stain color

On our older pod, I bought several similar colors of the old more or less cherry colored stain.  I mixed them in little batches with a teaspoon so I would know the ratios of colors, then when I hit the color I wanted, I mixed enough to do my stain work.  It was much cheaper than taking a sample of the finish to a paint store and having them match it with a minimum of a quart purchase.

thank you all for all of your help

Take a sample of what you are trying to achieve to Sherwin-Williams and they'll analyze it for you and give you a pretty good match.  I had them match the two colors of our house paint and they did a perfect job.

Gary,
Thanks for the update. I had a 2nd quart mixed last summer and wasn't aware that the base color had been recently discontinued. Originally I had taken a sample panel to them to try and match. Took them 2-3 days but was worth the wait.   If you do the same, please post the new formula to the forum. I for one will copy and save it.

Good points.  Transparent stain is harder to match.  If you want to get as close a match as possible, take a sample of the stain on the wood you are trying to match.  When I matched the stain for my shelves where the old upper bunk had been, I had a piece of the bunk wood as the match point.  I worked the mix until I was as close to the sample as possible.  I was using repurposed wood, some luan plywood, some left over 1x2 from the old bunk frame, and another piece of scrap hardwood I had laying around.  Thankfully, they all took the stain pretty similarly and it came out with a pretty good match.  Trying to mix stain to match has all the challenges of mixing gelcoat to match.  It's not a job to do if you are a little colorblind.