You have beautiful pine floors. I would not change them at all. I like them with the cream color, but the brown might be throwing them off.

We’re color samples not used? Never let someone do such a big job without authorizing your color choice. What happened here?

I made it very clear to him that I did not want orange, and wanted a medium brown.

You always need to see a sample and sign off on it before the entire floor is done.

Your orange might be his medium brown ...

To fix -- strip and refinish. I'd suggest a less glossy finish too.

I don’t know how to fix this (,Home owners aren't expected to know,that's why they hire professionals ) and don’t know how to handle the contractor relationship.

Do you know how to remove the orange from the pine and do a medium brown instead?(Yes but that doesn't help your contractor) Is there a way to explain this to the contractor?(TRY,I'm not paying you until it's right).

Do you have a picture (or have you ever seen in person) pine floors stained in this medium brown you were hoping for?

I think they are beautiful, but, they certainly are shiny. It doesnt look like it is satin to me. Satin should be a softer nicer shine, not that glaring plastic looking shine. This appears to be a very high gloss finish. The only way to fix it, is to have them stripped and sanded down, and restained in the proper color and then a new top coat. He does look like he did a decent job, so I would hope, he could do a redo and have them come out the way you want them to be.

Ok...here we go. I'm going to guess the "orange" is coming from an OIL BASED polyurethane. Yes. The finish. I'm also going to guess that the stain, BEFORE the coating, was an "honest" attempt at mid-tone brown. But when the OIL BASED poly was applied to the mid-tone brown over wood that LIKES to turn orange, the whole thing turned orange.

Sigh.

Here's what you need to know: oil based polyurethane TURNS ORANGE as it dries. Sigh. That means it will turn white paper ORANGE just by drying. We call this "ambering". The amount of ambering I am seeing is most likely (ahem...I would bet my eye-teeth on it) from the FINISH...not the stain.

So the answer is: get rid of the oil based finish and you get rid of 90% of the orange. Switch to a water based finish and try again.

To get PINE (which HATES being stained) to accept a light or medium stain, the flooring professional has to be a WIZARD! It is a tough ask to get pine to take a stain. Usually you have to go DARK to get it to work. Anything less and you get a splotchy mess.

Any professional worth their salt would have REQUIRED you to view stain samples (that included a coat of finish) before moving on.

To be clear, please let us know the NAME of the finish your professional used...and whether or not you were told it would "amber" (turn orange) as it dried.

Why do people always not understand they have one type of wood and look at pictures of other types of wood and say hey, I want mine to look like that.

You have PINE floors that will strangely enough look like PINE when refinished. The pictures you show are of an OAK floor which again oddly will look like OAK when refinished.

You have a beautiful PINE floor. If you want a different tone wood then you have to change your floor. People see theses pics of these manufactured painted wood scrap floors and think that they are quality. You have what looks like a beautiful aged pine floor.

Adding tone or stain to a floor like pine will botch the floor and make a mess out of it. They simply sanded and refinished your floor. Yes, they should have managed your expectations beforehand.

You cant just take any species of wood and ask a refinished to make it look like walnut. Stop looking at cheap low cost painted laminate that is printed not real wood. You have a beautiful floor. If you want an oak floor it will be a $20k difference in cost.

Sorry but if I put Ferrari red paint on a Fiat it doesn't make it a Ferrari. Just because you WANTED it doesnt mean its obtainable.

Consider no stain when you redo. Just seal. Would be a light natural look. On my monitor they don’t look orange. Amber, yes. But to me they look how pine looks.

I don't think that finish will die down anytime soon.

The floors do not look like it has been sanded down to bare wood. The first two images shows dents in it. Was this an attempt with polyshade?

Aside from that, old pine floors will cast a yellow or orange to the finish. Which makes it difficult to get a true brown, especially in a light or medium tone. Bleaching it first will help, but the bleach needs to be rinsed and neutralized completely before staining. Otherwise, you will have another issue. Bleaching adds to the cost of the project to have it done right.

Pine naturally ambers to a rich deep pumpkin color over time. Think of amber jewelry. Do you know that is actually hardened pine resin? That resin is present inside all pine wood, and that is why it is that color naturally, even with no stain. Add in an amber coloration of an oil poly and you get a rich dark amber color that is highly sought after. It will never be brown oak.

Pine is a soft wood and there will be dents and no, they usually cannot be sanded out. It will also take stain differently than white oak, which will take stain differently than red oak.

I think your amber (they're really not "bright orange") floors are very beautiful.

just looks like an old pine floor, it looks true to what it is

I must admit I like your floors as well! My husband and I are currently debating the refinish of the pine floors in our home, and he's concerned about them being orange. However I really like what I call a "honey" color and others are calling "amber". But these are your floors and I'm sure your contractor wants you to be happy with them, so I would recommend letting him know that they're more orange than you expected and asking him about your options. If you end up leaving them, I too would repaint the brown walls in a cooler color such as grey or blue to balance out the warmth of the floors. Otherwise I think the finish of the doors and stair treads and the white paint you have all works very well with the floors as is. Best wishes!