Hey all! My first post here. I am putting up a small commercial craftsman-style building in Cortland NY. I am looking for some advice! We have some beautiful cypress trusses that we need to stain. They are for an entrance (outdoors) and a waiting room indoors. We also have a wood covered T&G ceiling and waynes coating 3' high on the walls. We need to choose a stain for this and are agonizing over the decision. They are all different types of wood (quartersawn oak, doug fir etc) but the outdoor cypress color is needed right away. We like the medium browns but wondered if there is a particular stain color that is associated with the craftsman movement. We see them in a few different stains but prefer the deep red-browns with iron hardware. I am also looking for the iron truss hardware and can't locate any. Any assistance/feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, I'm so glad I found this site.

Hello Lowella,
You are in luck for today I am going to recommend that you stain tham in Varethane Gun Stock stain which used to be labled Mission Oak.

It then will fall right in place with the Arts and Craft decor. Finish them with most any type of finish that will be of a clear coat finish to allow the mission color to show through.
Theres one thing that I have doubts about and that is the metal cleats on all of the joints of the factory built trusses. How do you intend to hide them from view? You could use some 1/4" strips of wood beveled on each end to blend in with the truss construction. By rights rafters and ceiling joists should have been used in the open areas that will be exposed, however if you have already bought the truses then so be it.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Hello Again Lowella,
I forgot to welcome you to the forums and we hope that you will continue coming back as you will find many things pertaining to the Arts and Crafts movement that will please your fancy.

Now in regard to the items you are hunting go to this following link.

www.vandyke.com

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Many thanks Ralph - it is great to be here!
I'll post some photos of the project eventually, we barely have the roof on right now.

The stain type is much appreciated, I will look into that. For one outdoor truss we are using sikkens chestnut brown as it is the closest we can come to the indoor stains (which isn't very close, but there's really not much to pick from in semi-transparents!)

The nice thing is, our builder has a mill and built these with glue and wooden pegs!! Which means no hardware visible However, we like the look of the black iron truss hardware we've seen, so if anyone knows where to get those as a decorative attachment, I'm all ears. Thanks again!