a sanding sealer such as dewaxed shellac or conditioner, whether to use water-based or oil-based finish, whether to include a coat of amber shellac, etc.).

You could use test pieces of the same wood species as your door and try a few different finishing schedules (which means using the same number of coats and the same treatment as would be applied to the door). Another great resource might be a local paint store that provides color matching services for wood finishes. Depending on how particular you are about it "matching", you can make this a marathon to a close match or a sprint to similar but not matching tones (which is usually just fine ;) ).

Salex thanks for all the insights! My bench is Pine, the original woodwork/door is Mahogany, and my new Dutch Door (which is still in production) is Fir. So three different wood species :). Getting everyone's feedback is leading me to believe matching woods might not happen.

Fir (Douglas-fir) will accept stain similarly to pine - so if you're happy with the bench (which I would be), then you'll probably be happy with the door. If the Doug-fir is vertical grain, then the grain will be much tighter than the pattern of the pine on your bench.

My 1920 house's original woodwork is Doug-fir, and I went through the marathon process of trying to match it when installing/replacing new trim. FYI, in case it's helpful, my schedule consisted of a coat of dewaxed shellac, then a coat of water-based Transtint dyes that I had pre-tested in a custom mix of three different colors (reddish brown, medium brown, and walnut in 3:1:1), followed by a few coats of Arm-R-Seal oil-based clear finish, and lastly a coat of amber shellac to give it the same warmth and depth of the old wood.

That said, your bench looks great, and I bet your doors will too if you use the same stain!

Don't try for "matching" exactly. Try to blend them--try a medium brown color which is what your trim and bench are. No espresso or gray or white bleached wood. It's trial and error.

Anything other than "eeew orangy yellow golden oak." It's just so depressing it date's a home and ruin's any mood you try to create.

I think the biggest issue you are seeing is the inherent nature of that sort of pine, with the extremely wide graining/wide variation in how it takes the stain (especially without wood conditioner). I’m guessing the door will be a much tighter grain look, which should help it look closer to the woodwork. Our fir door is. :)

Also, shellac is easy to try out; it removes with running alcohol, so try a bit and see on a corner, and if you hate it remove it. I actually love shellac and use it quite liberally. There is amber and garnet; you actually might try the garnet on the bench and see?