Matching aged color of wood ceiling

[EricK]

I removed a track light from the ceiling in our "new" home in order to install a smaller light. The ceiling is tongue and groove unfinished wood. As you can see from the picture the part of the ceiling that was covered by the track light has not discolored like the rest of it. Any tips on getting the new exposed ceiling to match the rest?

 

[bud16415]

IMO it is really hard to do. Time will likely blend it in with the rest but would take years. Any kind of stain and such could make it worse and there is no place to experiment. If you did get a match it will likely age different than the rest.



I really wish I knew something that would work, maybe others will.

Sunlight, smoke etc all age wood very slowly.

 

[EricK]

IMO it is really hard to do. Time will likely blend it in with the rest but would take years. Any kind of stain and such could make it worse and there is no place to experiment. If you did get a match it will likely age different than the rest.



I really wish I knew something that would work, maybe others will.

Sunlight, smoke etc all age wood very slowly.

I completely agree. I have a lot of crazy ideas but thought I'd ask this group first. I'm up in the woods where it's pretty dusty. I thought I could mix a little of the dirt outside with some water and see if I could "stain" the area a little darker to match that way. Maybe I could burn something that creates a lot of smoke and hold it up too the area. I even thought of smoking a cigar and blowing it on the spot. Nobody needs to tell me these are awful ideas. When brainstorming you put everything on paper

 

[bud16415]

My first thought was also water, and I don't know why other than it seemed safe. If you could find some similar wood to play around on doing tests I could see adding a little something to the water and doing a really faint staining over and over until it matched. normal wood stains make a big change fast, but thinned down where a few drops in a cup of water might let you sneak up on it.

The area couldn't be in a worse spot visually.

 

[bud16415]

I was just doing some dishes and had an idea. If you find some scrap wood to test on maybe try some tea or coffee on it to darken it slightly. Like you said no stupid ideas when brain storming.

 

[EricK]

I was just doing some dishes and had an idea. If you find some scrap wood to test on maybe try some tea or coffee on it to darken it slightly. Like you said no stupid ideas when brain storming.

I was thinking the same thing! Unfortunately I don't have anything to test on. Unless I remove the new light and test on the small area there. worst case scenario is I put the old light back. Maybe paint the old light black and then put it back. But I really don't like it and I prefer my current situation over that light anyway. If you take a look at the picture again you'll notice there's a little bit of a soft halo around the sharp lines. That's because I tried to soften the lines with a magic eraser. They were originally black from the soot of the fireplace. It actually lightened up the area around it more than I expected. So I think it's just dirty from everyday living and more so because of the fireplace. I'm thinking I'll have a pretty good chance of darkening it up. So far I'm leaning towards getting the area a little wet and burning something dirty underneath it. It'll be a few weeks though. This is an out of town place in we're heading home tomorrow

 

[mabloodhound]

I would first try to feather out the sharp edges of the area. Maybe with fine sandpaper (lightly) or eraser. Then experiment on only part of the area with your 'formula'.

 

[Max Schaefer]

My science is limited but I think the color change is all about exposure to ultra violet or not. UV is available. See a good example by Googling
“Does UV darken wood?“ According to the site, as little as 48 hours can make a substantial difference.