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I am going through this decision process myself...Today I chose a medium stain for red oak called "Provencial". I think it will look similar to allison's photos. I didn't want expresso, since I have some furniture that color, but I also did not want a stain with a red or orange tone to it.

My current floors are natural red oak and we are refinishing them because they need it, but we are adding a stain because the natural oak has a decidedly orange cast to it. So I was trying to find a very neutral brown.

If you are still interested in one week, I'll post my new floors.

doonie - The centers of this floor diamond is MW Provincial. It's really not that dark. The rest of the floor is MW Puritan Pine. The border is Brazilian cherry wood. All on #2 red oak.

newhomebuilder,

Pretty floor!

I don't know what brand of stain my floor refinisher company is using, but it is definitely darker than your photo and the resulting wood color is much more neutral. Maybe the names are not equivelant?

I feel sure it has to be Minwax. I don't think different companies would use the same name. Provencial has been around for many years.

When the floor guy showed us a sample of the stain on a piece of wood, it was also darker looking, so we were disappointed in the end result. The inset of the diamond was suppose to be darker than the rest of the floor.

Stain lightens as it soaks in and dries. I also think that poly has something to do with it looking lighter. And, the amount of light in the room. Our upstairs bonus room (no windows) looks like the color we wanted. I'd be interested to know more about this tung oil that Allison used. In addition, the color on the majority of the floors was suppose to be darker. Make sure that more than 2 coats is put on for a darker finish.

Good luck!

newhomebuilder,

I have decided to go with Dark Walnut stain based on your input. (My GC was reluctant to go that dark, but I am going forth with that plan!) Thanks for helping out!

peytonroad, what about you? It's really hard to visualize the color over the entire wood floor.

EEK!!! Please don't change because of what I showed. Can you do some testing somewhere like a closet - with a window?

I had the workers put on provincial, dark walnut and jacobean-all Minwax. I definately would put the provencial as light! I am going with the Jacobean. I had them mix 1 to 1 of the DW and Jaco and still found them too light for my tastes. I have dark furniture and I still saw the yellow in the Jacobean so went with that. Today is the day!! Gulp!

Good luck! Can't wait to see the floors.

I sure hope you like to use your dust mop! I had dark wood in the bedrooms of my last home - Oh, my how the dust showed! Two weeks ago I repainted my black slate foyer floor a beautiful black. Looks lovely for about 15 minutes, till the dust settles again.

Dust shows so well on dark floors. Too bad it can't be used as an accent!

If you want a warm brown stain color without any yellow, orange or green tones, try Minwax English Chestnut. I sampled nearly every Minwax stain color before deciding on this one.

Two coats gives you a darker tone, but not quite as dark as the Walnut so it might help with the dust factor.

I've had light, medium and dark wood floors. I honestly cannot say that the dark shows dust more than the medium.