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Flooring Design Dilemma

Help picking a floor stain color for red oak hardwoods!?

John Kokocinski

6 years ago

Hello everyone. My wife and I are having trouble making up our mind with red oak hardhardwood floors. We are in the process of having them refinished. Some areas were in need and my we both did not like the yellow tone these floors changed too. Our floor plan is wide open with lots of natural light. Our kitchen has cherry cabinets that we're not willing to change or paint. We are adding quartz counters. That will be lighter. My wife wants the floors darker, I just want to bring out the grains and tone down the yellow. What do you recommend?

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Comments (4)

PRO
PaintColorHelp.com Dallas
6 years ago
Hi John, do you have any photos of the space you could post? That might be helpful.

In general, it's trickier to make wood floors work with wood stained cabinets, but I've done it. Since you don't want reddish floors, I'd aim for a cooler brown - more towards a walnut. I would NOT do ebony floors; those super-dark floors are impossible to keep looking clean. They show dust, lint, grass, etc.

Also, what stain product is your contractor using? Most come in pre-mixed colors. That may determine the palette you have to choose from. Other stains can be tinted or adjusted if needed. Adding green to a stain color, for example, will help cut the red of the oak floors. You have to go easy though, you don't want to end up with a noticeable green tone.

You're welcome to email me directly if you want more info - I don't check messages on here very often. Thanks

Info@PaintColorHelp.com
Boxerpal
6 years ago
Agree that photos can help all of us see the space and even colors. Search on HOuzz to see cherry kitchens with wood floors and see if there is anything you really love. Is the Cherry dark red or a light red color? Like one of these..

CONTEMPORARY CRAFTSMAN | Palo Alto · More Info

Finley · More Info

The Overlook at Heritage Hills · More Info

Kitchen · More Info
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Tear out Red Oak and replace with White Oak to achieve a natural look without pink/red undertones. Otherwise, look at medium-tone stain options. There are many threads here from people who tried to achieve a White Oak look with Red Oak and ultimately abandoned that direction. It is possible to bleach the floors but this is an EXPERT-level application ($$$). If you are committed to this look, I suggest you seek out a flooring professional who can show you real-life examples of successful applications. If your current flooring professional does not have examples of finished jobs that look like you want yours, chances are they will not be able to finish these floors to your satisfaction.
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I like the color you have! It is classic. Maybe not "on trend", but it won't be the gray floor of 2017 for the next 40 years either. Anything "Medium Brown" will be classic. Achieving that on red oak is not always easy due to the red part of red oak. Seriously, though, there is no easy answer to this without samples on your floor in your lighting. You can't make your decision based on pictures on the internet because of the variations in lighting and whatever your monitor does to colors, too. If you can't slow the process down to get samples, I would make my own samples by getting some unfinished red oak and staining it yourself. Be sure to add the top coat to get a realistic idea of what it will look like. Then you can move the samples around. However, you need to know what brand of products your flooring professional is going to use. If you have that information already, please share it and the professionals here will be able to give you some input on the quality of the product.
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It's not just that the color is different with Red Oak, but the grain is busier too. With such a narrow plank, the effect with a very light Red Oak floor might appear choppy. I think the sample to the left of the island column is very even and complements the island finish well. Don't get hung up on trying to create a White Oak look from Red Oak. Look at what works best with the rest of your finishes, even if it is not what you had envisioned from the start. The two samples on the right look very pink and lavender to me. The one on the left looks busy.
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Trying to make my new red oak floors look like the first wood color but everything looks pink or clay colored. Any suggestions to get it to the top picture?
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SJ McCarthy
6 years ago
If you do not like yellow, simply stay away from oil based polyurethane. The oil based poly turns ORANGE. Sigh. Yep. It isn't the wood, it is the FINISH. In fact, if you slap on some oil based poly onto a white piece of paper, it turns the paper gold/orange. We call this ambering. To get away from ambering, you need to stay away from the oil based or oil modified polyurethanes.

Water based polyurethanes will allow the red oak to stay SALMON coloured. Yes. Red oak in a natural water based finish stays a cinnamon/peach/salmon colour. Not very desirable for most people.

Depending on the colour of your maple cabinets (they sound like they are stained...maple is normally a strong margarine yellow colour = lighter than red oak).

Photos of your cabinets and your countertop choice and your current colour of your floors will help us with some of your choices.
Christy Bredahl
6 years ago
John, I'm in a similar situation as you. I have red oak floors that are going to be sanded and refinished (with my choice of Duraseal product) next week. Still haven't picked a color :/ I have a lot of windows and natural light and also a cherry kitchen. I'm leaning towards the colors coffee brown, and actually I was looking for an ebony/walnut or coffee mix, but, then I got a new brochure and they have four new colors. If you are using Duraseal and have an Instagram account, I have found their posts on there helpful.
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