Can You Tint Lacquer for Furniture Finishing?

For centuries, lacquer has been used as a finishing product for furniture crafted with wood. It’s easy to apply and, under normal conditions, offers long-lasting durability while enhancing the natural beauty and shine of wood.

Adding a dye stain, opaque colorants, and pigments to lacquer is one secret technique by which professional painters and finishers make ordinary wood look extraordinary. It offers depth and rich color to the wood finish you are working on while letting the wood grains still be visible.

However, to intensify the wood furniture by tinting clear lacquer, it helps to understand the types of lacquer and the colorants you should use for your specific project.

Why Should Lacquer Be Tinted?

Lacquer is a finish composed of resins (such as nitrocellulose, acrylic, or polyurethane), solvents (like toluene and acetone), plasticizers, diluents, and various additives. The resins form the primary film, while the solvents keep the mixture in liquid form for application.

But because lacquer itself is so durable for indoor furniture, you might ask, “Why bother adding pigments, tints, and dyes to clear lacquer?”

The short answer is simply because you can – with a wide variety of colorants and dyes available in the market.

While it is true that staining is more popular for adding color to wood, lacquer can do the job quite well on its own. For many people who want to change the color of their furniture, adding a coat of tinted lacquer over the stain is preferable.

Tinting the Lacquer for Furniture Finishing

Tinting lacquer for furniture finishing offers a fantastic opportunity to personalize your furniture and enhance the ambiance of your home. Follow this step-by-step guide to achieve the ideal shade.

1. Start by selecting the appropriate lacquer for your project. For a nice glossy finish, nitrocellulose lacquer is a superb option. It’s simple to apply and provides your furniture with a durable and appealing finish.
2. Sand the surface with fine-grit sandpaper and then wipe away any dust and debris with a damp cloth. Once the surface is clean and dry, you can proceed with tinting the lacquer.
3. To achieve the desired hue, you can use either a tinting base or a tinting paste. For a tinting base, mix it with a small amount of lacquer in a container. If you opt for a tinting paste, blend it with a small amount of lacquer until you achieve a creamy texture.
4. Brush a thin, even layer of the tinted lacquer onto the furniture’s surface. Let it dry thoroughly and then apply a second and third coat to attain a glossy finish.
5. Once the last coat of lacquer has dried add the finishing touches and buff the surface lightly with a soft cloth for extra shine. If required consider applying a protective sealant to safeguard the color from fading over time.

Transparent vs. Opaque Lacquer: What’s Better?

When choosing the right lacquer for the job, the most important question is whether to choose a clear form of the product or one that is opaque.

Well, this will come down to whether you want to see through the lacquer and present the natural beauty of the wood. Or, if you want an opaque effect that provides its own beauty.

For many people, a combination of transparent and opaque is the answer but let’s take a bit deeper dive into both of these types.

Transparent:

This lacquer provides color and depth to the wood while still being clear enough to see what is underneath. The dyes used in transparent lacquer will often include colonial maple, brown mahogany, and brown walnut just to name a few.

If you want to bring out the wood grain, then transparent lacquer is the right choice. In addition to the color, you can control the amount of stain that is used.

Opaque:

Most opaque colorants are rather generic in nature, usually revolving around raw sienna, burned umber, and the like. However, using these colorants is less popular compared to transparent simply because most people want to see the wood grain of their furniture.

Colorants used in opaque lacquer also do not have the richness of color found in transparent lacquer. Yet they do offer their own advantages like…

• Consistent and uniform coverage
• Effectively hiding imperfections, blemishes, or variations in the wood
• Ability to match or complement specific decor styles or color schemes because of a wide range of solid colors

If you wish to combine opaque and transparent lacquer you can either use a considerable amount of opaque colorants to create a solid color that does not show the wood grain underneath. Or, only a small amount to add a unique color that is otherwise not present in transparent lacquer.

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What Dyes and Colorants Can I Use in the Lacquer?

You have many excellent choices of products that can be mixed with lacquer, but with so many options on the market, finding the right one for your needs can be challenging.

This is particularly true for popular brands of dyes and colorants, often purchased by other companies and rebranded, making them more difficult to locate.

Mohawk is a popular brand that provides NGR dye stains often used to shift the color of wood furniture. It’s important to note that Mohawk was acquired by RPM, which also owns the reputable Behlen product line. Although Behlen products are generally more affordable, Mohawk is more frequently preferred by professionals.

Trans Tints is another well-known brand that offers a concentrated product perfect for tinting lacquer. The concentration is such that you only need a little to make it work. Only a few drops will tint the lacquer to the desired color, and it will last for a long time.

Color shifting is an alternative method for incorporating dyes into lacquer. This technique is useful when refinishing furniture, as it allows you to modify the intensity of an existing color. If a color is too intense—such as being too brown, too red, or too saturated—you can adjust it by adding another color.

Such processes can be used if the lacquer or stain originally used too much color that is no longer wanted. This method also lets you change the tone of the color, shifting it to achieve the desired effect.

For example, a table and chair that have been refinished may include a color change to match the new home décor. The process of refinishing does not require the current finish to be stripped away, it simply needs its color shifted to something new and different.

The Bottom Line

Lacquer is available in a variety of different colors and sheens like semi-gloss, gloss, or high gloss.

Adding colorants to lacquer (no matter whether it’s clear, white, black, gray, or any other) can create a beautiful opaque lacquer-type paint that can help make your wood furniture look shiny and more appealing.

You can also tint lacquer to turn it into a transparent toner that can be applied much like a varnish to get a long-lasting finish. The good thing is it does not get oxidized much like standard paint. Just make sure to use the right techniques and tools to get the job done that can last for longer without fading.