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Direct Colors Made in the USA since 1997, Direct Colors manufactures the largest selection of premium concrete products, supplies, & how to guides.

We've helped over one million DIYers, contractors, & artisans create unique designs that stand the test of time. From concrete sealer to stain & overlay, we've got your concrete surface covered! Our mission is to take the stress out of decorative concrete and help bring your vision to life.

10/13/2026

If you want an even black on concrete, water based stain is the route. 🖤

Acid stain reacts chemically with the minerals in your particular slab, which is why the color varies naturally across the surface and why no two acid stained floors come out the same. For a great many projects that variation is the whole point, and it is what makes stained concrete read like natural stone.

With ColorWave the color stays consistent and predictable across the slab. That also means you can plan around it, which matters when black has to work with cabinetry, fixtures or a wall color already decided.

The protection stack is doing real work here as well. ColorWave has to be sealed, because it is water based and the color carries no protection of its own. AcquaSeal locks it in. ProWax then goes over the top as a sacrificial layer, so traffic and grit wear down the wax rather than the sealer underneath it. Wax is inexpensive to recoat. Stripping and resealing a whole floor is not.

That matters more on black than on anything else, because black shows scuffs and wear faster than lighter colors do.

Even black, or variated? Tell us below 👇

📖 See the gallery: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/black-concrete-stain-gallery

DecoGel used to create a DIY concrete Halloween tombstone with an etched portrait and lettering. 🎃🪦This is one of the mo...
10/13/2026

DecoGel used to create a DIY concrete Halloween tombstone with an etched portrait and lettering. 🎃🪦

This is one of the more creative DecoGel projects we have seen. Rather than using it on a floor or patio, the gel was applied to a concrete slab to etch the portrait detail and the name lettering directly into the surface, producing the kind of weathered, aged look that store bought foam decorations spend a lot of money trying to imitate and never quite achieve.

The best part is that it is permanent. This tombstone does not need to be stored carefully, does not degrade in the rain and does not need replacing after a few seasons in the garage. It gets pulled out every October, placed in the yard and looks even more convincing every year it ages.

If you have been looking for a Halloween project that is genuinely different from what everyone else on the block is doing, this is it. 💪

See the full easy DIY Halloween tombstone tutorial: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/easy-diy-halloween-tombstone

What is your Halloween decorating energy? Tell us in the comments! 👇

EverStain Acid Stain in Azure Blue, Desert Amber and Shifting Sand on a bedroom concrete floor. 💙🤎✨Bedrooms are the room...
10/10/2026

EverStain Acid Stain in Azure Blue, Desert Amber and Shifting Sand on a bedroom concrete floor. 💙🤎✨

Bedrooms are the rooms people live in most and design least. The floor usually gets carpet or whatever was already there, and the result is a space that functions perfectly well without ever feeling considered.

This bedroom took a different approach entirely. Azure Blue brings a cool, unexpected depth that keeps the room from feeling heavy. Desert Amber adds golden warmth that makes the space feel intimate rather than cold. Shifting Sand sits between them as the soft neutral that lets both colors breathe and interact naturally across the surface.

Because EverStain Acid Stain reacts chemically with the concrete rather than coating it, the floor shifts with the natural light throughout the day. Morning reads differently than afternoon, and golden hour makes the whole room feel like something out of a design magazine. It is the kind of detail you notice every single morning and never get tired of. 💪

Learn everything you need to know about acid stained concrete floors: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/acid-stained-concrete-floors

What is the first thing you notice walking into a bedroom? Tell us in the comments! 👇

10/09/2026

Portico paver stain in Crimson, on a walkway. 🔴

A walkway is not a patio, and that distinction matters more than people expect when choosing a color.

A patio is a destination. People arrive, sit down, and more or less stop looking at the ground beneath them. The surface sets a mood and then recedes. A walkway works entirely differently. It is seen in motion, usually from a distance, and very often from the street before anyone has looked at anything else on the property. It is the first thing a visitor registers and the last thing they walk across on their way out.

All of that argues for a color with real presence. A pale or neutral walkway tends to disappear into the surrounding landscape and does no work at all, which is a wasted opportunity on the one surface guaranteed to be seen. Crimson is a deep saturated red that reads clearly from the kerb and gives the approach to a house a defined line rather than a vague path through the garden.

Crimson is also worth singling out from the other reds. It is a true deep red rather than a brick or terracotta tone, which means it is not trying to imitate another material. On a walkway especially, that reads as a deliberate design choice rather than concrete pretending to be something else.

What color is your walkway? Tell us below 👇

📖 See the gallery: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/crimson-red-concrete-stain-gallery

EverStain Acid Stain in Coffee Brown, Malayan Buff and Seagrass applied for a marbled effect on a residential concrete f...
10/09/2026

EverStain Acid Stain in Coffee Brown, Malayan Buff and Seagrass applied for a marbled effect on a residential concrete floor. 🤎🌿✨

The marbled technique is where acid stain stops being a finish and starts being an art form. Rather than applying each color in distinct sections, the stains are layered and blended while still active on the surface, allowing them to migrate into one another and create soft, organic veining that mimics the way mineral deposits form inside natural stone over thousands of years.

Coffee Brown provides the deep, rich base tone that anchors the whole composition. Malayan Buff carries the warm, golden mid tones that give the veining its light and movement. Seagrass introduces an unexpected cool green that keeps the palette from reading as flat or monochromatic and adds genuine complexity to the finish.

Because EverStain Acid Stain chemically reacts with the minerals in the concrete rather than coating it, the result is permanently embedded in the slab. No peeling, no chipping, no refinishing, and a floor that is genuinely impossible to replicate twice. 💪

Learn how to achieve the marbled granite look with acid stain: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/marbled-granite-look-acid-stain

Would you choose marbled concrete over natural stone? Tell us in the comments! 👇

10/08/2026

One coat of Antiquing not giving you enough contrast? Go back with a second light coat.

The important word in that sentence is light, and it is the part people get wrong.

A second coat is not about covering more ground. It is about putting color where the contrast actually comes from. Spray in slow, even passes and focus on the recessed areas and the joints, because those are the low points where Antiquing settles. Deepening them is what makes a stamped pattern read as separate pieces of stone rather than as one continuous textured slab.

What you want to avoid is a heavy second coat laid evenly across the whole surface. That simply raises the overall color and flattens the difference between the high points and the low points, which is the exact opposite of the goal. All the contrast lives in the gap between joint and face, so widening that gap is the entire job. A second coat applied everywhere closes it instead.

This is Antiquing Stamped Concrete Stain in Maple, a warm mid brown that defines the pattern clearly without going so dark that the pattern disappears into itself.

One thing to factor in before deciding you need a second coat at all: your sealer will deepen the color as well.

How many coats did your project take? Tell us below 👇

📖 Read the guide: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/how-to-apply-outdoor-concrete-stain

You do not need a stamp to make concrete look like wood. Tape does most of the work.Mask plank shapes onto a bare slab, ...
10/08/2026

You do not need a stamp to make concrete look like wood. Tape does most of the work.

Mask plank shapes onto a bare slab, stain between the tape, pull it, and the tape lines become your plank gaps. That is the cheapest route to a wood floor and it works beautifully on interior floors and patios. Our new guide covers it along with four other methods, from that weekend tape stencil up to a full contractor pour with a wood-plank stamp.

The part that makes or breaks the illusion is color. Real wood is never one flat tone, so you layer, lightest first, always working along the plank direction. In EverStain acid stain, Malayan Buff as a light base with Cola and Coffee Brown covers most oak to walnut tones. In Antiquing stain, Driftwood, Cafe Royale and Maple read as wood instantly, and Charcoal builds the grain.

One rule to keep straight if you combine products. Acid stain reacts into the concrete and survives the neutralizing rinse, but Antiquing stain and Vibrance dye sit on the surface, so applied too early they wash straight off. Acid stain first, then neutralize, clean, dry completely, then add your grain, then seal.

Also inside: restoring faded wood-plank stamped patios, a customer who colored 335 square feet board by board over four weekends, and wood-grain concrete countertops.

Read the full guide: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/how-to-stain-concrete-floors-like-wood

10/07/2026

Milano Red and Pumpkin, on the same patio. 🔴🟠

On paper that sounds alarming. Red and orange together is the kind of pairing people avoid instinctively. In practice it works, and the reason is worth understanding.

These two colors sit close enough together on the wheel that they blend rather than compete. Portico is transparent, which means every place two colors overlap you get a mix you did not explicitly choose, and on a patio there are a great many places where they overlap. Colors from opposite ends of the wheel turn muddy in those overlaps. Colors this close to each other land somewhere between red and orange, which is terracotta, and terracotta is a color that exists all over the natural world. The overlaps are not a risk here, they are doing the work.

Milano Red is the anchor of the pairing, a deep warm red rather than a bright one, which keeps the whole thing grounded. Pumpkin lifts it, adding brighter orange notes that stop the patio settling into a single heavy tone.

Portico is solvent-based, and that is why these colors read as saturated as they do. A solvent base penetrates further and pulls more color out of the surface than a water-based product does. That matters most with warm tones, which tend to look washed out if they are not fully developed.

Too hot, or exactly right? Tell us below 👇

📖 See the gallery: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/red-concrete-stain-gallery

✨ Poll Time: Darker Pattern vs. Lighter Pattern – Which Wood-Look Wins Your Vote? ✨🌑 Darker Pattern – Rich, rustic, and ...
10/07/2026

✨ Poll Time: Darker Pattern vs. Lighter Pattern – Which Wood-Look Wins Your Vote? ✨

🌑 Darker Pattern – Rich, rustic, and full of contrast. Deep brown tones and bold grain definition give this wood-stamped concrete floor a dramatic, aged character that feels warm and unmistakably upscale.

🪵 Lighter Pattern – Bright, natural, and inviting. Warm caramel tones and softer grain detail bring an airy, fresh take on the wood look that keeps spaces feeling open and effortlessly stylish.

Both are stamped concrete — zero real wood required. Which finish would you put in your home?

👉 Learn how to stain concrete floors like wood: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/how-to-stain-concrete-floors-like-wood

Antiquing Stain in Black and Charcoal applied to make stamped concrete look like real wood planks. 🖤🩶✨This is a techniqu...
10/06/2026

Antiquing Stain in Black and Charcoal applied to make stamped concrete look like real wood planks. 🖤🩶✨

This is a technique project more than a product one. The stamped concrete underneath started as a plain, light stone pattern with no wood characteristics at all. What turned it into convincing hardwood was the way Antiquing Stain in Black and Charcoal was worked into the surface, applied in long directional passes that follow the length of each section and build up the kind of grain lines, knots and tonal variation that real wood planks develop naturally.

The darker Black settles into the lower areas and joint lines while the Charcoal carries the mid tones across the surface, creating depth and movement that reads as wood grain rather than stained stone. From across the yard nobody questions it. Up close most people still do not. All the warmth and character of a hardwood deck with none of the warping, rotting, splintering or annual refinishing. 💪

Learn how to stain concrete floors to look like wood: https://directcolors.com/blogs/dcu/how-to-stain-concrete-floors-like-wood

Would you have guessed this patio was concrete? Tell us in the comments! 👇

Address

430 E 10th Street
Shawnee, OK
74801

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