Sorry to be of zero help, but I'm loving that first photo. Can I ask the brand?

no carpet. Its an open concept floor plan including the stairwell. There will be a lot of time spent in the basement by ourselves and guests, so we really are concerned about the way it will look.

I dont remember the brand right now. I don't have the sample in hand anymore. I will post the brand the next time we visit the flooring store.

Why do you not want the basement the same as upstairs?

"...Anyways, we don't want the basement to be the same as upstairs, so what colour for the basement, and what colour should we do the stairs in?..."

Well...from the sound of it, you're headed to three different materials or at least three different wood finishes. Has it occured to you that that's a lot of different materials or finishes? Possibly two or even three too many?

From the sound of it, your preconceptions are outweighing good design sense.

Have you considered retaining an experienced and talented interior designer?

So out of those in the second picture is the top sample the main floor and the lower one on the right with a handscraped look the dark floor for the basement? If that is the case it looks to me like the dark basement floor is in some of the boards of the upstairs floor so I would stain the stairs to go with the basement as it will tie in to some of the boards in the upstairs.

Thanks for all of the replies so far.

-as for an interior designer, we do have one, but she is away for a week, and I’m just getting excited and wanted to get some other opinions.

-I guess we could go with the same wood in the basement as the top floor. We had always talked about a dark floor for the basement but never thought about tying it to the stairs.

Here is a side question now. If we do go with the Sydney silver maple downstairs, can I change the wood colour,(like the dark brown) going into my office? I was planning on a dark brown colour, double door with a frosted type glass for the entry to a classy office.

First of all, using the same flooring upstairs and in the basement greatly simplifies and unifies the interior of your house. And it allows you to select one of the colors in this flooring to use on your stairs.

This, of course, raises the question of your choice of flooring for the first floor, which you have not discussed.

As for using your preconception of a dark flooring for your office only in the basement, of course you could do this. Keep in mind, however, that in the photos you posted above the hue bias for the Syndey Silver Maple is yellow, while the hue bias for the dark flooring sample is either orange or red. That's just a way of saying that the two samples in the photo aren't really harmonious together. If you want a dark valued floor in your office you really need to pick a flooring much closer to the hue bias of Syndey Silver Maple. That shouldn't be hard to do.

Good luck on your project.

Ok thanks. We are certainly not struck on the brown that is shown. That was just a first look. I’m thinking a bit lighter maybe. And that a good point about the hues.

If a "classy office," and presumably house, is your goal, it will be much more easily achieved with a single wood flooring type everywhere. It will make it look cohesive, rather than piecemeal, and cohesive is a much higher-end look.

You do realize that dark floors show every speck of dirt and never look clean? Ask me how I know.

In an open concept house, less is more. Meaning one flooring throughout to tie it together. I kindly suggest you wait for your designer to return

Anglophilia , is right! Hand Scraped is already out. Most of the other wood floor shops we work with have already dropped it from their offerings. I've not anyone request it this year. Light and airy colors are really growing in popularity. Anything with gray is almost finished.

Love the answers. Thank you. Ok so the dark hand scraped choice is off the table now.

Here is the other factor now...budget. Our budget allows for hardwood upstairs and laminate down stairs. The laminate is half the price. So, what if we pull out a medium brown from the top floor hard wood to stain the stairs, and then match the stairs to a laminate downstairs.