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Decorative Concrete

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Decorative Concrete

What Colors Are Available, and How Do I Pick the Right One?

With acid stains, your color choices will be limited. Most manufacturers offer only eight hues, mostly subtle earth tones, such as tans, browns, terra cottas, and soft blue-greens. Although the basic color palette is sparse, you can mix two or more stain colors before application to achieve a different shade or apply one color over another. You can also produce deeper color effects with a stain by applying two coats.

Water-based acrylic stains come in a much broader spectrum of hues. Most manufacturers offer dozens of standard colors, including black and white and even metallic tints. Here, too, the different colors can be mixed, like water-based paints, to broaden your options. (See Creating Excitement with Color and Water-Based Stain Gives Concrete Contractors a Full Palette.)

Color choice is often dictated by personal preference or by a desire to match or complement an existing color scheme, such as staining a concrete floor to mirror the same tones in a wood-paneled wall. But you don't have to restrain yourself to one color. The most impressive stained surfaces display multiple hues, sometimes separated by joints or divider strips or meticulously hand-applied to create detailed graphic compositions. Many homeowners today prefer light tan finishes, which make up about 60 percent of the market. Greens and browns are popular, too. A combination of stain and water, called black washes, can be used to reduce the contrast between colors.

Regardless of what stain colors you choose, be aware of the following caveats:

• With acid-based stains, wide color variations are normal. Surfaces will have a mottled, variegated appearance, and these variations will be emphasized when the final coat of sealer is applied.
• With some acid stain colors, what you see in liquid form may not be what you get once the stain has reacted with the concrete surface. The stain may not reveal its true color until it has been allowed to remain on the concrete for several hours or longer. Always apply the stain to a small test area before covering the entire surface.
• Color effects will generally be more intense on new concrete than on older or weathered concrete.

Most stain manufacturers will provide color charts or even actual samples of stained concrete to help you visualize the options. Contractors may also be able to provide samples of the various stain colors they work with.

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