specialty
Custom Staining & Color Matching
The exact color you have in your head, on the floor.
Overview
Generic stain colors miss. We mix custom stain blends on-site, lay sample panels directly on your sanded floor, and only proceed once you sign off in your own light, in your own room.
Custom Staining & Color Matching by Kovich & Savard starts at $1.75/sq ft* for labor, with material quoted separately and the final number set after a free in-home estimate. We service every Massachusetts town listed below — Greater Boston, the South Shore, MetroWest, and Cape Cod — with three generations of family experience. Every job is owner-led.
The stain that looked perfect on a sample card at the hardware store almost never reads the same on a full floor under your home's daylight and lighting. We solve this with on-site stain panels: 3' x 3' swatches applied to your actual sanded floor, viewed at the same hour you'll see them every day.
Common requests we deliver: matching an inherited dining table, harmonizing with cherry kitchen cabinets, achieving a smoky 'limed' grey-brown, deepening red oak to read like walnut, or pulling a yellowed 1990s floor back to a modern neutral.
Our stains are oil-based for color depth and grain pop. We allow proper dwell time, wipe back excess, and seal with finish that won't yellow over the stain — a common failure mode of cheaper systems.
Why choose this
What you get when we do this work.
On-site sample panels, signed off before commitment
You see the actual color on your actual floor before we go room-wide. No surprises.
Custom blends, not just catalog colors
We mix two-part and three-part stains to land an exact tone. Bring us a swatch, an Instagram screenshot, or a single chair leg.
Matched to your finish system
We pair stain chemistry with the right top coat so your color reads true for decades, not months.
How it goes
The 6-step process for this work.
- 01
Discovery
Bring color references — physical samples, photos, paint chips. We talk grain, sheen, and lighting.
- 02
Sand to bare wood
Stain only takes properly to clean, freshly sanded wood.
- 03
Panel out 3–5 options
We lay multiple panels directly on your floor in the actual room.
- 04
Live with it 24 hours
You see panels in morning light, midday, and evening light before deciding.
- 05
Apply chosen stain whole-room
Edge-in by hand, field by applicator, wiped back to consistency.
- 06
Seal & finish
After full dwell and dry, three coats of compatible finish protect the color.
FAQ
Common questions about custom staining.
Got a question that's not here? Call (508) 962-1962 or email us. Tim and Steve answer themselves.
Can you match an existing room of floors?
Yes. We pull panels from your existing room, color-match by eye and chemistry, and run blend transitions where new and old meet.
How dark can you go on red oak?
Red oak's pink undertone fights very dark stains — you can land near walnut tones, but not true ebony without a wire-brush plus tinted finish system. We'll show you panels so you see this trade-off honestly.
Where we provide this service
Custom Staining across Eastern Massachusetts.
Free estimate
Walk your floors. Quote in 48 hours.
Tell us about the project. Tim or Steve drives out, walks the rooms with you, checks the subfloor, and emails a written line-item proposal within 48 hours. No salesperson, no upsell.
Mon–Sat · 9 AM – 5 PM · No after-hours calls go unanswered for long.