Varathane Carbon Gray review

Carbon Gray Varathane · Premium Fast Dry

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Carbon Gray on pine, oak, maple and cabinets

How a stain looks depends as much on the wood species as the can: pine and maple are prone to blotching, oak's open grain amplifies whatever penetrates it, and cabinet doors have their own even-coverage requirements. Photographed swatches for Carbon Gray on each species are still being shot; the notes below are what to expect from this stain's formula.

Pine
Pine's grain runs soft and uneven in density, so Carbon Gray (a thin, deep-penetrating oil stain) is prone to blotching here unless the wood gets a pre-stain conditioner first.
Oak
Oak's large, open pores soak up an oil stain like Carbon Gray unevenly in a good way: it settles into the grain and makes the natural texture pop rather than looking flat.
Maple
Maple is dense and tight-grained with almost no texture to hide unevenness, so Carbon Gray blotches badly here without a conditioner or a test board first. This is the wood oil stains struggle with most.
Cabinets / exterior
On cabinet doors, an oil stain like Carbon Gray can lap-mark where one panel overlaps the next during application; wipe fast and work one door at a time to keep the color even.

Coats and drying

General guidance only: the label on your can sets the real times. The color on this page is an on-screen approximation of the published swatch, and screens vary, so confirm on a test board of your own wood.

deep charcoal-gray.

A deep charcoal-gray for a modern dark-furniture look with a gray rather than brown base.

Closest match in other brands

Ranked by Delta-E (perceptual color distance) between Carbon Gray and every stain from other brands on this site: nearest first.

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