We have planned to have large exposed beams supporting the back porch area, near the front entry and inside the house foyer. With the intense sun in SE New Mexico, it is important to protect the wood. Thus… choosing a stain color for the wood.

Luckily, we were able to get stain samples from Scott McCain of Mountain Home Building Products.  After a phone conversation with him, he sent us several samples of their products that will offer good UV protection to the wood. After receiving them, mixing well (apparently the pigment tends to settle in the bottoms of the jars) and brushing on some of the type of wood we have for the beams, pillars and corbels, you can see the results after the samples dried:

Although the stain from the Honey Brown ran into the Fawn a little bit, we were still able to see the clear distinction between the colors. We are leaning toward the Fawn color… Really, though, they are all really attractive colors, so we’d probably be happy with any of them.

Scott encouraged us to choose a stain with some pigment to better protect the wood. Since the beams will be largely under the porch and will have some protection, we could use the clear or the very light Santa Fe Sun, but we are thinking more color would be better in the long run.

What do you think?

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to say we are a bit partial towards working with Scott and Mountain Home Building Products, since he is family, but I would encourage anyone to give their products a try. Check out their site using the link in our blogroll.