Color Matching

Color Matches

Finisher's Warehouse offers precision colormatching for all solvent-based and water-based wood finishes for our local customers in Phoenix, AZ. We combine advanced lab grade software with years of traditional color matching experience to produce exceptional stain colormatches in as little as 24 hours. 

Quality Control

Our quality control software has been the benchmark for the automotive, cosmetic and plastic industries for decades. This capability allows us to ensure each of our stain and lacquer batches meets your tolerances and remains true to the original standard. This is a tremendous cost and time saver for any cabinet shop or wood finishing professional that you will only find at Finisher's Warehouse. 

FAQ about color matching

Colorants

All of our colorants are manufactured by Valspar/Color Corporation of America. They have been developed specifically for lacquers, stains and wood finishes, but also work to tint a variety of other industrial finishes. 

Application

While application methods for many colors are subjective, we strive to show you the best method to achieve what we show you on our final sample. Variations in wood substrate, environmental factors and the unique attributes of the end user can greatly affect a complex match. We are happy to show you how we got to our end result, and can show you step-by-step how to recreate it. Just ask!

Batch Consistency

Creating the same color twice is a struggle for any company that creates color. From paints for OEM automotive and aircraft production, to cosmetics, textile, beer and plastics manufacturers, creating a line of products or paints that matches time and time again is essentially impossible.

However, our advanced quality control software can show us just how close your first gallon is to your sample compared to a reorder 6 months later. We can use the same tools as the aforementioned industries to dial in our colors as closely as possible to your specification. It's an invaluable service for finisher's doing large jobs or where precision is paramount. And it's a service you'll only find at Finisher's Warehouse. 

Sample QC report for the initial color match of a gallon of lacquer (Batch1), as measured against the initial sample/standard (Pearl Maple). 

Our software shows how the color will appear under various different light conditions.

D65 = Daylight, A10 = Incandescent, F02 = Fluorescent.

The crucial measurement for a good match is the "Delta" summation of the reflectance values that create color, which appears in the DE column. A DE that is less than 1.00 is considered an exceptional match for most colors. Most humans cannot detect a color difference below a DE of 1.00. However, some grays and whites must be matched to a DE of < 0.40 to be considered a good match. Anything over a DE of 0.80 is considered an unacceptable match by our standards.

 

Color Match Guidelines and Policies

    • Our color-match fees are currently $25 for most solid colors when matched into a 5 gal pail, $55 for wiping stains and $75 for spray stains and most glaze matches. Tighter tolerances or difficult solid colors and multi-step stain/glaze matches will incur a greater color-match fee
    • Our typical turnaround for color matches is 2-3 days for solid colors, 5-7 days stains. This can vary considerably depending on our backlog. We do not guarantee a completion date for matches. Your match may be completed before or after our time estimate.
    • Colors matched initially matched into a 1 gal. and reordered in a 5 gal. pail are essentially another color match. We do not charge a match fee for size changes, but please allow 24-48 hours to properly adjust your formula when changing size up or down.
    • Some colors ordered initially in a 5 gal. pail are NOT able to recreated in a gallon. If you are trying to match a subtle off-white color in your kitchen or from a wall, know that these colors were initially applied out of a larger batch of 5 gal. pails and single gallons are difficult or impossible to match into. We do not have the ability to measure the weight of colorants more precisely than 1 decimal place.
    • All solvent matches requiring a sprayed color or coating (dye stains, toners, solid color coatings) are applied using the most common shop-spec equipment. We use a pneumatic HVLP gravity fed spray gun using a 1.5mm tip. We are not able to accommodate different equipment that the customer may use to complete matches.
    • Solid color matches made into white-base primers or sealers are not guaranteed to match to our high accuracy standards once a top coat is applied. For matches where precision is key, we recommend a tinted top coat so there is no color variance that can occur when top coating a primer/sealer.
    • Sheen and color may change as the product cures up to 7 days after being applied, depending on environmental conditions.