We selected acacia hardwood floors for the main living area of our new home. The flooring subs stopped at the home today to confirm our final selections for floor finishing. Below are samples of the finishes we are considering, from left-to-right: 50% chestnut stain, 25% chestnut stain, no stain (please ignore white splotches of debris on floor -- floors have yet to be sanded and cleaned).

Our perimeter kitchen cabinets and all baseboards/trim are painted BM Simply White. Tops are Zodiaq London Sky. Kitchen island is stained dark as shown. Open concept kitchen/great room has large expanse of floor-to-ceiling windows (to left of image) that are west-facing. Appliances are stainless steel. Fireplace wall is floor-to-ceiling stacked gray-ish ledgestone. Ceilings range from 10-12 feet high; the room receives a large amount of light overall.

We had originally planned on going with a very light stain over the natural acacia and were leaning towards the middle choice (25% chestnut stain). We felt that this would enhance the beautiful grain structure of the wood while slightly subduing some of the "streakiness" inherent to acacia. Also, is it just me, or am I perceiving a touch of yellow in the unstained (natural) acacia sample (far right)?

However, the floor finishers told us that they leave acacia unstained in the large majority of acacia installs they perform. They claim that most customers choose acacia for its brilliant grain pattern and coloration -- why pay to upgrade to acacia only to later hide its grain pattern with stain? They also said that the wood would naturally darken with time. If spot refinishing of the floor is ever necessary, lack of underlying stain would also make color matching easier. These practical points led us to start considering the unstained option. We are now undecided.

Any opinions, input and/or experience with acacia would be greatly appreciated!