Hi Hoosiermom, I think the last layout is my best choice. It seems to lead in to the living room, that is more desirable of the two directions. The floor is from Anderson company, Virginia Vintage style. Color: Fumed Cherry. It is hand scraped and pretty rustic looking. It is engineered, 1/2" pre finished. I will try to get pix up when it is installed. Trying to get it installed in the next week.

Stain, when applied to raw wood, will tend to follow the grain and pores. You are likely to have bleed through under the masking tape. This will give you fuzzy lines. Certain woods, such as red oak, a common flooring material, will be more prone to this than others. The first place I would look would be toward a wipe-on glaze or spray-on toner that you apply between coats of finish. The lower coat(s) will seal the pores, and the upper coats will protect the color from abrasion damage. But before I did anything, I'd run some sample boards with my intended plan(s). But I'm a furniture guy, not a flooring guy, so there may be other roads to Rome. In my metro area there are a lot of flooring finishers and one company that seems to be the gurus of the trade. Ask around to find one in your area. Since they're not flooring new McMansions, they may be looking for work.

I understand your inspiration, what inlay are you actually wanting to use? The inlay in this picture looks like it is inset into the wood flooring . Almost like they routed (sp?) the item into the board after the boards were installed. If the inlay is set to go around the edges of the floor where walking is less likely to occur, I wonder if you can select a different style of inlay. Something that is not flat but is rounded maybe? that way the inlay can sit slightly above the wood and minimize some of the gaping. It is hard to make a judgment on this as we do not really know all the details. I am wondering if Schluter has a product that could offer a solution. Attached the Schluter catalog link below. Might be worth checking out. I do think that for what you want you are going to have to make some concessions. Do you want to pay the labor for someone to perfect the cut edges of the wood? Can you tolerate the imperfections for this look? The final solution is the one you'll be able to live with and be within budget. Either way that is a beautiful floor! I hope you keep us posted. https://sccpublic.s3-external-1.amazonaws.com/sys-master/images/hd9/h5a/8916622573598/Profile%20Brochure.pdf

I have done things like that on top of wood dressers. To do that floor, it's just taking the wood down it's natural state, taping off your design, and applying the stain to that portion of it. Then the entire flooring gets the clear coat. (the other part stays natural) Is it something you could do? yes, but it's a lot of work. The time consuming part is measuring and taping. takes many, many hours. This one was actually a floor paint, not a stain, but you would do the stain in the same manner. There is a link to this one if you're interested in a DIY! Is it something you'd be willing to pay for? not going to lie, based on the size of the room it could be 1K-3K. is that worth it to you? You would have to call a specialist in wood finishing and borders, not a flooring contractor. Someone who specializes in staining wood borders. I would think for that price you could have your flooring specialist cut out a ribbon of wood and inlay a darker species in there. Another option is to prep the same way, but instead of stain use a real milk paint. you could do any color. (need to be on raw wood though). same clear coat application.