Colored Stain on siding way too dark!!

[budtugley]

OK, so we have just put up new bat-n-board rough sawn sinding. My wife thought she had the coloring all figured out and even tested on small test scrap pieces. However, when she began painting the house, it seemed too be way darker, but she continued on thinking it would lighten as it dried. Well it didn't. The back wall of our house is now a very dark chocolate brown. What she wanted is something about 1-1/2 to 2 shades lighter. Does anyone know if there is a way to lighten a colored stain? It's Behr Premium Semi-Transparent Weatherproofing - Deck, Fence & Siding Stain - No. 5-77 Tint Base with coloring.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

[egon]

Rest easy: " She Who Must Be Obeyed " picked the stain and also applied it. You are in the clear. Get a few neighbours to make the odd comment on how nice it looks.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

You can hope that it fades. Penetrating stain is a relatively permanent thing, at lest for a couple years. Consider the current coating as primer and overcoat it with a much lighter shade of semi-transparent or lighter shade of opaque stain. YOu should be able to go as light as yoiu originally wanted or even more so.

A little late to tell you about how deceptive small color samples are huh? Relatively dark shades will always look much darker on a large surface. I mixed a batch of bright yellow for my wife's tea room/clean hobby space (800 sq ft.) I got her to approve the color. I painted a few sq ft on the wall as a more realistic sample. When I had it toned down to her satisfaction I painted the room. Everyone thought it was too dark/bright of yellow (I didn't care if HER walls were chartreuse and violet diagonal stripes but her friends thought it was too much so I mixed another batch, much lighter (more white in the mix) and she and a friend painted the whole thing again (My first coat was free but I wasn't doing it over, BAD PRECEDENT!)

You probably didn't want to hear that you have just primed with the first coat and you need to do it again to get the color you want but think of this... You will probably get a much better lasting job with another coat. If it were indoors there are lots of washes, glazes, and such often used in faux finishes that I could have suggested but for the exterior... play it again.

TRIVIA NOTE: The Humphrey Bogart character in the movie "Casablanca" never spoke the line, "Play it again, Sam."

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]