Some of the wood in my cabin needs to be refinished and I’m trying to figure out how to match the existing finish. It’s a very smooth but also very matte finish. I’ve done plenty of varnish but I’ve always used satin or gloss. Has anyone found a product that matches whatever post used originally? Epiphanes matte was what I was thinking but I’ve never used it.
We (my wife actually) used Minwax Polycrylic clear satin on the interior. It isn't an exact match but close. She sanded and did a light coat on almost all the interior wood so didn't have any sharp edges between original and refurbished.
Interesting so she applied it over the original finish? She didn’t strip it to bare wood first? That would be an awfully nice time saver but I’ve always heard you always have to strip off the old stuff first. My finish is in good shape in 99% of the boat, it’s just bubbled up near the windows where they must have leaked in the past and then there are some shallow gouges on the dining table from me stupidly using it as a staging point for changing the microwave.
None of it was sanded back to bare. Where there were prior water stains (salon windows and bottom of the wall opposite the galley) she sanded enough to blend in the damaged areas a bit, touched up with stain, then put the top finish over the whole wall. I'll put in a couple photos so you can see some differences. You should be able to expand the thumbnails, they save time for people loading just to get a quick read. We did a major overhaul in the galley, removing the original tall house refrigerator (a home depot scratch and dent by the PO that stuck out 6" into the hall). You can see several different finishes here. The panel on the left of the new fridge cabinet is original mahogony and stain just new top coat. The panels along the front of the fridge and the trim are teak, stained and top coated. The panel behind/above the fridge is new mahogony (lighter than original) stained and top coated. The wall at the far end is original mahogony that was not stained by factory, stained and top coated. Here the wall on the left is original, was sanded and restained a bit at the bottom to remove prior water damage. The fronts of the stairs are new mahogony, stained and top coated. Stair treads are red oak, new teak ones were way expensive. The cabinet to the rights is all original, just cleaned. Here the port side wall was sanded, stained in places to minimize water streaks and top coated. Same with the wall to right of stair. The oveheads (can only see a little) are all original, just cleaned. Overall the finishes integrate well and almost no one notices the differences but my wife (she is an engineer by day, artist by night) and myself since I know what was done.
Need to run a sample finish on a scrap to verify color and shine desired. Make certain any product you use has UV inhibitors to help maintain color long term. Get your overall color correct before you seal it. In some locations I even used a white stain in order to lighten the tones that tend to darken with age and sun.
One trick is to use a gloss varnish to build and then top with the matt or satin. Otherwise multiple layers of matt will cause more opacity and mismatch.
