A friend commissioned me to build a cabinet to place next to his music stand to hold music books and guitar effect pedals.
I built it from solid southern yellow pine and used Minwax stain, plus Mohawk toner and precatalized lacquer for the finish. Kevin Deal taught me a great technique of layering stain, toner, and lacquer to get depth and the color you want. He’s a master at color matching and finish and helped me pick a good stain and toner to get the color we were looking for. Thanks Kevin!
Very nice! Thanks for sharing!
Very professional looking. I clearly have a lot to learn about finishing…
Me too! What I really lack is the experience to select a stain color and toners to combine with the wood to achieve the desired color. It’s not critical when building your own projects but is very important when a customer wants you to match something. Before I started working with Kevin, I didn’t even know about toners. I thought you just pick a stain color or mix stain colors to achieve what you want.
Love the finish, concern for grain, and the fact that it’s a custom build.
Kevin, it appears, taught you a great Deal! 
Thanks! He did and I’m still learning. Forgot to mention that I sealed with Shellac first to avoid blotchiness…
