What prize does the winner get??

Well then . . . My guess would be pine.

I love the look of hickory, but I am struggling to find it priced in my budget. Thank you again!

Standing here looking at my hickory, I’d say it looks like hickory with a stain.

There are nearly as many stain colors as paint colors, so the question doesn't have a lot of meaning unless someone knows the details on a specific project. That's a little light for most companies' "walnut," although not a lot lighter than Minwax's "Special Walnut." Look for something with "ash" or "weathered" in the name, most likely.

You might be somewhere near Watco's "light walnut" danish oil...

99% hickory. Prefinished. Not site finished. Be very careful. It’s a bossy wood and does not play well with other wood patterns, or other patterns period. I don’t really think it works well in your inspiration, for instance. The colors are too similar.

I have hickory and I'm going to disagree that the floor is hickory. The grain is much more pronounced in this floor and it looks like rustic oak to me.

I was about to suggest looking at a low grade White Oak with a light stain. White Oak in a character or rustic grade will have all of these knots and heavy grain variations in a MUCH lower price tag than hickory (like 1/2 the price). Be careful with knots....they are "sock catchers" or "splinter producers" in really cheap wood. It takes a master craftsman to get a knotty wood into place, sanded, patched, stained and finished without producing a hot mess of a floor. People who have cheaped out on the labour have found out, to their horror, that the knots ruin socks, bare feet, dog's paws and those same knots will "pop out" leaving gaping holes in their floor! Buyer beware!

And a character grade hickory can look like this - all by itself. But it is a bossy wood (as much as I love the variation). I have to agree with Sophie....it will be the Diva in the house. It will surpass "Star" by several degrees of magnitude.