Wood Stain Color Chart: A Guide to Seal-Once Tint Colors

Picking a stain color from a screen is a guess. Picking it from a chart is closer, but still not the whole picture.

The same tint can look warm on cedar and cool on pressure-treated pine. It can read rich on new wood and muddy on a deck that has been graying for six years. Understanding why is the difference between a finish you like and one you live with.

This guide walks through the full Seal-Once semi-transparent tint range, what each color does, and how wood species, age, and sun exposure change the result before you ever open a can.

The Seal-Once Semi-Transparent Tint Colors

Seal-Once offers nine semi-transparent tint colors, plus a clear option for anyone who wants protection without added pigment. All tints are semi-transparent, which means they add color while letting the natural grain and texture show through.

You can view all ten side by side on the Seal-Once color chart page, which shows each tint applied over three different base formulas.

What Semi-Transparent Tints Do That Clear Finishes Don't

A clear finish protects the wood from moisture but has no pigment. Without pigment, there's nothing to block UV rays. The wood will gradually gray in sunlight, which is a normal, natural process.

Semi-transparent tints add UV blockers along with color. Those blockers slow the graying process and hold the wood's tone longer. The nano-sized pigments penetrate below the surface rather than sitting on top, so the color lasts longer and wears more evenly than a surface-level pigment would.

Here's the practical trade-off:

• Choose clear if you want protection and don't mind the wood aging to a silver-gray
• Choose a tint if you want to hold a specific color and slow UV graying
• Choose Coastal Gray if you want the weathered gray look but on your schedule, not the sun's

Why the Same Color Looks Different on Your Wood

Every color chart carries the same limitation, and it's worth stating plainly. The Seal-Once color samples were created using two thin coats on red cedar. If you're coating something else, expect a different result.

Three factors drive most of the variation:

Wood species and density. Open-grain softwoods like cedar and pine absorb more pigment, so color reads deeper. Dense hardwoods absorb less, so the same tint looks lighter and more transparent.

Wood age and condition. New wood takes stain evenly. Weathered wood that has already grayed has open, damaged surface fibers that soak up pigment unevenly, often reading darker and blotchier than a sample suggests. Cleaning and brightening weathered wood first gives you a much more predictable result.

Number of coats. Two thin coats is the standard the color charts are based on, and the second coat goes on while the first is still damp — not hours later. Thin is the operative word: over-applying, or going beyond two coats is not advised.

Sun exposure matters after application too. A south-facing deck will shift tone faster than a shaded porch, even with the same product and the same number of coats.

How the Base Formula Changes the Color

Tint colors aren't applied on their own. They're mixed into a clear Seal-Once base, and the base you choose affects the final look. The same Mahogany tint can appear slightly different depending on which formula carries it.

Compatible bases include NANO, NANO+POLY, Marine Grade, and Clear WaterProofer. Colors may appear darker or more saturated in some formulas than others.

Matching the base to the project matters more than matching it to the color:

• Marine Grade for docks, piers, pool decks, and wood near open water
• NANO and NANO+POLY for general exterior wood, decks, fences, and siding
• Clear WaterProofer for tropical and exotic hardwoods like ipe, teak, and mahogany

That last point is worth flagging. Marine Grade Clear and Marine Grade Semi-Transparent are not recommended for hardwoods. Clear WaterProofer is the better fit there, and adding tint concentrate turns it into a semi-transparent stain suited to dense species.

The Tint Concentrate System

The Wood Stain Color Tint Concentrate is what lets you build any of the nine colors into a clear base yourself, rather than buying a pre-mixed gallon in a fixed shade.

The math is simple. One bottle of tint per gallon of sealer. Five bottles for a five-gallon pail. Seal-Once Tint Concentrate may be added to NANO Clear.

Each bottle comes prefilled with the amount of tint needed to match the Seal-Once premix standard for that color. The mix is 1:1, one full bottle per gallon of clear base. Fill volumes differ by color, so a bottle of Black may hold less liquid than a bottle of Coastal Gray. Both are correct for a one-gallon mix.

Two application notes that prevent most mixing problems:

• Add the tint to the gallon and mix thoroughly. Check that no pigment is left sitting in the bottom of the bottle.
• Use only Seal-Once semi-transparent tints. Other colorants can interfere with how the product performs.

Adding more than one bottle per gallon will darken the result past the color standard. If you want a deeper tone than the chart shows, test that mix on an offcut before committing a full gallon.

Test Before You Commit

This is the step most people skip, and it's the one that prevents the biggest disappointments.

We offer 4 oz. pre-mixed sample bottles in all nine semi-transparent colors. Each contains the same professional-grade formulation as the full gallons, so what you see on the sample is what you'll get at scale.

How to test properly:

1. Test on the actual wood you're coating, not a scrap of something similar
2. Clean the surface first, exactly as you would for the real application
3. Apply two thin coats, the second while the first is still damp, matching the standard the color chart is based on
4. Let it dry fully before judging, since wet color always reads darker
5. Look at the test area in direct sunlight and in shade before deciding

Testing two or three candidate colors side by side on the same board tells you more than any chart can.

Bottom Line

A wood stain color chart narrows your options. It doesn't make the decision for you.

The nine Seal-Once tints give you a range from near-natural to black, with warm, neutral, and cool options in between. What each one actually looks like depends on your wood species, its age, how much sun it gets, and how many coats you apply.

Start with the chart to shortlist two or three colors. Then test them on your own wood before you buy a gallon. That one extra step is what separates a finish you chose from a finish you settled for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Seal-Once wood stain colors are there?
There are nine semi-transparent tint colors: Natural, Light Brown, Brown, Cedar, Bronze Cedar, Redwood, Mahogany, Coastal Gray, and Black. A clear option is also available for protection without added color.

Will the color look the same as the chart on my deck?
Not necessarily. The Seal-Once color chart samples were applied to red cedar using two thin coats. Different wood species, weathered surfaces, heavy application, and additional coats will all shift the final appearance.

How much tint do I need per gallon?
One bottle per gallon of clear base, or five bottles for a five-gallon size. Each bottle is prefilled to match the Seal-Once color standard for that shade, so fill volumes differ between colors.

Can I mix Seal-Once tints with other stain products?
No. The semi-transparent tints are formulated specifically for Seal-Once products. Other colorants or pigments can alter how the product performs.

Do semi-transparent stains hide the wood grain?
No. Semi-transparent means the pigment adds color while the natural grain and texture stay visible. If you want to fully obscure the grain, you need a solid stain or paint instead.

Which base should I use with the tint on ipe or teak?
Use Clear WaterProofer with tint concentrate for tropical and exotic hardwoods. Marine Grade Clear and Marine Grade Semi-Transparent are not recommended for hardwood species.