They sent us out many samples to see the color in person. The ones that had a brown tone were the Walnut (darker than chestnut) and the chestnut (it's lighter than Walnut). Both very beautiful. We started by ordering a couple of samples $2 each. They followed up with us and sent us more samples to see for free. A wonderful company to work with!

I went with Black Walnut Homeowner DIY pieces from Craft Art. I got samples of Black Walnut, White Oak, and American Cherry. The American cherry was a yellow/red, white oak was medium brown with honey blonde graining, and the black walnut sample was a definite medium to dark brown and I could see part of a dark filled knot. And definitely do the homeowner version. It has any knots filled and comes with one coat of oil already on it.

After I bit the bullet and bought it, I was really pleased with the look and color of the Black Walnut that I finally settled on. It was a true walnut and was a warm to dark brown. I didn't need to (or even want to) stain it to get a really nice deep color we were going for. I did go ahead and get the "waterlox sealer/finish" and the "waterlox satin finish" that they recommended in their instructions - and you do need both if you want to make it waterproof and fully sealed.

Seriously, their instructions were really helpful - even to someone like me who sort of knows what I'm doing (aka over confident when I shouldn't be, haha I am man enough to admit it). They were written like a... recipe? Had a breakdown of items you need, time frame it takes to actually do and time frame including dry time, then detailed instructions including hints and tips and stuff. Way better than the instructions I found on the crazy Ikea finish that I tried to use on a different project.

Things we considered:
- What color are your cabinets? Ours are medium to light brown, but I think we may have them repainted to an off white to make the black walnut stand out more in the future.

-What color is the paint in that room? I personally think our grey/green makes the walnut look more "cool" in tone - but if the room was the yellow color we almost went with, the walnut would reflect that and pick up those yellow tones and be even warmer looking.

-Do you want to match or contrast? Or both?! We have "mullican solid wood - oak" from loews. It is a medium brown but has dark almost black grains. We decided that would work well to compliment the Black Walnut and that the White Oak would make it too consistently yellowish of a tone in the room. This is our floor:

I hope that gives ya something to work with. I am certainly not a designer, but now that its all installed and done, we get lots of compliments so that has to stand for something!

Ps. My finishing products (the waterlox ones I mentioned) came a couple days before the top did, actually. I had a chance to practice which was really nice. Highly recommend a quick practice run, even if its on plywood or a 2x4, the technique matters on the last coat.

Oh and last thing, I was able to find how much product I needed to finish it so I'm including that so you won't have to look through their site: "For a 2 oz. pouch, coverage is approximately 7.5 square feet for one coat. For a pint the coverage is 60 square feet for one coat. For a quart the coverage is 120 square feet for one coat."

This is a LOT like what mine turned out like (minus the edge profile):
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Here is a link that might be useful: craft art DIY stuff - and if you have a contractor doing the install, tell him to watch the install video on there, too. Helped us a lot.

Posting that pic - take 2!

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Here is a link that might be useful: company the image is from