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Remodeling Flooring Design Dilemma

Design Novice Looking to Refinish 90's Ash Hardwood Floors

6 years ago

Hi there!

My husband and I are working on remodeling a portion of our house. I'm sure this happens a lot, but our "small remodel" project has slowly morphed and spewed into newer portions of our house as well, hence my need for advice! Our kitchen was remodeled in 1995 with solid custom hickory cabinets, and an ash hardwood floor. I believe the floor was clear coat sealed (high gloss), no staining involved. Over time, the floor and cabinets have yellowed somewhat (boo). The portion we are looking to remodel extends down the hallway pictured and meets up with the current floor in the kitchen.

I'd like to extend the hardwood floor to replace the brown linoleum down that hallway. Since we'd be patching in additional hardwood, I'd also like to refinish the floors to a somewhat darker shade, to get more of a contrast between the cabinets and floor. And, NOT finish it with high gloss next time around!

My main concern is that I haven't come across this look very much - where the cabinets are lighter wood and the floor is darker. Is this going to look odd? Any stain shades you recommend?

There is no room in the budget to paint the cabinets white (I wish). Also, please ignore the white/red counter tops...working on replacing those at some point soon as well.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Jill

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Comments (5)

grapefruit1_ar
6 years ago
Our floors and cabinets looks almost like yours. Our floors (31 years old) are natural white ash. Our cabinets are natural oak. We had some new hardwood added up against the original stuff ( 3 years ago). They look perfect together.

i would not make the cabinets darker. The big disconnect that I see is the wall color. So many people are trying very hard to make gray work in their homes. Often it does not. I would go with a warm wall color and then add some colorful rugs and accessories.
jhmarie
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago

I agree with grapefruit. I haven't seen that dark a gray in a design pic in a long time. I have seen barely there gray, though admit due to the climate i live in, I would personally do a cream.

Here is a barely there gray with warm wood tones in the 2016 This Old House:
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We have hickory floors. I believe they are less likely to get dented by your dog's claws than oak. I have seen heavy tools dropped on my floor with no effect. It is a very hard wood. It is also very rustic. I like that about it, but if that is something you want to avoid, stay away from hickory. There are a lot of variations in the floor. We debated solid and engineered, but because of the lack of stability and the fact that we wanted wider planks and it involved our kitchen, we went with engineered. I don't monitor the humidity levels in my house, but we do have A/C when it gets humid in the summer. My floors are in my kitchen, which can be a moist place. I also have children who drop ice cubes on it all the time and leave them there to melt. The floor is holding up to all that abuse, although we are only two years in with it.
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Decluttering before redecorating/remodeling is a good motto. Your kitchen is warm looking but all the stuff on the countertops is unappealing. I'm confused as to why decluttering is more of a challenge than renovating the kitchen, a massive expense consuming months of family time! If necessary, hire an organizer to do declutter for you--money well spent. This will give you a fresh eye to see how attractive your kitchen actually is and how to make the most of it before you spend a fortune in money and time to gut it. When you've gotten rid of duplicates of things, then consider putting in Rev-a-Shelves in some of the lower cabinets to increase functional space. Get carousels for upper cabinets. The countertops are beautiful and go well with the cabinets. Add some under cabinet lights if you don't already have them. Consider adding a backsplash of rippled subway tile in a warm cream color that harmonizes with the countertops. This will lighten the kitchen hugely along with undercabinet lighting like this kitchen with dark countertops creamy backsplash and wall color: Since you have adjoining spaces opening up near the kitchen, consider painting all the walls throughout a warm white that you pull from the background of your countertops. This will give you a feeling of flow and lightness--no need to repaint the cabinets. You have some beautiful wood floors in your house. Refinish them in a stain that goes with your cabinets so everything flows from room to room. Yes, the kitchen floor tile isn't an ideal choice with your warm cabinets. Once you declutter, get an attractive indoor-outdoor rug for now with golden tones and colors. As for gray floors, why? You have warm, golden floors elsewhere. If you're changing out the kitchen floors down the road, then find a floor tile that harmonizes with the wood floors you will have elsewhere.
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At this point, I would take the money and then 'live with it' for as long as possible. I would counter offer with, "Return my money and I will take the necessary steps to complete my floor project on my own." I can pretty much guarantee they will JUMP at this option. Your floor is fully functional with multiple attempts to get it to the colour you want. I would hate to see any more sanding done at this point. I know it isn't perfect, but it *might be "good enough". The colour you are attempting to create is EXTREMELY difficult to achieve on red oak. The Bona Craft Oil colours are ALL showing 'yellow' tones on white oak. That means there will be yellow tones showing through on red oak. Bona Craft oil advertises 'oiled floors with a finish'. An oil floor is OFTEN yellowish once completed. I'm wondering if the ambering is coming from the Craft Oil itself...simply because that is how it has been designed. The rest of the refinishing issues have to do with colour acceptance over areas that *might have received patch material...and patch (wood patch) will take colour VERY differently. I know this isn't what you were hoping for. I know this is very upsetting - especially after all the attempts to get this done - you will need to find your personal 'cut off' point. When do YOU decide that enough is enough? I would ask for my money back....which is probably what the company would consider acceptable...and move in and move on. Once the furniture is back into place and trim has been put back into place (etc.) you will find 90% of these issues will be hidden.
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If you still like the floor and it's feasible to reuse, then go for it. I wouldn't worry about resale value unless you are flipping the house. It's more likely that a trendy choice would be dated and your "classic" choice would be viewed as retro, vintage and cool again. I just finished my remodel and went with a very untrendy relatively narrow oak floor in a natural stain (or natural un-stain). It's not the trendy wider planks but it was replacing similar flooring that I liked and the flooring is the same style of flooring as that which is in older homes which still have their original wood floors. In terms of moderately priced engineered wood. My engineered wood floors are "moderate" as they were $8.00 per square foot and they are Canadian and use green methods both in terms of forestry and construction. Mine are Mirage but I believe Lauzon is another Canadian company which also has engineered floors in that moderate price point which is similarly green. When I was researching flooring, there also seem to be some American companies but I was fine with Mirage as I didn't have particularly esoteric design needs as I just wanted classic wood floors in a lighter color without excess movement or knots. I opted for their more expensive floors which used higher quality "less busy" oak.
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Jill Peterka
Original Author
6 years ago
thank you grapefruit1_ar and jhmarie I appreciate the input. I forgot to mention that I would be repainting the kitchen (which flows into our dining and living room) a muuuuuch lighter gray as well. I've just never been a big fan of all of the wood being the same color, so do you think just lighter paint on the walls would really do the trick? If we are patching in new flooring to meet up with the old I believe we would have to sand and reseal the whole thing so it all matches? That's why I figured I could take the opportunity to go slightly darker with the floors for a little definition between them and the cabinets.

I appreciate the input!
jhmarie
6 years ago
Start with the lighter walls. I have a similar style and tone cabinet and floor, but with oak cabinets. My style different - is an older vintage kitchen, but you can see how light the kitchen looks with lighter wall paint:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~93784356

https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~93784291

When you refinish the floors, the yellowed finish will be gone and if you use water based finish, you may see a lighter floor. Your flooring guy should be able to make you up some samples - both of the refinished natural and some darker stains. Have him do more than one board of each since there is variation on how the different boards take stain.

I did find these example of a darker floor:

In my upstairs, the hardwood is a tad darker - gunstock rather than natural oak, but it still works with my natural oak doors.

https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-kitchen-in-progress-phvw-vp~45783770
Jill Peterka thanked jhmarie
Jill Peterka
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you jhmarie, that top photo is exactly the look I am going for! I just did a poor job of finding photos on here! Thank you for the advice, it's much appreciated!

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