[Twokamprs]

I'm still a beginner, so keep it simple, please. My first attempt to match the color of our existing cabinets failed, so I'm trying again and this time I'm coming after the expert help of my woodworking community. The color for my first attempt was very uneven.

We have Merrillat maple cabinets with toffee finish which look like the attached photo. I'm not asking anyone to match the color, but I do want to achieve the evenness of the color that you see in the pic. The new piece is, of course, made of maple.

Q1: Should I use a pre-stain conditioner on maple?
Q2: Without getting to exotic, what type of stain do you recommend? (oil base, water base...)
Q3: Any other recommendations for finishing to achieve the evenness I'm looking for?

Thank you in advance for your help!!

 

[cabinetman]

Maybe it's just the picture, but those doors don't look that "evenly" done. Commercial suppliers would likely use a conditioner, and an oil stain. The color could be reached by adding a dye stain. For further "tone matching", the topcoat would be tinted and toned in that way.

If you have the ability to spray, you could do these steps.

.

 

[TylerJones]

Maybe it's just the picture, but those doors don't look that "evenly" done. Commercial suppliers would likely use a conditioner, and an oil stain. The color could be reached by adding a dye stain. For further "tone matching", the topcoat would be tinted and toned in that way.

If you have the ability to spray, you could do these steps.

.

+1

It's an oil based stain if it's a stain at all. Hard to tell but to me it almost looks like a sprayed toner coat that was sprayed before spraying sanding sealer. For this light of a color a toner sprayed as a second coat is how I would try to match.