Popular Stains for Staining New Cabinets
Whether you are finishing a new cabinet or looking to upgrade something older staining is a popular option. One critical decision is the brand of stain you will decide on, in many ways you often get what you pay for with stains. Higher quality stains will typically produce greater evenness in tone and potentially dry faster so that there is less chance of anything getting in the stain finish. Prior to determining a brand of stain, you should consider the type of stain you will want to use. Stains are made of a mixture of dye and pigment and the ratio of each component determines how the stain will work, you can learn more about pigment vs dye stains here. Once you have the stain type you want chosen, you can then decide on brands. We will cover some of the most popular brands of stain that professionals turn to for cabinet finishing needs, please note stains vary and are often a personal preference these choices represent popular options based on our discussions with industry professionals.
Popular Stains for New Cabinets Brand 1 – Mohawk Stains
Mohawk wood finishes are a top of the line finish and are often mentioned in forums like the professional cabinet refinishers group on facebook and others when the question comes up about what stains are popular for cabinet refinishing. Mohawk has a variety of stain product lines but on a broad scale for lighter stains Xpert stain is a popular choice while for dark colors their Designer series is popular.The designer series offers the ability to be sealed in after about 30 minutes which makes it a good choice for production settings. The Xpert stain has two degrees of solids available giving you flexibility over how dark you will want to stain the surface.
Popular Stains for New Cabinets Brand 2 – ML Campbell
ML Campbell is another go to stain that is offered in a variety of types from wiping stain to spraying stain. There Woodsong series is offered in water based or solvent based versions and can be suitable for spraying or wiping with the added benefit of a quick topcoat time of 20 minutes.
Popular Stain for New Cabinets Brand 3 – General Finishes
General finishes also offers both water based and oil based wood stains, with their water based stains being particularly well known. They offer a variety of stain types from gel stains to dye and pigment stains for wiping or spraying. They also feature a variety of great tutorials on using their stains in projects.
Brand 4 – Acroma Pro Stains
Acroma Pro is a high end stain brand that is used by high end cabinet manufacturers. It is usually carried by smaller stores that tend to know their products and ideal applications extraordinarily well. If it is available nearby it AromaPro stains can be a great choice to consider, they are offered in water based or solvent based and are great spray stains.
Practical Tips on Choosing a Stain Brand for Your Cabinet Finishing
Ultimately choosing a stain brand is important to ensure you get quality results from your cabinet staining work. It can often make sense to try a few brands of stains to determine which product you personally prefer to use. Additionally it can be good to consider how readily available a particular brand is and how knowledgeable those your working with are as each store can tend to have different levels of experience with their products, knowledge can be helpful when you want to get assistance achieving a particular result or are running into any problems.