Color Samples, Finishes and Woods

Finishes on Oak

Finishes on Other Woods

Occasionally we have earring holders with dark red and dark brown finishes:

Stained wood is actually many colors rather than a solid color. And any one piece of oak will look slightly different than another piece even if they are stained at the same time with the same product.

Description of our finishes:

Clear. We use Minwax Antique Oil Finish. This turns the bare wood a slight amber color. From Minwax: "Minwax® Antique Oil Finish is recommended for interior wood surfaces such as cabinets, tables, paneling, doors and trim. It produces a soft luster that is durable, easily maintained and highly resistant to staining." Antique Oil finish is mainly varnish and linseed oil. Clear is our most popular finish.

If you are familiar with some of the different stains on the market, you might recognize the name Watco. Our medium brown is Watco Danish Oil Finish--Dark Walnut. You see this stain used extensively on new furniture and on moldings in houses that have been built in the last 20 years. Commercial manufacturers almost always add a clear coat over the stain. Because it is slightly darker than the clear, it accentuates the grain more. After staining medium brown, the units are finished with Krylon's clear satin finish, which is a clear acrylic coating. Medium brown is the second most popular color.

White, semi-flat black and hunter green are Krylon spray paints. The coverage is fairly solid, although you will still see some oak grain through the paint. We use hunter green on only the frame of the earring holder. The hunter green earring holders are shipped with oak racks which have a clear finish. Krylon products are carried by many stores, including Kmart and Wal*Mart. You can check Krylon's site for a current list of stores.

Bare wood oak appears almost white because the wood has been freshly sanded.  It will yellow with age and tend to show marks from handling if not finished.  However, these will not affect the durability of the product. It can always be stained or painted at a later date, although you should resand it lightly first if you've waited a long time before finishing.

Cherry has a reddish tint. It will darken with exposure to light, but is naturally much lighter than the very dark brown or red finish manufacturers often refer to as cherry. Over time the color darkens and becomes richer with exposure to UV light.

In the photo on the right, the top rack is cherry recently cut, sanded and finished. The bottom rack is from an earring holder we made about eight years ago. On the left-hand side you can see still see some of the original lighter color where the rack has been sitting in the side slots of the earring holder.

Honduras mahogany also has a reddish tint, although it is slightly more orange than cherry. It similarly darkens with exposure to light. The grain is very fine and the lines are much closer together than in oak.

Walnut is naturally a dark brown.

Maple is lighter in color than oak, with a slight yellow tint from the antique oil finish.

All these woods are finished by hand with two coats of a clear finish (Minwax Antique Oil).

Cherry darkens with age

Woodwitch Earring and Necklace Holders
4263 Canoga Avenue, Woodland Hills, California 91364 USA
Telephone:  (818) 992-5112     Fax:  (818) 992-0680
    E-mail:      URL:  http://www.woodwitch.com
Toll-Free Tel. No.:  1-877-877-5982
(9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. PST, 7 days a week)