We have white oak kitchen cabinets with a very light stain. Our house was originally built with white oak floors, which we thought were red oak. We had to replace quite a few boards and we used red oak so now we have a red and white oak floor (definitely by accident). I'm with you on the white oak being nicer. Despite the efforts of our floor refinisher, the red oak still has a pinkish cast to it. In order to make the white and red oaks really blend, we would have had to go with darker stain on the floor, which we didn't want. Have you checked local cabinet makers for prices for white oak cabinets. We found that some could only get red oak and others could only get white oak. The guy who could only get white oak wasn't any more expensive than the guy who could only get red oak.

I picked up some sample boards today of the engineered floor I am currently liking, Opus Premium European Oak Naples. Here it is pictured vs. my current hardwood below. Opus Naples below current mixed width 4-5-6-7 character grade oak below Seeing the comparison in my house leads me to a couple of thoughts. First, I want to make sure this wide-plank look will stand the test of time. If I commit to it, my best bet may be to replace all of the hardwood I currently have with the engineered, which seems to defeat the purpose of getting solid hardwood in the first place. I currently have about 1500 square feet of hardwood that will be refinished and another 1500 square feet of new to be added. If I calculated correctly, it may be less expensive to replace all with the engineered, if we do our own demo. My concern here is if the wide plank is right for my house in the Midwest and if this particular flooring brand is the best way to achieve it and if I will be happy with this decision five years from now! Secondly, if we keep our current floor, I am thinking that the grain and knots of the character grade will jump out even more with a light finish that may not give me the lighter, raw-looking clean finish that I like.....raw, but busy. Lastly, I feel like my best bet may be to keep what I have, install the same throughout the first floor and then, maybe pick a size like 5" and install a uniform plank upstairs in solid and then, figure out the stain once the floors are installed. At least that way, if my contractor and I cannot figure out the perfect formulation to achieve the look I love, I can resort to something darker that I would be happy with as well. Any insight appreciated!

Use two coats of Bona Natural seal if, you want tot keep the raw natural look. Use two coats of Bona Nordic seal if, you want your floors to look like the inspirational picture.

To answer your question on the title, that doesn't look like either stick-lac or seed-lac to me. I also don't think I could process stick-lac into seed-lac if it was. Sticklac - You can see it is not smooth and even... Seedlac - After the lac has been scraped and the lac beetles and wood branches have been removed. shellac wax which is the waste from dewaxing... I am certainly no expert on processing shellac, I never even use seedlac and usually buy waxed, and dewax it to varying degrees myself, or dewaxed flakes. However, to my eye your picture looks more like shellac wax than shellac.