DWS Color Lab and Stain Matching

 

We offer custom color matching for your stains and tinted lacquers (paint colors), usually within 24 hours. Where stain and paint matching is not an exact science, we ask that you help us to achieve a good match the first time.

1)Bring the sample to match (substrates other than wood are very difficult)

2)Please provide us with a sample of the wood you'll be using. Please select an average color of the wood you'll use on the job, and consider solids vs. veneers. We have some scraps of mainstream wood species. but oddball species are rarely available in-house.

3)Sand the wood with the finish grit you'll be using on the job. (Everyone sands differently, please don't leave it up to us to guess!)

4)Let us know how spot-on it needs to be. We'll spend the time when it matters, but help us save time when it just needs to be "pretty close". We can't guarantee to be able to perfectly match a color, so please be careful with commitments to your customers.

5) Please don't tape off 1 square inch of wood and ask us to "match that part". Wood will vary. Be reasonable with your expectations.

6) These are all really hard to match: Cloth, plastic, tile, extremely aged (yellowed) lacquer, magazine pictures, email pictures, cell phone pictures, or that color in your customer's mind.

7) Solid paint colors should be chosen by your customers from a paint fandeck (Like Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, or even Home Depot Colors). We have a computer program that auto-formulates those colors.

8) If you have a "challenging" customer, please set up a time to bring them down to match their color. It saves everyone time in the end by eliminating all the back and forth tweaks to the color. The customer also gets a feel for what is a reasonable expectation.