Skirting -varnish?stain

Nothingcompares

A friend of mine has just installed new French Oak flooring (quite expensive, looks great). She has some pine skirting and want to match up the skirting to the flooring as best as possible.

Can anyone recommend any stains/varnishes etc. that will give a good result? Or is folly to attempt to match pine skirting with french oak flooring?

I've tried some ronseal oak and antique satin varnish on a sample (first coat) and it doesn't look promising.

Any advice offered greatly received.

Wertz

I wouldn't say it was folly, but it is a tall order. Crops up from time to time on jobs...best way I've found is to get a sample piece of the floor (an off-cut or unused board) and a piece of pine and then apply some different type/brand stains or dyes (get pure stain or pure dye, not coloured varnish!) and see which is closest. It might be an idea to thin the stain out a little if it's slightly too dark. Once you get the stain right, then coat everything and apply clear varnish over it.
You will get close with some trial and error, but even with an exact match, the difference in the grains of the wood and the knots in the pine will still mean that the two will look different.

Nothingcompares

thanks

Wertz

It may come down to something like even mixing 2 different hues...if you do do this, ensure they're the same type base (water, oil etc).
Since it's french oak then obviously some of the oak stains are going to be nearest, but antique pine, maple or ash may get you the tone you're after...