Hello! While driving the other day, I noticed that one of my neighbors was throwing out a cool looking chair. I grabbed it and after getting it home, I realized it was an older Ethan Allen Georgian Court corner chair. I plan to strip the chair and restore it to as close to the original look as possible. I’ve casually restored furniture before but I’ve never worked on a chair or tried to match a piece to the original. I am really just unsure as to what color to use to stain this. I’ve only ever used Minwax oil based stains and would prefer to use those as that’s what I’m familiar with but I’m open to using a gel stain. Any recommendations on what color might match the original best? I attached a picture of my chair as well as what a refinished one should look like. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!
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If you plan to strip it do that first before you think about the finish. There's no way to know what you're going to find under there until you're under there... For some solid wood furniture the naming reflects the color of the finish, not the species of the wood under it.