Should oak floor stain match my stained woodwork? (Pics included)
Backstory: we bought a house built in 1939 that still has its original, unpainted woodwork. In a previous house, I had the woodwork painted and really regretted it - as with kids and toys, it constantly chipped and needed touched up.
So, in this house, I was hoping to keep the current baseboards unpainted (and definitely want to keep the doors unpainted). We are painting the new addition woodwork white and installing a white kitchen which runs between the original part of the house (stained woodwork) and new part of the house (painted woodwork).
The white oak floor has been extended/feathered in throughout the house and it's time for me to start thinking about a stain color for the woodwork. Since we're putting in a white kitchen (probably with a walnut counter on the island and carrara on the perimeter) I was hoping to go with a darker stain (like walnut), but wasn't sure how dark I can go, given the stained doors and woodwork. And whether the new shoe molding should match the stained floor or the baseboards (if they end up being different colors)...
Any thoughts, suggestions? The previous owners had a glossy polyurethane finish on the floors. I'm going with a matte finish.
Here's an idea of what the floors look like now. The floor guy said they probably don't have any stain on them, but the poly has yellowed over the years, giving them a somewhat yellow cast:
Here's a photo showing basement door, broom closet door, and woodwork that will remain unpainted:
Here's a bay window with stained trim and the baseboard below that will be part of the kitchen eating area (separated from the kitchen by an 8' arched opening) :
These pictures make the woodwork appear more red that it actually is, so here's a closeup of the fireplace mantle which represents the wood/stain color better:
WARNING - my next post will address decorating ideas and paint colors to use when you have stained baseboards. It's nearly impossible to find examples of rooms without white painted woodwork. I love the white painted woodwork, but just think it's such a pain if they don't start out painted white.
I really appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, pictures, encouragement, etc. Thanks.
Comments (13)
yayagal
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agonjannrosen
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Can one stain 'New' Red Oak to match 'Old' Red Oak?
Comments (16)"Can one stain 'New' Red Oak to match 'Old' Red Oak?" This is tuff to do. When we do a repair in an old Vancouver Home I often use some Shellac first and then top coat with Polyurethane. The shellac gives me the aged look or yellowing and the two seam to work well together. Some times we tint the top coat a little. Judgement calls since sunlight and time will yellow the top coat so making it look right now might make it look wrong in a year........See Moreneed help with stain on my oak floors!!
Comments (5)Two things. One, one species of wood cannot be successfully stained to look like another species of wood without LOTS of trial and error and a recipe of ingredients. And the different grains of wood cannot be changed to look like another. Two, that dark cherry finish is one of those recipes and is actually a sales tool, as the finish is not an actual cherry finish, but a finish that is more like a paint that disguises several different species of woods(birch/pine/alder/etc.) to look the same. Real cherry wood is much lighter when finished with normal finishes. Which means the best you will be able to do is to pick colors that you feel compliment the others. It will be almost impossible to match colors....See Morematching red oak stained with weathered oak
Comments (18)This is quite the coincidence as I’m in the exact same situation this weekend. I’m sandingmy red oak railings and staining them to match my recently weather oak stained red oak flooring. My railings too were that orangey colour. I too considered the darker contrasting route but for me felt matching the floor was worth it. I’m using mainly a hand electric sander which gets 90% of it off. The rest comes off well it’s those sponge sanders with 60grit. I too contemplated leaving the railings the old orangey colour but felt it would look obvious and incomplete that the extra step wasn’t taken. Plus i was concerned about maintaining consistency if I tried blending.Color is minwaz weathered oak. The installers used Duraseal which they said was the same but commercial name. As a side note, my wall and trim colour is BM simply White and using flat black metal spindles which further negated going with a darker rail. My suggestion is either match existing flooring or go with darker color. But don’t leave them orangey...See MoreWhat should I stain my oak flooring with?
Comments (33)I'm not seeing a lot of cohesion with the colours. The 'costal' vibe is light with blue and green. You have cabinets that have an overwhelmingly orange/brown cast to them. They will override every colour you want to use and force you to use every colour you do NOT want to use. The counter tops read 'orange marble'. That means 90% of the kitchen's viewable surfaces are orange. One of the things orange does NOT work with = gray. Of any sort. And it doesn't work well with COLD tones (which is the 'ash' in the cool-tone browns you need to use to tone down the pink). You are seeing plenty of pink because it is clashing SOOOO HEAVILY with the ORANGE domination of your kitchen. Your original floor colour was identical to your cabinets. It was the perfect match. Now that you want a new colour floor (I'm assuming you do NOT want to touch the cabinets nor the counters) so that you can get a beachy/coastal vibe you have found how debilitating the colour orange is to a blue/white/green breezy look. I think light is the way to go. I would ensure a little bit of orange is added into the floor colour. The orange itself (as you can see by the original stain colour) will reduce the pink. What I would suggest: Decide WHEN you are going to change the rest of the kitchen. Is it in the next 7 years? If so then I recommend you get the floor you WANT and 'live' with the nasty orange/gray clash until you can't stand it any more. Then you revamp your kitchen to look 'beachy coastal' to match the floors. If you are redoing the kitchen 10+ years, I suggest you EMBRACE the orange tones of the cabinets and go with a lighter floor that compliments the STRONG orange in your cabinets. In other words, if you can't beat'em (or won't beat'em) then your only option is to join'em....See More
justgotabme
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoI'm sorry, but right now I don't have a photo showing both floor and stained woodwork in one place but our wood work is darker than our oak floors. It's hard to tell from these pictures, but the wood trim matches the darkest shade of the grain in the floors.
justgotabme
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoCindyloo, I don't care for shoe molding either. It just gets banged up by the vacuum. Which is why we are not using it in our home.
This is a terrible picture taken with my old cell phone camera, but it shows our baseboard without shoe molding.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agojmc01
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agolibrary_girl
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agojustgotabme
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agocindyloo123
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agohosenemesis
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoJordanO
11 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
chucksmom
11 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
cindyloo123