Altar Project: Matching Colors

Above is the ambo which we were initially shooting for as the color to match as it will be staying next to the altar I build. Some of you may remember that I am partially color blind so I stink at matching colors and to me, there is a lot of orange coloring in the ambo though my wife and others assure me there isn't. So that will perhaps explain the next pictures.

Using up some leftover stains/oils and picking up some samples from the local store, I came back and created the above color "swatches" to match against the ambo. Sample 'B' looked much too orange and 'D' didn't look enough orange to my defective eyes. So I decided to try a blend of 'B' and 'C' to bring the orange tones down and came up with the below sample which is the backside of the board above.

I varied the ratios and by the time I got to one part B and 4 parts C, I thought I was looking pretty spot on. So I drove down to the church where I met the Good Samaritan and he quickly assured me there was no orange tones in the ambo. He described the color of the ambo as more "golden" which makes sense as it was finished using a film finish, probably oil based polyurethane which was popular back then and  has a tendency to yellow with time. Since we weren't looking to replicate the time to let oil based polyurethane yellow nor looking for a really plastic feeling film finish, we instead turned our sights on the wooden candle holders in front of the current altar. 

It was hard to get good lighting and depending on what direction we looked from, we got different colors. But we both agreed that sample 'C' was the closest match but could be a touch darker. I went back home and tried to darken up my existing sample but only after I put it on did I realize that wasn't going to work as I had already applied a coat of the hard wax oil finish I am going to apply after the stain which doesn't yellow with time. So I thought I would just experiment on the underneath side of the altar top and kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

Above is my original sample board showing 'C' and above that is the underneath side of the altar top with two coats of stain. It looks a bit darker but not much. I might try a third coat of stain to see if I can darken it a touch more and then keep on staining the rest of the altar. Since I have to wait two hours between coats and there are a lot of surfaces to touch, I might be at it for another day to get it all stained. Once that is completed, I can cover the entire thing with a number of coats of hard wax oil which will act as a water barrier and protectant and I will at long last be done with the build phase. All that will remain is the transport and assemble phase.