What color to choose for deck stain?

by Bruce
(IA)

Back View of House Without Deck

We just built a cedar wrap around deck. Our house is a light gray with a hint of blue in it. Most times it looks mostly light gray and other times of day it appears to be a little more light gray/blue.

We have been trying to decide what color of semi-transparent stain to apply to our deck and just can not decide what would be the best. We are very afraid of making a huge mistake.

The deck wraps around our sunroom, it is 12 x 30 one way and 12 by 26 the other. We are putting white vinyl railing on it.

The brands we are interested in are Cabots and Arbor Coat from Benjamin Moore. We would appreciate any advice. Thanks

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Aug 21, 2010
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What color to choose???
by: Bruce

Thanks for the input. We had already decided not to go with a brown or red color, figuring that the eye would not know which color to look at, confusing. We did try a hue of gray with a little blue in it but the blues were very different and contrary to what the paper color swatch from the store looked like, our board turned out very blue with no gray instead of gray with a hint of blue. Looking at the color wheel is a good idea. I think we will do that first and if we cant come up with anything then we are going to go with a medium gray. We have seen pictures online with our house color, white vinyl and the gray and they looked very nice. We are afraid to try a hint of blue again. Other than that we cant come up with any other option. Now if Mother Nature would cooperate and stop the rain for just one week.....

Aug 21, 2010
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A personal preference
by: Editor - Rich Bergman

That is a tough call. Color is always personal preference. However, I would tell you that with cooler colors like the grey siding you have I would probably not use a traditional brown or cedar color stain.

I find it contrasts a bit too much and really looks like an addition that was just attached to the house. But again, this is just my thoughts. Others will disagree.

I prefer a color that is either is a similar but slightly different tone to demarcate the deck from the house but create a feel that it really belongs as part of it, it is just an extension of your homes living space but outdoors.

The other thing you can try to do is get a color wheel and find your siding color, then instead of choosing direct opposing colors find complimentary colors. These are usually about 1/3 around the color wheel from the color you are starting with.

Just a few thoughts. But this one will be your call.

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