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Design Dilemma Before & After Home Decorating

Wood Floor Refinishing Project - My Fixer Upper

Theresa Jenkins

6 years ago

The dark stain is oak, the light finish is maple. The original plan was to strip and stain the maple to match until we learned that maple does not stain well and local refinisher will not stain the maple dark. My husband was going to try the job himself but was advised against it. Sooo many other things for him to do! The maple is about 500 sq. ft. the oak is about 800 s.f. and stretches all the way into entryway and up the stairs into the hallways. It stops at the bedrooms. The bedrooms are light oak. These floors need some harmony, quickly and inexpensively!

Featured Answer

miss lindsey (She/Her)

6 years ago

Is stripping and staining the oak to match the bedrooms an option?

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Comments (9)

PRO
RL Relocation LLC
6 years ago
refinish the oak......
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User
6 years ago
Rugs. Learn to love the fragmented look until you can replace the maple.
Theresa Jenkins
Original Author
6 years ago
Stripping and staining the oak is an option to match the bedrooms.
PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
6 years ago
Go as light as possible on the oak. Match the gloss level (looks to be satin) and keep going. There are many homes with different woods. It isn't ideal but you can't help that. The best option is to stay within the same colour palette and intensity. That's about as good as it gets.

Have fun and do the easiest thing possible: natural finish on the oak.
PRO
ULTIMATE HARDWOOD LTD
6 years ago
Maple stains just fine if you know what to do. I'd look for another floor pro that has stained maple many many times.
chispa
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
If you don't have the budget to make it better, then I would ignore it for now and save my money to remove the maple. Replace with oak and sand/stain all the oak so that it all matches.

For me, the maple does not go well with the kitchen cabinets.

But the real question is, why do people do such mismatched things to their houses? Why did they ever think it was a good look?
Fori
6 years ago
I honestly don't think it's that bad. I would not want the floors to MATCH in color. Cuz they won't.

Can you replace the threshold strip with a combo inlay strip?

No idea how feasible something like this is, but you seen to have a traditional trim thing going on already so inserting a bit of fancy border between the two floors (not all around the room as intended) a vintage style border might look okay to tie it together until you do your ultimate fix: http://www.pavexparquet.com/en/imag/hardwood-floor-borders.jpg

Above is a random googled floor company.
User
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I agree with Chispa. I wouldn't spend the money to try and match the oak to the maple. It will look like you tried to match and failed. I'd wait for now, save, replace kitchen flooring with oak and have everything refinished to match.

On a good note, be thankful it's not different color carpet in each room. I get to live with that for now. :)

If you really wanted to do something right now and weren't into waiting and replacing....I'd find other installers and see about having the maple stained darker. I think it would be easier to achieve a closer match than to strip and lighten the oak. If the oak is red oak, and I think it is, being a lighter color will show it's pink cast vs. more of a yellow cast that white oak has. Maybe they could stain the red oak more yellow. ?

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