Good morning, we are doing sample work for designer approval for a children's museum. The stain colors for the first round were matches to Ben Moore paint colors. These are children museum colors, think "Passion Plum", "Dill Pickle", "Flash Yellow", etc.

Our original go-round was with Valspar wipe stains, The stains look just like you would think it would look on a maple substrate, the tone is there, but you will not get an apples for apples comparison holding a stained piece next to the same painted color on mdf. Translucence vs opacity.

The designer feedback was to have more intensity in the stain sample to get closer to the solid paint color, which could be done with toning/shading.

However, they have added a new wrinkle as they would like to go for LEED certification. Any thoughts on achieving these colors in a 100 g/l VOC or less system? These parameters would also include the topcoats.

Even the Zenith waterborne topcoats are north of 100.

We're located in South Jersey for geographical reference.

Thanks

You need to call the guys at Colorspec Coatings on Long Island, they can help you with this.

Would they mix single gallons of stain? I'm only making 8x8" samples for approvals, a majority of this project will be subbed out.

We'll be purchasing gallons since that seems to be the smallest quantity to purchase a custom mix, that said, the reality is that we'll be using 4 ozs. at most to make the samples.

I'd try using diluted versions of the paint colors as your stain. Target Coatings in North Jersey will custom mix quarts of their EM6500 in Benjamin Moore colors, which you'd then topcoat with their EM9300 clear to get your desired sheen. The owner, Jeff Weiss is super helpful and responsive, and their color matches have been spot-on for me so far.

Cheers,
Pat

San-Sin (Canadian based high end residential coatings manufacture)has a 0 VOC stain that is a idiots delight to use, just spray on no wipe plus you can easily layer on more coats to achieve the color you're looking for. The down side is it's loaded with water so grain raise is an issue...that can be mitigated by pre-wetting your wood and then sanded with 220 when dry.
Most Target Coatings clears are less than 100 gpl of VOC. I'm looking at a can of their 9300 that says 20 gpl.

PS; my local San-Sin distributor will custom mix their 0 VOC stain in as small volume as a quart. If you end up going down this road be sure to get the zero VOC stain not what they call their gel stain.

Why don't you just reduce the BM "actual" colors and stain it up to the desired depth the designer wants? I've done this on 7-8 jobs. Usually islands or accent cabinets. Works great, no call backs for failure. I reduced BM paints that clients pick out and come up with depth they want. Reduce by 50-75%. Make samples with 1 coat, 2 coats and 3 coats of your stain mix. 2 coats @ 50% is usually just below opaque while still showing some grain. Use a hair dryer to dry your samples between coats of reduced paint/stain. Then I hit it with a clear topcoat. General Finishes at the time of a couple of those jobs was LEED certified. Not sure about now. Their poly is 230glvoc. I think Target has some low voc clears and may be LEED certified. BTW when you first seal over the reduced BM paint/stain don't hit it heavy.
good luck
ps you can get BM samples in 4oz samples for $6

You might consider General Finishes stains or using a colored hardwax oil such as Rubio Monocoat. GF waterbased stains are very low voc and Rubio Monocoat is non-toxic with 0 voc's. Rubio comes in 50+ colors and colors are mixable. Hope this helps.

Rubio Monocoat Colors