Do you have medium or dark brown hardwood? Questions...

16 years ago

We just made a huge decision to put hardwood in our kitchen and refinish all our hardwood floors on our main floor (most of it is hardwood) and stain it all to match. Right now we have a golden-coloured oak...not sure if it's white oak or red oak. We never loved the colour and plan to stain it a medium brown.

For those of you with medium (or medium to dark) hardwood in your kitchen, do you have trouble keeping it clean? I hear a lot of comments about dust showing on dark floors. Also, I am so used to have tiles in our kitchen and mopping it with the standard Mr. Clean. How often do you clean the hardwood in your kitchen, and what type of product do you use?

And if you have any pictures to share of your medium brown kitchen hardwood floors, I'd love to see them!

Here are our existing floors:

{{!gwi}}

Here is a stain colour that we like. As you can see, it's not a blackish or very dark brown but more of a medium brown.

{{!gwi}}

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Comments (9)

debsinthepink
16 years ago
redroze, I think the dark brown will look great with your stone choice. Your current floors are lovely, but don't go with the stone you've chosen. Let the dust bunnies live in peace.
raehelen
16 years ago
Hi,

We have Tigerwood floors which I would call medium, though there are 'stripes' of very dark within it. I use a microfibre mop everyday (dry)- I have a vacpan which I love, and happily threw away my broom and dustpan!

Crumbs and white bits show up, hence the daily mopping- but that takes about 2-3 minutes, and I still get a thrill out of kicking the vacpan open...

Spills not so much, so have to look carefully to find evidence that DH has spilt something and not wiped up! Use Bona hardwood spray and a microfibre cloth or if doing whole floor will use the mop.

Soon, will have the Tigerwood installed throughout the rest of the upstairs, and doubt if I will be mopping everywhere daily, so may find out if dust shows then!
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Sheeisback - don't get yourself set on a look from a photo. Oak has a lot of movement and just because a photo happens to show a section that looks really consistent to your eye that doesn't mean the rest of the floor looks like that. I got some excellent advice when I was in a tizzy trying to choose stain for the floors in our new house - everything but the bathrooms and laundry area are hardwood, no carpet anywhere and I was frantic because it's so much wood and HAS to be right! Didn't want natural, didn't want dark, didn't want yellow/orange/red.....sound familiar? Amy (amysrq in the old days) told me to think of the floor as a secondary player - you don't want people walking in and only noticing your floor, not your inviting decor or art or family photos or whatever it is you feature in your home. Sure they can walk in and say wow your floors look great but it should stop there unless you used some vivid aniline dye in a modern house which is totally not you! She said that anything that falls within what our brains tell us is a 'natural wood tone' will become backdrop to rugs, furniture etc - as it should. Of course some stains have more red or orange but even those will look appropriate and largely neutral unless they are VERY red or orange. It was great advice and calmed me a lot about the decision but I still panicked when the floors were done picking out boards that I didn't think right which is insane. I LOVE my floors now, there are boards that are noticeably lighter, a few boards get a distinct pink hue when the sun hits them and there are streaks of lighter or darker areas within the same board! What am I going to do rip them out? Of course not - embrace the wood for what it is and the beauty of a natural product. Yes, 7' is a nice length but see if you can get them to try for 7 to 10. You'll still have short boards which are needed at the ends and in closets if you're doing them but getting some of those longer boards mixed in with the 4', 5' 6' makes for a beautiful floor. We rejected the flooring brought to us initially because it wasn't what we ordered in length, the installer had a fit, said that's all that's out there and quit. We ended up ordering ours from a place we knew back home in Chicago and had it freighted to NC. For some reason the long boards seem to go north and the shorter more 'character' boards are popular here. We wanted neither. Shoot for select, long boards and you'll be happy. Can't wait to see it. And BTW - are you working with a specific stain mfg that the installer prefers?
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Nancy Adamopoulos
16 years ago
We have brazilian cherry flooring and I just dust mop/sweep it daily to pick up the crumbs and use a microfiber cloth w/ water to spot clean. When the floor needs a total cleaning I use a damp microfiber cloth using warm water w/a small amt of vinegar to clean the spots and I finish off w/ the Bonakemi HW floor cleaner. The floors clean up great. I also have several runners under the sink/DW, cooktop and main prep area to keep the floor clean.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bona HW Floor cleaner
california_dreamer
16 years ago
I have dark hardwood floors, 2 small kids, and a huge dog. Pretty much everything shows up on dark floors. I vacuum daily and use the Bona cleaner at least once a week. The dog makes sure there are no cheerios or cookie crumbs on the floor!
If you like the look, go for it. I do wish I had a vacpan though. That would be awesome.
alku05
16 years ago
We have the dark floor and two cats that lose so much hair, it's a wonder they're not bald. But our floors look fabulous because Norm (our roomba) vacuums them everyday for us while we're at work.

The extra maintnance is worth it for the warm cozy feel the dark wood gives the house.
redroze
Original Author
16 years ago
Debs - I'm curious what you mean about "don't go with the stone you've chosen. Let the dust bunnies live in peace." Could you explain more please? I don't want to misinterpret...

Thanks!
redroze
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow...most of you mop or vacuum everyday. I consider myself to be a neat freak and really tidy but I don't vacuum our hardwood everyday nor mop our kitchen tiles everyday.

Not that I couldn't fit in time to do so. It will be a change in how I clean though. Interesting...I think I can do it though. I'll get nice floors and a good workout! ;-)
redroze
Original Author
16 years ago
Debs - I reread your post and realized what you meant...that the granite I chose doesn't go with my current floors. You're right...those dust bunnies are around for sure (especially since I don't vacuum everyday) so the dark floors will just make them come out of hiding!! =)
lindybarts
16 years ago
Medium Brazilian Teak here. I have to sweep underneath my barstools nearly every day with my messy kiddos. But other than that, it stays pretty darn clean. I use a product recommended by my installer called Glitsa once/week with a damp towel to clean it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Glitsa Cleaner

Do you have medium or dark brown hardwood? Questions...

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Do you have medium or dark brown hardwood? Questions...

Comments (9)

debsinthepink

raehelen

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