If you want a contract and your cabinets are medium stained, why not leave the floors unstained and just finish them with poly or whatever you'll be using? I don't have pix, but our oak floors are unstained and we love them.

I agree, you may not have to stain at all. Try a couple coats of polyurethane on that test piece and see how you like that.

Will you have a door (for a sample) or some of the cherry cabs installed when the stain is applied to the floor?

From my experience, the flooring guy will apply samples for you directly on the floor and will custom mix any color you're trying to accomplish.
We have clear poly on our white oak and I love the light and dark of the different grains. That's the advantage of letting the flooring guy apply sample stains on the floor vs you putting it on a sample board.......You get to see the effect of the stain on the different grains.

For ideas, I'd say to go walk thru some model homes in your area, or ask the builder for a list of finished homes so you can see different colors of stain with wood cabinets.
Or, bring home samples of stained flooring from showrooms and when you find a color you like show that to the flooring guy and he can match the stain.

I'd be wary of selecting a color from a photo since other factors, such as other woods, granite, tile, furnishings, and the amount of natural light will all play a part in how a certain stain will look in your home.
Why are you looking at only minwax stains? The flooring guy can mix anything you want.

Annz basically said everything I was going to say. Hopefully your cabinets will be in and the flooring guy can try a few different stains for you so you can see whether there is a contrast AND how that stain changes from board to board.

I just thought of something else: are your cherry cabinets going to darken?

I would suggest if you are going to use a stain pick a light one. Anything dark will show every crumb. VERY high maintenance. FWIW

Here's ours stained last year with Minwax's "English Chesnut". We have red oak floors, stained, with a water-based satin poly over them. We got tired of the natural light oak look and wanted something a little different. The floor guys tried 7 samples that we selected on our floor for us. They sanded first, then did sample areas of about 2x3 feet of each one so we could see them all together and comnpare. We then chose our favorite one (DH and I both picked the same one hands down), then sanded out the ones we didn't want. We went with a water-based poly for a few reasons; water-based poly doesn't "amber" over time, the drying time is much shorter, allowing the process to be completed over 2 days rather than 4, and the odor/fumes aren't overpowering to humans or animals. They put down 3 coats of poly, with the first coat being thinned out.
{{!gwi}}

mrsmarv,

Just wanted to tell you that your floors are beautiful. Our neighbor has that color and I really wanted something like that for our house, but when I brought a piece of our stained cabinetry to my neighbor's house to see how it would look with the floor stain, it clashed horribly. I'm very envious!

Thanks, meg ;o) The majority of the woodwork in our house is in the same color family. Our kitchen cabinets are a cider-stained maple, and our favorite furniture pieces are also in the reddish toned family.

Pennylaney ~ Take your time with your color choice. Even if it means trying a number of different stain samples on your floors like we did and keeping them there for a few days before making your decision. Don't let anyone rush you because it's not something you can change on a whim, like paint LOL.

I have white oak unstained floors. They are a golden, toasty color. My cabinets are a medium stained cherry, and they look great together. Are you getting white or red oak? They are very different. Also, what grade are you getting (rift and quarter, clear, select, rustic...)?

I would do much of a stain, if any. We have a white cat and the fur is pretty much invisible on the natural white oak. If the floors were darker (I saw some very dark floors in a magazine article about Ralph Lauren's house I loved) I know we would see very little thing on them.

Thanks for the info and advice so far. I understand about taking our time; it seems like every decision has been rushed!!! I'm definitely going to ask the floor guy to put stain on bigger samples, so we can get a better look.

Sue, I will have red oak select floors. I would definitely like a golden toasty color, but will have to add stain to get that, I think, rather than leaving them unstained. We are leaning towards "golden oak" or "puritan pine" at this point.

mrsmarv and kats, your floors are beautiful, and the pictures are actually very helpful.

Would it be crazy to go with a light golden tone on my floors, and then have my oak stairs and bannister (with white painted risers and railings) stained darker? I love dark wood on bannisters and stairs, but think the mix might be a bit much.

Keep the pictures coming.

Thanks,
PennyLaney

I've included pics of our flooring (red oak) and stair treads (also red oak). DH installed both, but the treads were unfinished when we got them, flooring was prefinished. Once the flooring was in, I took a piece of it into a local paint store who was able to get the stain formula from the manufacturer so we could match the stairs and railing. Got home, applied the manufacturer's formula on one of the oak balusters, it was not even close - looked like dark mud.

So I went and got some Minwax samples. The one that came out to an exact match to the floor was Golden Pecan. So that's the stain we used on the stairs and railing. (Took these right after floor intall to show flooring, none of the furniture was where it belonged ;)

Oak stairs we stained in Golden Pecan:

Different view of floor with Golden Pecan on railing.

Well, we'll probably be mixing our wood stains as the color I love for our kitchen isn't really a good color for the rest of the house.

As the stairs are a separate structure I think it would be fine.

One thing to remember, the lighter the stain color the less you will notice scratches or dents....key if you have pets or children. The darker colors are beautiful, but they show any blemish that happens to the floor. The lighter colors are more forgiving.

I have red oak natural floors and I wish we had done a light stain. You can keep the light look but a stain will even out the grain and give the floors a more uniform appearance.

I love the pictures of all the hardwood floors and all the variations and stains. I love the look of the miniwax stained floors. I wish I could give my input but I am just learning about this aspect of decorating. One day I want hardwood floors in my home office and then in the rest of my home.

Love dark floors but when and if we get wood it will be light...dark is just not feasible with our family -- pets, grandbabies, grown kids or heck, even us!

Susan ~

Not sure how 'light' people are thinking, but light hw flooring is more contemporary. So think about your style also.

Books and mags are another great source of examples. I would think you could get an idea of how much contrast, how light/dark, and what tones you prefer from browsing pics with Cherry wood or cabs. Even some of the kitchen or furniture sites selling Cherry cabs or furniture.

Those floors are gorgeious, MrsMarv!

Just saw that typo fly by!! 'gorgeous' (I do know how to proof and spell : )

Wow, thanks!

Moonshadow, the pictures of your floors and stairs have convinced DH that he likes Golden Pecan (yes, we are easily swayed!). We have decided that we want the grain evened out a bit and the Puritan Pine does have a nice color, but the grain stands out more than we like.

I agree about getting lighter floors, although I love the look of that English Chestnut. We have two pugs (shedders--- one black and one fawn) and two teenagers. Teenagers seem to be harder on things than little ones ;)

Honestly, I think I'd be happy with anything that didn't look TOO brown or gray. I lean towards warmer colors.

This is SO tough.

Thanks,
PennyLaney

I vote for a medium,my son did his natural I didnt care for them.He didnt either he redid them,dark shows dirt alot.I had both.

bumping

Hoping to get some more responses! I have red oak floors going in and can't decide on a stain either!!!

I was leaning towards special walnut but I am now afraid it may be too dark. I love newhomebuilder's floors and they are puritan pine. help! I want a medium brown - no red or orange undertones. any suggestions?

Bumping up this thread since I am getting cold feet in doing the Brazilian Cherry Floors due to not much natural light in my townhouse so now I am wondering if I should do a maple or oak or quartersawn oak stained or Amendoim engineered hardwood floor. I know I should not be thinking of this until after my busy season but my neighbor is doing her floors in a Butterscotch Oak and the light color looks nice after all but the Bruce Glen Cove Plank she is using has an eased edge so the wood has those tiny bevels that collect dirt. I was hoping to have a micro-bevel edge.

I have very old refinished honey oak woodwork, which has changed to amber over time. I am having installed new hardwood flooring. I am laboring of which color to choose. Does anybody have some suggestions?