Also consider Jacobean on its own, or mixed with Neutral. The entire house has wood floors except the bathrooms and closets and one small hallway. we just installed red oak flooring want a medium brown no red or orange. But if you really want to make a statement and still have it blend in with your existing colors, I would start with 3 colors Dark Walnut, Provincial and Jacobean. We have white oak floors and looking to resand and finish them in a light modern grey. Complete nightmare! Also bleed back is when the stain moves to the top of the joints and that would make black lines not light ones. My husband doesnt want red and my kitchen cabinets are also white oak. Yes we do this often. For finish, if you want a clear finish that wont yellow, I would suggest a two component water-based finish. any of them would do for me. I want them very dark but not a shoe polish black. Apply Pergo finishing putty in the scratch or gouge, using a plastic putty knife. We have natural hickory cabinets and are thinking of doing a provincial stain or antique brown in the bona stain. Just like when you stress or stretch plastic. I have been told that the darker the stain, the less variance between the boards. Very disappointed in that. Thanks!! These are much trickier to apply evenly though and are not really DIY friendly. We dont want to add another coat of stain because then the floor will go too dark. The temperature has dropped here to the 40s at night, so I dont know how long it will take before going to the poly phase which Im doing the mid range shine not flat and not high gloss. Hi, I am refinishing my staircase which is red oak and want a warm brown color. Ask your local wood floor refinishing professional for their recommendations on what will work best for your floors under local conditions, theyll be happy to help lead you in the right direction Im sure. One of the best places to see different flooring styles and colors is in that stack of home decoration and renovation magazines you have piled up in a corner somewhere. 3) Be very daring and become a trend-setter with one of the newest and latest colors coming out for floors greys and whites. We are trying to get them to agree to resand and stain another color. My goal is it should make statement when buyer walks in the house. Hi Tadas Love your advice. Can you suggest a mixture of DuraSeal stains to get close to the look of these floors? Both are very nice colors. Yes they can be stained, but it can be tricky staining tropical wood because of the natural oils in them. No more 70s orange oak floors if you dont want to stain. Those floors from the 1950s and up to the 2000s turned that way because oil-based polyurethane was used. Hi Tadas, I really hope you can help us. we would like to create light cool natural look but not too white yellowish. What about chemically stripping tannins from wood for a Swedish-type look? Any suggestions? My home has original oak floors from 1885 that are very thin at this point. Heres a blog post I wrote on water popping to help you out on this subject: As far as choosing the stain color, we usually do that before the job has begun. Has it been sanded yet? Anyway, Im not sure how good these guys are and they tell me that dark stain will cover them. Maybe try Jacobean or even an Ebony and Natural blend. The dining room has red oak floor with golden oak stain and all the baseboards, window trim and casing are also stained with golden oak stain. More important though is the quality of the finish. Oak floors can look great left their natural color as you can see in this photo. Sounds like you have quite the set-up there! And lastly yes we do install for select customers. Im buying new cabinets and granite and want to go with dark cherry and a traditional look. P.S. Please see here: https://goo.gl/photos/gei9XTrG31PKHcRc7. Just a thought but worth considering along with the other options. You can always paint your walls a lighter color down the road if you need to :). I still want the coffee brown tone but want a lighter brighter look. None of which I am excited about but selected golden pecan becAuse it seems the safest. May be a little too dark for my place though. Tada, Thank you so much for taking the time to help. If you dont want to see the grain then going dark is your best bet. There are new finish systems available now, like Pallmann Pall-X Gold or Loba Invisible (used on the floor above), that dont turn oak flooring that old orangy-yellow color that people associate with their grandparents floors. There is some very good information about staining heart pine flooring in this pdf attachment (from the NWFA) here you should read: http://www.heartpine.com/resources/downloads/finishing.pdf. To fix it youll need to allow sufficient time for the stain in the gaps to dry and then start over. SCARED, they are beginning to stain Friday. One reason for going with a dark colored stain may be to hide blemishes or imperfections. I recently found your site and have been reading along. Seems like the good brands of stain do not carry it. Hi. And does the dark floor show dust alot ?? Im pretty sure it was Duraseal. Below are the Rubio Monocoat Pre-Color Easy colors, And here is there selection of pre-aging treatments like RMC Smoke and RMC Fumed, And to top it off, here is a small sample from the selection of Pallman Magic Oil colors. Will most people who want a plank floor want it naturally colored? We are getting our White oak floors refinished and really like the look of the natural white oak, maybe slightly darker but not grey/not brown/not Orange/not yellow. Thank you so much for all of your expertise you share on this blog. Allow the putty to dry to the touch until it shines like the flooring, and run your hand over the area. Any ideas? Otherwise something like Heritage Brown or Provincial (maybe a 50% mix with Natural) would be a good place to start. Do you happen to know if that color is in the same range/tone as Provincial and or Spice brown? Brazilian Cherry darkens as it ages and changes color quite substantially after a few month and years. My house is a mix of oaks and cherries and I dont want the floor to try to match anything. My goal is to create a warm cozy feel. Cabinets in kitchen are a darker tobacco stain. I say go for it. I would like a warm brown, something to cut the red. The wood most likely will be a different type and it will not take the stain the same as your floor. ~ thanks! I like the idea of the same coloured border in the living room to tie in the stairs, especially if it has a built in border already. We tend to blend most of our stain colors as well so most of our floors are custom colors. Fans will help if you have some handy too. My furniture is all Dark Cherry wood. I recently refinished my 50 yr old red oak floors with minwax english chestnut in a satin finish. He is now recommending that we change route and go with a medium brown colour to hide this problem. There are portions that are blue, called denim, throughout the wood. I am refinishing my floors next week. Thoughts! His hobbies include horses, motorcycles, road racing and sport fishing. It was thought to add gray to the color? thanks again, Lorena. Wondering what stain shade to go with. The company has told us that this is because there is oil in the pine and it cannot be helped. Yes they do look good. Not sure about the fir. We have all Golden Oak trim and solid doors throughout our home. Im mentioning it, just in case one of your website visitors happens to read this. If we can be of any further assistance please let us know. Sorry for the delay been a busy month here. Also do you think that nailing them every 10-12, and glueing the same distance (keeping the glue out of the joints) is enough to hold them down. Thank you for sharing! I dont want any reddish hues and the dark stains made it look grainy and sort of dirty. Our floor guy put samples on our floor and we originally wanted the ebony yet it didnt have the rich color I was looking for. We have maple flooring, or at least my husband thinks so.. I hope this new guy can get you sorted out Brian. I am not a fan of the golden oak color. AND, they can be mixed and/or layered for pretty much unlimited color choice. Plus whats in now could be out of style soon according to the design gurus. Good luck with your hardwood floor staining and refinishing project! We heard that we can just put tinted finish on it, without staining it. Street Shoe is a reputable brand of finish you you can rest assured knowing your floors will be fine. Hi, we have #2 red oak floors, that we will be refinishing. What are your suggestions? The rooms range from 1012 to 1416 and have small windows so I would like a light stain on the floor. We have been looking for a Minwax stain for a while now. He resanded and started over saying in 20 years he had never seen this was thinking it had something to do with my subfloor and the air underneath. I dont want it to be too red or brownjust a happy mediumor more brown. Thanks! Sorry you had a bad experience with the first guy you hired. I would like a dark expresso color and am wondering if I need to mix ebony with dark walnut? Have you looked at Duraseal Coffee Brown color? Problem is we want to get the floors stained before we move in and I am very confused as to what color to stain them. You can see more pictures of this floor half-way down the page here: https://napervillehardwood.com/photos_of_hardwood_floors.html. Suggestions? My kitchen cabinets are a yellowish/orange maple. Chestnut would definitely stay within the realms of the safe colors as your furniture has the redish hues. What type of wood floor wont clash with the wall paneling? Thanks for your quick reply, Tadas. These colors go with a lot of different styles of decorating so the new owner will be able to picture their furnishings in the space, which will be very important for selling. I like the stain color of the picture you have with the fire place. Nowhere do I see anyone talking about hickory tho. For our new house, we were thinking of putting Red Chestnut upstairs in all four bedrooms, the hallway, and on the stairs down to the main level. I dont sorry. Will the floor guy need to replace the wood planks in these areas? Hi Tadas- Great site! Unfortunately, it is much, much to light. What color stain do you recommend to complement the cabinets but not exaggerate the orange hues? Just had our red oak floors refinished and stained with dura seal coffee brown. Was thinking of going with 3 parts early american and 1 part english chestnut for a richer tone and depth. Have an older 1924 home with lots of stained trim and cabinets..darker color..likely mahagony or dark walnutlikely, not cherry, since not as reddish tint. It was moved off a farm and into town in the 1940s and a second floor was added on. My floor guy didnt do any samples for me. I like more of a brown but not too red or orange thank you. Im going to quote from a former reply above to save some time if thats ok. We have just installed red oak floors . Or if you think it looks good at it is. Thanks Tadas. Is it new Brazilian Cherry or has it had time to age? Can you give me advice as to matching or contrasting floors to maple cider cabinets? Walnut is so lovely on its own, we wanted something that stays true to it, maybe deepening it just a bit, while minimizing the sharp contrast of the white/yellow sapwood so the floor color is a little more consistent. But the main issue I am having, and maybe it isnt even a issue..is the doors and trim. As far as the staining/finishing aspect, I would just start out offering the product raw and un-finished. But in your picture it doesnt. Wondering if 25% Sedona red mixed with the Early American would give the brown a hint of red. They are visible in high and low humidity. However, need some contrast. we decided to refinish it. Thanks. I hired a flooring professional and he felt uneasy about going from dark to light. Could I leave all the floor, door and window trim the golden oak? You want something that will ground your room/s styling and not clash with your dcor. You have to decide on something you like that will look good with your furnishings long-term. Start with all of basics like royal mahogany, ebony, walnut and chestnut and go from there adding more or less and then different colors as you go. Plus the best way to care for hardwood floors is to regularly sweep and clean them when you cant see it you can get lazy with this :). I wish I had come across you earlier! Any suggestions getting a rich browm with a touch of red with Dura on a new pine floor. Also look at Jacobean for a mid-dark non-red stain color. Hope you can find a shade you like. These finishes accentuate the character of the wood, so if you have a lot of variation then it will be hard to mask that with a light color unfortunately. Thank you very much Tadas. I ended up hiring the company who had the lowest price, and I got what I paid for. We are getting our red oak refinished & I dont want shades of orange or red coming through so we picked half Duraseal Jacobean & half neutral what do you think as far as being a medium brown? Great article, very informative! And one more question do you think two coats of poly is enough for a rental with dark stained wood floors? Is it ok to mix dark cherry with natural oak floors? Warm Regards, Zo-An. If youre whitewashing it then almost any contrasting color should look good. I had some area sanded and tested some colors, special walnut, cherry, dark walnut and golden pecan. Then take some scrap wood or a section of the floor that will be covered (like under the fridge) and test them out. You definitely need to sand more wood off the floors in these cases though. Whatever your taste is, dark, lighter floors, red hues, grey or brown and all the shades in between, you will have no trouble finding a color that fits in perfect with your home. My question is that I just had red oak flooring put down in my master bedroom and upstairs hallway. and the last one was half antique brown and half classic grey, still the same tone. Enjoyed reading your blog. I had a hard time deciding on a colour, we wanted to go with Gris beige from Monocoat.