Minwax oil based stains
Not shown: Order Minwax True Black 274 on oak for a deep, complete black.
See our custom work for candid in-home cabinet photo examples of Minwax finish colors on oak or maple in natural light.
The Decibel Designs standard finishes offered for our stereo cabinets and media bookcases are unfinished oak or maple and natural oak or maple with a simple clear finish.
*Unfinished oak or maple ships out completely sanded and ready for your finish. I would suggest hand sanding the pieces after you receive them with 180 or 220 grit paper to clean them after shipment and open the grain again for even stain color. Sand with the grain.
*Natural oak or maple is our clear satin lacquer top coat on on freshly sanded wood. I would describe the Natural Oak color as blonde, very light color with a very very light brown tone due to the tanin in the red oak we use. Our second lightest finish. The Natural Maple is white in appearance settling over time to a cream color. Our lightest finish.
If you want Black I suggest Minwax Wood Finish True Black 274 with our clear satin top coated multiple times with polishing in between coats. Then we flip each piece over and repeat the process again on the unfinished side. It's a lot of hand work, but our black finish comes out great justifying all the effort. We use oak wood because the graining is so strong that it shows through the final finish. After doing all that work we want you to receive a black cabinet that is clearly made of wood, not something so smooth and shiny black that the grain is buried. However if you want smooth and shiny I suggest requesting maple as the base wood. Maple graining is very subtle so the form design of the cabinet will be the emphasis here.
If you need something special we can do any Minwax finish they offer. I have most of them listed above.
The stain colors above are digital photos of oil based Minwax stains on oak. They're a good starting point for your color selection. If exact color is important to you I suggest buying these stains locally at Lowes or Ace Hardware and try them out. The underside of a drawer, a cabinet back, or the underside of a top on existing furniture you own might be places that are unfinished where you can color test your stain choices. We build in Red Oak and Midwestern Soft Maple if you want to direct test on specie samples. After the stain has been wiped and dried for 6 hours a top coat of polyurethane will very closely mimic the finish color we will be delivering to you.
If you want a solid color we can do any acrylic latex color top coated with our satin clear lacquer for good looks and long life.
oil-based stains Minwax
