Several months ago I got a call from a customer who needed some help making changes to her kitchen. It is the first kitchen in a long time where I actually advised against replacing the existing cabinets. They are beautiful small shop made cherry cabinets with plywood boxes, solid cherry faces and doors. I am rebuilding the cabinet above the refrigerator and the panel beside it in addition to new drawer slides, hinges and refinishing the interiors.
I have been dialing in on the color and i think I have it almost exactly matched. There is obviously some variance in color in the cherry itself and what I have settled on looks like an exact match in some places and looks like it needs more dark brown in others.
My usual method for making slight tint changes is to add the dye to a pre wash of sanding sealer and water, raise the grain, sand, wash again adding more tint if necessary and stain. Using this method on test pieces I am very close.
This morning I started stripping the old full height fridge panel with a belt sander to recycle the wood and now I am questioning my plan. Once the lacquer was removed and some of the stain there was an obvious line where an adjacent base cabinet had been covering it for 25 years. Above the line the color was noticeably darker than bellow. On the opposite side of the kitchen there is a China cabinet that gets direct sunlight and as expected that one has faded a fair amount.
I informed the customer from the beginning that I would not be able to 100% match the color appearance and sheen of 25 year old cabinets.
Is it probable that the existing wood will continue to darken?
If so and I tint everything to match the existing cabinets as they appear now, is it probable my work will darken at a faster rate than the existing wood?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks