Color Shift of Wood
Did you know that the color of your wooden doors will shift over time? If unprotected, a raw wooden surface can shift noticeably in a matter of hours. On the other hand, if reasonable precautions are taken this process will be slowed down. Doors made from real wood will change naturally over the months and years of their life. Don’t worry, it’s normal!
Depending on the species of wood, its finish, and the environmental factors of where it ends up, this process can be subtle or quite rapid. Some woods will lighten and others will darken, some will lose their color and some seem to become more vibrant or rich over time. Each species of wood has a different settled color. Wood generally follows the process of moving from its initial color and will work through its unique species’ spectrum until it gets closer and closer to its settled color. This is where the shift will slow down and the color of the wood becomes more stable.
How and Why Does Wood Change?
When wood is exposed to the elements, its chemical makeup is being altered, primarily through oxidation. At Scherr’s we use a commercial grade finish that stays clear and is non-yellowing. This finish will protect wooden surfaces from most forms of humidity and direct exposure to air. Even when finished moisture and air will still find microscopic pathways into your wood. The process by which light can affect your doors is slowed with a high quality finish, but it can not be completely stopped. After you receive your doors sit back and enjoy the developing character of the natural wood created by mother nature.
Remodeling or Building your Project in Sections
If you are particular about all of your doors in the same area matching, breaking up the ordering of your project over time may not recommended. Lets say you are ordering cherry doors for your kitchen and a few years later you decide to order more doors for the same kitchen area. When you first receive the new doors they will appear much different in color over your old doors because of the shifting of the wood color over time.
- Color shift is fast and can be dramatic in some species, by the time you order the other half of your order the shift can be noticeably clear.
- One delivery of wood to our shop can appear different in appearance from the next. This is because the wood that arrives in a single delivery is much more likely to come from one group of trees and the next delivery we get is from a different ground of trees and this can cause variations in color and wood grain patterns between the deliveries.
Over time the new doors will blend in with the older doors better as the aging of the wood occurs to the new doors. Just be aware of this if you do plan on ordering additional doors in the future.
Work With Nature, Not Against It!
That being said, color shift is not undesirable. If color is very important to you, then it may be advisable to buy wood not by how it looks now, but by how you expect it to look once it reaches its settled color.
What exactly does a wood’s settled color look like? Below are a series of photographs that we have taken to demonstrate this very thing! Each of these pictures were taken using the same doors. The first picture was taken in 2010 and the second picture was taken again in 2017. These are accurate representations of how each wood type will shift over the course of seven years. Feel free to view the images below, and if you have any quesitons about any of this feel free to contact us about the color shifting in wood.
