I just wanted to share my recipe for matching black brown pieces.
I was given a set of old INGOLF chairs in an antique brown finish, and bought a used table that had an ugly tile top (similar to
this ). I replaced the top with unfinished pine boards because I wanted something slightly larger. I really liked the HEMNES sofa table in black brown as a sideboard, so I was faced with the problem of how to match it all.
I wasn't about to sand six chairs and a table base down to bare wood to re-stain them, that would have taken a lot of time I did not have. I experimented with paints and came up with mixing 4 parts semi-gloss black Tremclad and one part brown with 5 parts (half the volume) satin clear Varathane (all oil based, of course). The first coat looked really awful, but the second coat gave it nice coverage. A touch up of some spots was necessary here and there. It gives a finish that does not look like opaque paint, more like a thick gel stain. The best thing is I did not do any sanding, just a good wipe down with TSP.
For the table top, I sanded it smooth and put wood conditioner (from Varathane) and applied Minwax Ebony stain four times until I got the desired tone. I let it dry for 24 hours and applied a water-based diamond finish from Varathane.
Here is the result of my formerly mis-matched dining room set:
