I have a friend that has a 6000 sq ft house of the same flooring. I love it...especially the greenish looking boards and what you call patchwork is very appealing. So I guess it is in the eyes of the beholder.

Her finisher did a mediocre job...her stairs were a mess and the periimeter of the rooms also were different that the center. I think her DH who is in const. went back and corrected stuff.

After you have your furniture and rugs down you will see what a gorgeous floor it is. I wouldn't tint any of it but that is just me. I would get them to fix the obvious errors...DD's entry and the sanding marks.

There is a thread by lilsmokie on kitchens about her floors...you might want to read that. c

Bellajourney
I think your floors are beautiful.

I also think your floors look great. They have a natural finish where all the planks are not the same. We have similar floors and we picked it to be that way. I get an awful lot of unsolicited compliments on them. You will too.

hey I have pine floors, I did not like them after they were refinished thou some love the look, after u get furniture and area rugs alot of it gets covered....a couple months later I no longer care! at this point there is really nothing u can do (hehe I did consider putting a new floor in after they were done, that lasted a few hrs) after time u may like them .....I dont think they are all that bad...try not to make yourself crazy you'll be fine

From your pictures, the color of your floors look like mine. I have a 50's split and this is original to the house. We even matched the wood when we remodeled the kitchen.
Sorry that this was not your vison. I think you will get used to it after all your rugs and furniture are in place. The only alternative is to go darker, which you do not want to do. I might be wrong, but if you go darker, it is difficult to then go lighter.

I too think they are beautiful but I understand why you're experiencing what you're experiencing. We bought prefinished so I'll leave the fix of the finish for others with experience in that area to answer. However, what I would like to say is that I'm sure once you get paint on the walls and furniture in the room, the floors will tone down a bit. The colors you bring into the room can also help to tone down the orange as well.

Our floor has a lot of variation too so maybe that's what we have as well. It's beautiful and we get compliments on it all the time, it also wears well and hides dirt so nicely. Give it a chance, in the end, it could be the blessing you were really looking for.

I love my orangey oak floors and could not care at all if they are considered "dated". Like others have said, I bet you'll feel fine after you get used to them, esp. after the rooms are completed. Your floors look great!!! I would have any problems corrected, though, if possible.

1,I too think the floors are beautiful.
2. I will repeat some of the wisdom shared here because it needs to be repeated.
""After you have your furniture and rugs down you will see what a gorgeous floor it is. I wouldn't tint any of it but that is just me. I would get them to fix the obvious errors" and also the non uniformity(patchwork) is indeed a good thing.
relax, it's great. ((stop beating yourself up ))

Love your floors! My son is a contractor and put oak floors upstairs for me. When he put it in I noticed several boards with dark streaks through them-I asked him to take them out and he told me that is what makes the floors so beautiful because they are natural and not perfectly matched. Now I don't really see the variations and admire the beauty of the wood. I agree with everyone-once you put in your furniture, area rugs, etc. the look will soften and you will have beautiful rooms. Right now all you are looking at is floor, rather than your rooms.

I feel your pain but it will soon be over.
I also have #2 red oak floors, unstained, just polyed.
I too felt cheated when the floors were finished - no one told me they would be 15 different colors all (in my case) bright yellow!

But red oak ages fast and gracefully. My floors are close to 15 years old now, but within a year of being installed they darkened considerably and evened out some, not completely. THe areas with strong light have stayed about the original polyed color, because they are actually sun bleached.

Now they are a warm glowing golden-red with pale yellow and brown highlights. Would some people call them orange? I guess so, but heart pine, reclaimed or original is a top end flooring choice around here, so I think the red, busy floors are normal.

The other thing is that rugs, furniture and new paint will make a huge difference. You will only see patches of the floor in any one glance. Your eye will still be drawn to the darker strips with the stronger grain, but it will look more interesting and less jarring, because there will be only one or two strips in an open area, instead of your eye jumping from darker spot to darker spot on the bare floor - does that make sense?

I also, think your floors look great. I think the random look of the boards is a bonus.....it covers up a multitude of sins, IMHO. I wanted a little more color variation in my floor boards and didn't get it. I can see every crumb and every hair when the sun hits the floor at the right angle. I agree with everyone else. Naked floor with out rugs, furniture and wall color can be overwhelming but it's amazing how much better the room will look once all the furnishings are in place.

Another vote that they're beautiful as is. I read your post before I viewed the pictures and was expecting to see something disappointing, but the floors look fine. Everything everyone else said is true - furniture and rugs and paint will make a big difference. Also, you'll appreciate the variation, which is so much more forgiving than even tones, when you have children and pets. It will all look great and function well when you finish. The workers should repair the obvious errors.

We had our floors refinished a few years ago and I sympathize with your shock.

Remember, this is a huge change and your rooms are empty.

I think your new floors look gorgeous.

Let me ask... are you thinking of changing any of the wall colors? You could make some color choices that would balance and enhance the new color of the floor. Depends of course on your furnishings, too.

Give yourself some time to adjust.

I think your floors are gorgeous. Once your furniture and everything else is in, I think you are going to be very pleased. You are just looking at them too hard. LOL

I think they look wonderful! I also agree with others that your eye will get used to them especially with rugs and furniture. I would give yourself a year - if you still hate them in 12 months then you will be willing to move everything out and try again. But my bet is that they will have melllowed and grown on you by then.

I think all of the variation is beautiful, it is part of the naturalness of it all - too uniform and I think it all starts to look fake (but that's just me). Deep breath! :-)

I agree - gorgeous. I could definitely live with those floors. I think you'll get used to it - if you're not used to seeing all your floors covered like that, I think the effect seems to be amplified, but eventually you won't notice all the variations.

Sorry if I missed this in your post - are you planning to paint the walls? I think that with paint (even a subtle change, like to a cream) and some rugs, you will love your floors. Although they're not wide planks, which is my absolute favorite, they have a great, old look (yet in new condition.) They don't look "dated" to me. Sure, they're not the dark dark floors we often see in magazines now, but they're a classic hardwood look. That is quite similar to what I want for my house, and the variations only enhance it, in my opinion. I'd throw down some oriental rugs, or hooked rugs, or even sisal, leaving some of the floor exposed, of course. You will have quite a classy look.

The redness fades and your floors will yellow over time. In about two years, it will be less noticeable.

We installed oak flooring in a home years ago, and in my current home, the PO refinished the oak floors (bottom of the barrel grade). Both times I was disappointed in the pink cast of the floors. But eventually they turned color. I'm still in the home with the floors that were refinished 15 years ago -- the floors that I once hated have a lovely mellow, aged amber look now.

Be patient! I hope you have many happy years in your new home.

I love your floors. I predict medium tones will become the new big thing...because they are EVER-so-much more practical than dark or light tones. They don't show dust like dark floors...don't show dirt like light floors...plus they are in tune with the current MCM vibe.

Of course...I may be prejudiced. Current home is a 1966 ranch with the original red oak floors...

I think your floors look great. As pointed out by other posters, you're looking at unfurnished/bare rooms. When you put your furniture and accessories back into the rooms, along with whatever area rugs you have, or plan to purchase, that will go a long way toward softening and evening out the "tones" that you are unhappy with at the moment.

Well, you have plenty of opinions here already, but I just had to add that I, too, think they are beautiful. It is shocking when something doesn't look like what you had in mind, but I hope you will come to love them. One of my friends installed hickory floors at a huge premium above oak and they looked very similar to your. Great deal of variation in the pattern and colors. It's what she paid extra for.

bellajourney, I also find your floors beautiful and in time they will darken up a little bit and even look more beautiful. Once your furniture is down, I have a feeling you will enjoy your new floors. Please keep us updated.

I think your floors look great and I hope they grow on you. My suggestion is to play with the lighting. Different light bulbs give off different types of light. I recently bought some living room lamps and the shades gave off a red glow with a standard incandescent light bulb so I went to lowes and bought several different types of incandescent bulbs (daylight, softwhite, etc.)& tried them until i found ones that gave off light that I liked. The GE Reveal bulbs really improved the light from the shades.

Wow, thank you SO much, Everyone, for talking some sense into me! I am really touched by your kind and thoughtful replies, advice and compliments (I never expected to hear so many nice compliments about the floors! I was seriously expecting to read replies like, "I see what you mean, I'm afraid you'll have to resand and start over.") I promise that I WON'T tint the final coat of Poly (or resand!) and will take a deep breath and give the new floors a chance. (My DH is going to be so relieved. He Loves the floors, and was really upset that I didn't feel the same way about them.) Hopefully in time I will grow to love them too.

It's comforting to hear that I'm not the only one who experienced "newly finished floor shock," and that it is a temporary phenomenon! I see your point about the shock of such a different look (especially when it wasn't the picture that I had in my head) - and that it will be much less overwhelming when the rooms are finished with paint and furniture. Breathing easier now. :)

Changing the lighting is a great suggestion too (thanks lotusfla!). We spent a decent amount on our recessed lights and can't afford to change them right away, but if they keep on making the floors look too orange even after the rooms are done, we can try swapping them out with something else. It's nice to have a backup plan (that doesn't involve completely redoing the floors!).

We'll talk to the flooring guys about the sanding marks, etc. I'll take a look at them again. Maybe I was making a mountain out of a molehill with them too - let's hope so!

To answer mclarke and lizzie nh's question about changing the paint colors, right now the walls have 1 coat of tinted primer on them, in the colors that we were going for. (Although some of the primer colors seem off from my swatches - I'm hoping the final coat of paint fixes this, but - that would be another thread!) The colors that I chose are all pretty light/pastel. I'm not sure if that will help or hurt with toning down the floor...

We're using American Pride Paint, (Mythic's cheaper twin), matched (I hope) to Ben Moore colors. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on the colors and how they will work with the newly stained floors, and if you would swap any of them out for something else:

* Living Room/Den (aka the "great room," we removed the wall dividing them) - Woodmont Cream - it's a little more saturated than Linen White
* Dining Room - Hush on top (tan), Simply White on bottom
* Foyer and Halls - Antiquity (very light butter yellow)
* Kitchen - Fernwood Green (yellowy green - but the primer is WAY off...more of a blue green)
* Master BR - Whispering Spring (pale blue green - but DH thinks it is too nursery-ish, we may need to go darker)
* DS's Room - Feather Down on bottom (creamy, but not too yellow), Beacon Gray on top (light blue with a hint of purple - I LOVE it)
* Guest Room - Mascarpone - (very slight off white) - it may be too light...we'll see
* Office - Edgecomb Gray (griege, I think?) - I think this color has the most floor clashing potential.

Thank you all, again!! I won't worry about the floors anymore (at least not until the rooms are completely finished and furnished, and I've lived with it for a good while.) As for getting a good night's sleep tonight - the hurricane may prevent that, but thankfully the floors won't! THANK YOU!! (And stay safe to everyone in Irene's path!)

Whoops! I just noticed an error in my first post. The stain that we used is Bona DriFast Stain in "Golden Oak" (not "Red Oak"). The floors themselves are Red Oak. Sorry about that!

I was expecting a disaster when I read your words, but the pix look fine.
My experience is if you are using a yellow with oak floors like yours, you want a cooler, perky tone. The golds will accentuate the floor tone a little.
I think there is room to go a hair darker without going dark. I would still look into tinting the final coat just to work on the tone a little. I know when my hair comes out a little too orangey, it needs some drops that are purple looking in the next batch. In fact, I am at the point that I add the purple to the haircolor every time now. There may be a similar de-orange trick you can do. If you keep them as they are, they are quite fine, but you wanted something different. This would be the time.

Count me in with the ones who love the variation in color. The installation and sanding errors should of course be fixed by the flooring company, but doing anything else is risky.

Old fashioned oil based stains and polys give a richer amber result than the new water based products. You are limited in any "resolution" because of the products that you chose to use. The two types of products just have different results, and it's not fair to judge the new as "unfavorable" unless you are willing to use the oil based products to get the results you want.

If you wanted to tone down the orange a bit, a stain or topcoat with a greenish tint will do that. But, it should have been the first finish topcoat on top of the bare wood. Choosing a tinted top coat for the last wear layer is a no no. When that layer does wear, you immediately have noticeable traffic patterns that will require a resand in order to be able to fix.

.

I'll pile on and say I *love* the floors. *Want* the floors. In fact, thanks for all the details - if I ever redo my floors, I know exactly what to order. :-)

In addition, right now you're looking at empty rooms with a lot of floor. Just wait till you get furniture and rugs and curtains and stuff in there. It'll all balance out and then you'll realize how utterly gorgeous it is.

Hang in there. :-)

Your floors are WONDERFUL!! Wish I had them! Re-lax and take a deep breath. Put your feet up--your floors are gorgeous!! STOP WORRYING! (but then your mother told you the same thing...)

I think that the undertones of what paint and decor you use will be important for getting the look you want.

Any chance that your floor guy will mount a 2 x 2 foot sample board for you with 3-6 inch cut pieces of flooring and stain and finish it for you? That would be a handy thing to have when shopping.

This is overkill, but I had the same exact No. 2 oak floors that were original to the 1930s cottage I bought some years ago. We put on an addition and matched the flooring. I, too, was not thrilled with the new floors because although we didn't stain them (the originals weren't stained) they were much lighter and more orange / pink than the no. 2 oak that was installed in the 30s. But, what could we do? Fast forward 2 years...the new floor were almost the same tone / color as the original floors just from the passing of time and exposure to sunlight. After about three years there was very little difference and certainly nothing anyone but I would notice. My floors truly were beautiful and yours are too! Enjoy!

I can't blame you for not wanting to change the lights BUT can you change the bulbs? There's a variety out there that really change the color of a room. BTW, the floors are really great.

Another one who likes your new floors, but understands the shock of a big change like that. Last week I had part of a wall removed--a change that I'd been planning since I saw the house online when we were house-hunting THREE years ago.....I couldn't sleep that night,wondering if it was all a big mistake. (It wasn't). Enjoy your changes and the fun of re-creating your home :)

I agree with the others on the look of the wood floors, but I would definitely call the installers back and have them do something about the areas that are rough, unevenly finished and the repair the filler that is not done correctly.

I think your floors are gorgeous... I had the same reaction when we had our hickory floors installed because the sample floor in the office of the wood place was all light colored, and that's what I thought I was getting. When they put the floor in, the difference in color between the heartwood and the sapwood was shocking! We didn't even have the option of staining it darker because hickory doesn't take stain well, and our house is already dark. So, we just had to deal with it, and we get TONS of compliments on it. Pretty much every single person that comes to the house says how pretty it is, and it looks alot like yours.

Add me to the group, I like them a lot. I would be happy to have them in my house!

Love!!! I would certainly call about the areas that are rough and poorly filled or finished, but other than that, the floors are gorgeous and the color (color variations and all) is beautiful.

Eye of the beholder, because I think your floors are swoon worthy. We had character grade white oak put in and I was hoping for something like yours, but got something boring by comparison.

Caveat - I have not read all the responses above, so I may duplicate some advice.

As for issue #1, the flooring type, we're stuck with the #2 red oak and have to make the best of it somehow.
I really do think it's beautiful, but that means nothing if you don't care for it. Remember a few things. One - no matter how stark or horrible something is, your brain will acclimate to it. Over time you will probably stop seeing the wild nature of the wood. Two - rugs and furniture will greatly downplay the wood & wood variations.

Can, or should we have them fix the issues in #3 above (I don't know how they can without sanding and refinishing...), or do I learn to overlook the flaws?
I'm not a floor guy so I can't say for certain, but I have been told by 2 floor guys that puttied knotholes (I have them, but didn't want them filled - miscommuication) aren't permanent -- the filler/putty will eventually work its way out. How, with poly over it, I also don't know. That's just what I was told. I hope that's the case/ My putty is smooth, but I wanted the holes left unfilled.

And for issue #2, the stain color, is it just a case of having something new and needing to get used to it? (I'm hoping so.) Should we paint (walls have 1 coat of tinted primer at the moment), decorate, and then decide?
I would paint, decorate, and give it several months, at least. There are actually cognitive processes going on that will desynsitize you to the things you're hating. You will still see them, but you won't really register them unless you make an effort.

One possible thing we could do is add tint to the final coat of Poly (Polywhey by Vermont Natural Coatings) - but I'm not sure if that will help, or just make things worse. I'd like to tone down the red and orange tone, I'm not sure if that's possible. As for the color variation, I'm pretty sure we're stuck with it, unless we went with a Super dark stain, which we really can't do.
I have some maple trim pieces, and as I mentioned - white oak floors. These two woods take stain like night & day. The stain guy was having a really hard time getting the maple pieces anywhere near the same color as the oak. His solution was to add tint to the poly, which did help. There's still a lot of difference, but it's better.

Forgive me if this is above, but a little lightbulb 101...

Bulbs are color rated by the temperature of color, which is measured in degrees Kelvin (as opposed to celsius or fahrenhiet). The "color" of sunlight (or rather, degrees Kelvin of it) is 6500, or 6500K (K for Kelvin). So a "sunlight" (a.k.a. full spectrum) bulb is a bulb with a 6500 K color temperature. The more blue the light, the cooler the temperature. The warmer, the more orange. So why do you care?

Stay away from high Kelvin bulbs. :) Go with a "full spectrum/daylight" bulb, or even lower K. This will help wash the oranges & reds out of the things you see. Of course, it's also going to start stripping out "warmth"...

All good advice, however take it from me, I worried enough about my floors for the 2 of us. And you know what? Once we got the house furnished and the paint dried, they look fine.

I've had both types and pre-finished isn't all great either. In this huge remodel we bought walnut to replace the onsite finished oak floors and the flooring company nor the distributor told us to buy enough extra. Well the batch (dye lot?) we received had loads of sapwood and I rejected it -- That left us with too little to finish up the dining room and we were stuck. I had to buy another complete roomful PLUS extras and we ended up giving away boxes of unused wood. Luckily one of DH's employees was the happy recipient.
No one understood how upset I was. DH mollified me as did the grudging flooring company, (their labor, my materials) but this weekend after 4 or more months, I finally realized that the upset was really just stress.
The previous poster gives great advice-
Change the bulbs-- The paint in our kitchen was wonky until we went to HD and brought home 16 bulbs of 3 different types. We swapped out until the walls reflected the same color that I was aiming for.

Take a deep breath and trust me, you WILL be okay. Worst case? Throw rugs and possibly re-sand and finish in a different color.
I KNOW how hard it is to get past this, but truly, you will. Don't make yourself sick. I think it looks good, but it's your opinion that counts.
Good luck my friend.

They look wonderful~ enjoy your home and make sure you post after pix!

You ask if you should rethink some of your color choices... you might want to do just that.

Your floors are gorgeous, but the color is strong. The choices you originally made -- the buttery pastels -- might have appealed to you before, but they might not bring out the best in your new floor color.

Put your furniture back into the rooms, and live with the floor color for awhile.

Without knowing anything about your furniture or your rugs, the cooler color range might be a better choice.

Remember our mantra... wall color comes LAST... lol.

you are obsessing... there are far too many important things in the world to worry about and spend money on. If it's not perfect, adjust your choices make it work and move on. You'll love it in the end or you'll hardly notice when other crisis in your life occur. Please just make it work. You'll hardly notice in 5 years or you'll grow to love it.

Poor thing probably hasn't had a good night's sleep since 2011.

I too have been through this recently. It does take on momentous proportions at the time. No matter how silly it may seem to others. It was as though not only had I ruined the floor, I' d almost bankrupted myself to do it.

Rugs and furniture have definitely helped and I hope time will calm that red / orange down.

I'm thankful I have a home and also that I didn't have illusions of becoming an interior designer. It would have been an unmitigated failure!.

thanks for this thread. It has really been a major learning curve.

I had floor refinishing shock with my old upstairs floors too. They were not poly finished originally, and they were pine that had aged to a reddish brown. Had already painted the rooms and trim, but once the floors were done, mine were so YELLOW that it threw off my whole color scheme in the rooms. But what could I do, nothing. So I threw down area rugs and just went with it. I liked having the wood floors, always hated the color but so it goes. I would double check how the wall paint goes with the floors before I did the whole room. You might want to consider tweaking it. But the way the room looks does change when all the other stuff goes in. In my case, I didn't notice the floors that much, so I learned to live with them and it was not something that bothered me over time. Ratty carpet with embedded stuff and dust is a whole lot worse of a thing to tolerate! I loved that my poly wood floors were low maintenance. But, I did become more cautious and didn't refinish the downstairs, I just kept paste waxing it once a year. It wasn't that bad either, not that much maintenance, but we had a small home and no pets or kids.

I love them! My floors are so beat up. I am a huge second guesser all the time so I completely get why you are worried--I mean you have to live with theses floors a long, long time! I think paint and rugs and furnishing and curtains and you will no longer think about the floors/stain. Geez--I really am pea green with floor envy!

I just had a similar experience with hickory. The floor is nice i have buyers remorse. I too was talked out of my dark wood choice by an "interior designer" i dont hate it but i obsess about whether mytigerwwod alternative would have been better

3 am and same issue here. We tried to stain classic grey and weathered oak and all I see is variation. I hate them, absolutely hate them. But from all of my research, that's what you get with red oak. Sigh...

I am in exactly the same place with my red oak floors :( my floors look just as orange as in the pictures... and the variations and wood grain are much more pronounced than I wanted.
I have the flooring company coming in on Monday to put down the third coat of poly - do I have any options at this point? Or just a matter of it mattering less once I get more used to the new color...? I had this same level of shock and discomfort with my wall color (had to leave my apartment for the evening just to soothe myself!), but once they sanded the floors - I realized I loved the wall color, just that my old floor finish was clashing with it.
Now after staining the floor - I am back to feeling they really clash... and I really wish I had just opted for no stain and a natural finish instead... I’d take that look over what I now have any day. At least - that’s how it feels right now.

To the original poster - @lacollar - (or anyone else with a similar experience) - did you eventually get used to (or even fall in love with?! :)) your floors... even though at first it felt like the choice of stain color was a huge mistake?

Has anyone tried tinting the final coat to tone down the orange/reds? Does that work?

Appreciate any help/advice. Thank you all!

12pm and same red oak panic. Did the floors look better after 2 years?