Maybe not the best choice of stain color, but certainly not a huge mistake.

I have Mimwax Golden Oak stain with red oak flooring. The color looks almost like yours. While I do not have much gray in my house, my daughter has painted many of the walls in her home home grayish colors. The color looks fine with the original honey colored oak flooring.

I think once you get all your furnishings, rugs, wall art, and accessories in your home, the flooring will look fine.

Thanks! You don't think it's worth it to put another stain on top or to sand and re-stain? The polyurethane isn't applied yet.

This decision was really difficult and I still think I screwed it up.

I would add a darker stain to make it more brown than yellow. I don't think you will be happy with it long term. white oak is so gorgeous and slightly darker will work with the other colors.

Thanks! Part of the problem is I didn't really like any of the samples put down. Will ask him about adding stain but I'm worried I'll compound the problem... Here are the other stains originally laid down.

Is your flooring guy sampling only pre-made stains or is he able to mix a custom blend. I would talk to him about the issue and ask him to make you some new samples toning down the yellow.

Please do NOT add another coat of stain. The second coat of stain will sit 'on top'. It won't sink into the wood. That coating of stain can prevent the polyurethane from grabbing with wood. That can lead to adhesion failure.

Did you choose the stain patches with a coat of FINISH on top? Or did you choose from raw stain (no coating)? Are you using an oil based finish or a water based finish? If it is water based, is it oil-MODIFIED (still turns yellow) or is it a 'clear coat' (which doesn't turn orange over time)?

How big is your kitchen and can you see the cool soft gray cabinets from the rest of the living area? Do the floors work with the counter tops? The backsplash? The lighting?

Golden oak is, well, it is gold. And gold is very yellow. And yellow very rarely goes with cool greige. And gold has issues with soft gray stained cabinets that read a little pink.

Thanks for the advice! I was planning on using Bona Traffic HD which is water based and does not yellow supposedly. I picked out the sample without the final poly on top.

The kitchen has wood floors so the grey cabinets will be right on top of this color. Ughhhh. As for the backsplash and countertops, they are white so should go with anything. Lighting is high quality LED so same there.

The other colors I've seen suggested look super dark (provincial, coffee, special walnut, etc.). This is a mess, I don't know how to pick out floor colors.

The contractor is using Duraseal quickcoat in standard colors. I am at a complete loss as to what color to pick at this point. He may be able to mix color but that adds even more variables.

I have light greige walls and grey wood grain cabinets that have a touch of pink/purple almost.

"natural" stain is the square in the middle of the photo color wheel above and it looks orange-ish to me which is why I didn't pick it.

Contemplated using no stain but that seems kind of boring. Everything else seemed super dark.

Skip the stain and use Bona Natural seal. You will avoid all the yellow and orange that you dislike.

If, you would like something really interesting. You can try using a chemical stain for aging. Of, course you're limited to your finishers skill level.

ok thanks. I'm contemplating resanding the floor. Not sure if I can afford it.

The floor had a Swatch of "silvered grey" down which is similar to completely natural I think and it looked kind of weird. Not sure that I'm going to find a stain at this point so maybe sealer only is the way to go.

G & S Floor Service , is right. Bona Naturale' is one of our most popular client selections. Its also VERY durable.

I wouldn't go to the expense of sanding until I found a stain color that I really liked with my other color choices. If your flooring person is unable to mix stain colors to give you what you want, then you may have to choose one of the darker colors or just seal what you have and live with it.

We put a wax finish on our floors instead of polyurethane. It is easy to maintain and is much easier to repair than poly.

Decided I can't really afford to refinish. this is the stained but unsealed result. Depending on lighting it can look, brown, gold, or slightly reddish. I don't think it looks super yellowy orange. But might have done natural if I could re-do. The grey is cabinet color. Thanks all.

You can pair gray with your floor color. This kitchen is a darker gray, but similar floor finish.

Massive Modern Island · More Info

We used Astoria granite which has some warmth to tie in the floor color. You may want to look at some natural stone options.

What about your lighting? Is is at least 4000K? Like below? If it's not why not try changing it before you finalize your floor finish You may find that just changing the light will work with the floor

It will help reduce the yellow/gold tones on the floor

But it may also make the gray cabinets look bluer. He should probably wait until all the finishes are installed.

Apply a matte finish on it

Thanks all. I have adjustable LED lights and they are set at 3000k. other option is 2700k which is too yellow. I get lots of natural light which is nice. I will definitely check out Astoria granite. I want white counter tops. Any other good white options? Maybe quartz ($$) or quartzite?

Went with satin finish as I've read lots of complaints about matte.

Thanks for the compliment grapefruit. This was a tough decision but I'm feeling better about it. Will see then final sealed results tomorrow.

I am wondering if you could apply a “limed” product to lighten and tone down yellow/gold tones. Maybe one of the flooring experts here could comment on that? Kind of French Limed look.

I agree that there is no problem with using gray with your current floor color. I like the combination of gray and yellow.

As to stone countertops, go see a slab of Taj Mahal. It would be gorgeous and help pull all elements together. It is quartzite. Quartzite is harder than granite. I have it on my island and gray quartz on peripheral countertops. Blue gray base cabinets on island. Really nice look.

Here is example of “limed oak”.

Opps

Mike- put together this look at liming your floor with your island color and a picture of Taj Mahal quartzite. Plus photo of kitchen (ignore style) with Taj Mahal island countertop.

Combo

Having viewed your new pictures, I would say that the floor looks fine to me with the cabinets.