Transparent Toners
The wood stays fully visible and does most of the work. Colors are natural tones only, and the same toner reads differently on pine than it does on cedar.
Transparent deck stain colors
Deck Stain Colors for Every Wood and Finish Type
What ends up on your deck is the color in the can plus the color of your wood. New pressure treated pine, weathered cedar and ipe each take the same stain differently, and the same board looks different wet, dry, in sun and in shade. Start with the finish type, then look at the colors on your wood.
$15
five 2 oz bottles, one per pigmented color
Color-accurate photograph pending. This position is reserved for one named color on one named species.
DeckStainColors.com covers color and finish selection for exterior wood: which colors suit which species, how transparent, semi-transparent and solid finishes differ, and how much maintenance each one asks for later. The site is operated by Woodrich Brand, which makes some of the products recommended here. Woodrich makes six Timber Oil colors for softwoods, five warm natural tones plus a clear, so when you want gray, a solid color or a water-based product, this site names the brands that make them.
Start With the Finish Type
The finish type decides how much grain stays visible and how you maintain the deck later. Color comes after that.
Semi-Transparent Stains
Color with the grain still showing through. What decides how clearly the grain shows is the kind of pigment rather than how much of it is in the can: transparent iron oxides block UV and still let visible light through, while clay pigments look cloudy over the grain.
Semi-transparent deck stain colors
Solid Stains
Full color, and the widest range: grays, greige, navy, charcoal, black. Solid stain forms a film on the surface, so on a deck floor it can crack and peel, and changing back to a semi-transparent finish later means stripping to bare wood first.
Solid deck stain colorsThe Wood Under the Stain Is Part of the Color
New pressure treated pine arrives yellow, brown or green depending on how it was treated, and that base color becomes part of the finish. Weathered wood takes pigment more deeply than new wood, so grey pine and silver cedar finish deeper than fresh boards do.
Two guides go further: choosing a deck stain color for pressure treated wood, and choosing a color that works with a grey house.
A Swatch Is Not the Color
Printed chips and website swatches are one board photographed in one light. The test that settles it is the stain on your own wood, dry, and in the sun where the deck actually sits.
Woodrich’s Timber Oil Sample Color Kit is $15 for five 2 oz bottles, one per pigmented color, and the $15 comes off a full order.
If you do not know what finish is on the deck now, text a photo to the Woodrich Project Support Hotline at (636) 288-8512 before you buy anything.
Where Woodrich Fits and Where It Does Not
Woodrich makes one kind of product, so a lot of what this site recommends is made by somebody else.
| If you want | Look at |
|---|---|
| Warm natural tones on cedar or pressure treated pine, with no film to crack or peel | Woodrich Timber Oil |
| Gray, driftwood, silver or any cool tone | Armstrong ClarkTWPReady SealCabot |
| Solid color, or one color over mismatched boards | Benjamin Moore Arborcoat SolidCabot SolidBehr Premium Solid |
| Water-based, low odor, soap and water cleanup | DefyArborcoat waterborneOlympic Elite |
| Composite decking such as Trex, TimberTech or Azek | Composite does not take stain. Follow the manufacturer’s care instructions, or use a composite-specific sealer. |
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Test the Colors on Your Own Boards
Brush each color onto a scrap of your own decking, let it dry, and look at it in the sun before you buy a gallon. The sample kit costs less than the stain you would waste getting it wrong.
Order the sample color kit