OUR AMISH FURNITURE FINISHES

Finishes of Our Traditional College Chairs

Our Amish Craftsmen build our Traditional College Chairs from Maple with solid cherry arms and crowns (headboards) and Amish Furniture Finishes, exclusively, and our Traditional Chairs are most often ordered in our elegant Black Lacquer finish.  However, these chairs may also be ordered in part or entirely in your choice of other popular stains.  These Traditional College Chairs include the following chairs:

• Affinity Traditional Captain’s Chair
• Affinity Traditional Captain’s Swivel Chair
• Affinity Traditional Deacon’s Bench
• Affinity Traditional Rocking Chair

When customers choose Arms, Crown, Arms & Crown, or an Entire Chair in any of these stains, we will consider the chair to be a custom chair.  We ask customers to be certain of their color choices.  Any changes to color after a chair has been completed will be either very expensive or impossible.  Although Alumni Chairs can make some changes, requests to change colors after delivery can only be satisfied at the expense of the customer, including labor, materials, shipping, and any other appropriate expenses.  Therefore, we strongly encourage customers to be certain of their color choices before ordering and discuss colors with us before ordering stained chairs and chair parts.

By purchasing pieces with Amish Furniture Finishes based on any of our 26 Ohio Certified Stains and other popular stains, purchasers can be assured that their chairs will match the colors of their other Amish Furniture and Amish Furniture that they would purchase in the future, regardless of the furniture builder or retail source.

Our most popular stain and our recommended stain for Arms and Crowns of our Traditional Chairs is Washington Cherry Stain or Ohio Certified Stain 107 (OCS 107).   As with many stains, OCS 107 will appear slightly lighter on maple wood.  Therefore, cherry components on a Traditional College Chair will appear slightly darker than the maple components.

OCS 107 (Washington) on Cherry

Although we provide the following samples, actual colors of stains can vary.   Stains vary from one mixture to another.  Also, individual pieces of wood can absorb and display stains differently.

We encourage you to perform Internet searches for the color samples corresponding to the stains illustrated below.   Viewing multiple samples can help you understand the potential colors of these stains.

OHIO CERTIFIED FINISHES

OF OUR CLASSIC CHAIRS AND OUR HERITAGE CHAIRS

We finish our Classic Chairs and Heritage Chairs using our Amish furniture finishing process built around Ohio Certified Stains (OCS). These stains are standardized to enable builders and finishers to create furniture that is compatible across the furniture and the finishing industries in Ohio and neighboring states, enabling a buyer to acquire furniture from multiple buyers, which have compatible and consistent finishes.  In addition, OCS stains are environmentally safe.  All samples shown below are Ohio Certified Stains.

Some chair styles are best expressed in specific combinations of woods and select college chair finishes.  Certain college and university logos and identities favor certain colors of wood, logos, finish, and fabric.   Although the Affinity Mission Chair is very attractive in Brown Maple with Asbury Stain (OCS 117, sample below), it is stunning with Mission Maple Stain (OCS 225) on Brown Maple, Harvest Stain (OCS 116) on Quarter-sawn White Oak, or Michael’s Stain (OCS 113) on Quarter-sawn White Oak.  Likewise, while the Affinity Laureate Chair is attractive in Brown Maple with Natural Stain (OCS-100) stain or Malaguana Stain (FC-N3176).  It is also beautiful in Cherry wood with Seely Stain (OCS-104), New Carrington Stain (FC-N3173), Mission Maple Stain (OCS 225), or Rich Tobacco Stain (OCS 228).

Whereas a majority of academic institutions favor black finishes similar to that of our Affinity Traditional Captain’s Chair and our Affinity Classic Alumni Chair in Black Lacquer, other universities may favor other finishes.  Black College Chair finishes are popular, but we offer many attractive Amish furniture finishes.

Our goal is to create chairs in the college chair finish and color of your choice with our Amish Furniture finishing process.  We are not confined to only the stains and colors listed below.  If you seek a stain that is a bit darker or a bit lighter, we can accommodate your request.  However, please understand that colors represented on your computer display are not exact and custom colors are not always exact.  We will do our best to meet your color objectives.

All of our alumni chairs are finished with a durable semi-gloss clear coat of lacquer.   Our Amish furniture finishing process on our Affinity Classic Alumni Chair yields a slightly higher level of sheen.  For more information about college chair finishes, phone Alumni Chairs at 866.748.2230.