Expert: Eileen Cronk - 12/18/2008

Question
I am redoing my home in a Texican style hence I want to replace some existing furniture with pine furniture and would also like to refinish some of my larger pieces of existing furniture to match.  

I have book cases that are hard rock maple.  If I strip these what are they going to look like?  What color will the wood be.  Is unfinished Maple light or dark, etc.?  Would it match the pine?

Thanks for any information you can give me.

Camilla

Answer
Hi Camilla
Nice to hear from you.
Unfinished maple is light and does not take a stain because it is so hard.
That is the reason they use colored lacquer on maple. The color is actually in the finish.
Maple also does not have a lot of variation in grain like pine does.
Personally I feel that if you are doing this job in the home, the rock maple bookcases will look like heck stripped of the existing finish. It will not match the pine.
They can be sent out to a shop that specialises in this work and could be sprayed to closely match your pine color but this is a job for the pros.
Hope this helps.
Kind Regards
Eileen