I don't know what your expectations were, but I think it is a nice, rich looking color!

It's probably largely the poly. A waterborne like Bona Naturale would have been best to avoid the ambering. You could have also chosen a stain with more green undertones to neutralize the orange. Not much to be done now unless you want to sand down and start over. [Edit: I see the ambering you are talking about, which might be more evident to subsequent commenters who are questioning it if you posted a before photo.] Read more about the issue and how to correct it here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5884257/how-to-tone-down-orange-tones-on-red-oak-floor-using-stain

I think it looks very nice too, and I don't see any amber/orange tones.

I like it as well. Not seeing orange tones.

Beautiful!

Thanks for the support. This is what I was hoping for, a more brown tone. Need to decide if it is worth changing or living with it. And yeah it could be the Swedish finish that is causing the ambering. Still didn’t end up dark enough.

I love it but dark os dark, if it bugs you that much do it again! But it looks awesome to me!

Dark walnut or antique brown for the inspirational picture. The quality o the job is good. You just have the wrong color.

Beautiful floor.

IMO with the color you chose this does not look as dark as special walnut for sure

It looks like straight special walnut to me, it should have half dark walnut in there. Waiting for the floor guy to call me back. so stressful!

I think you need 100% Dark walnut. Unless it;s my monitor.............

No matter what, you need to do the next version to a total finish BEFORE you commit to the stain

I think it's lovely. Very natural looking.

If you don't like it and don't want to go all the way back, it might be possible to use a tinted varnish to darken the color. I'm no expert, but I've seen tinted varnish improve trim color and my understanding is that it's also possible to use the technique on flooring, though possibly a bit more complicated due to the larger area. I don't know if your floor people use that technique, but it might be worth investigating/asking. To me, your current color looks nice, just not quite what you were envisioning; I would certainly try living with it before doing anything drastic (like sanding and redoing ... you can always do that later if you still hate it).

He can't do tinted varnish, as it would be uneven. With the stay at home order in washington, he wouldn't be able to redo it for at least 2 weeks. I think i'll live with it for a while, I can always redo it sometime down the road if it really bugs me. It should be less overwhelming once furniture is in place to break it up. I hope at least.

I love the floor. But are your cabinets grey?

Yes, gray lowers.

I think the darker color goes better with your gray cabinets. Do you have to move the furniture in before the 2 weeks? You will know in the 2 weeks time if you really don't like it. Don't settle.

Well fate has stepped in and will make you 'live with it' for two weeks. You might just find this is a blessing in disguise. I understand what you are looking for. The deep brown/gray (no orange) like dark walnut is what you were after. I get it.

Somehow your stain patch (that was put down by your finisher on your own floor and not from a photo...ahem...right?) did not match the final product. Did you view the stain patch WITH a coat of the finish over top? These are questions we always ask houzzers...just to make sure the PROPER steps were taking before the full finish was put down.

Now on to what you DO have. You have a medium toned orange/brown. It is a *classic colour. It is not too dark nor is it too light. We would classify this as a light-midtone. That's a TOTAL BONUS! Why you ask? Because light midtone floors allow a space to stay 'light' and airy without being too heavy or allow the space to darken.

Your original wish would have produced a dark midtone floor. That dark midtone would have knocked the 'light' out of the house. The deeper the colour the more LIGHTING you would have to have to ensure it didn't look like a black hole.

I know you were set on a walnut tone. I know you were set up for the grayish browns seen in your inspiration photo. I get that. But you have lighter gray designs than the DARK options seen in your inspiration photo.

What does that mean? It means your own light gray cabinets pair VERY WELL with your LIGHT BROWN floors. The depth of colours in your space are complimentary...not contradictory. You have accidentally found a great balance.

I would 'watch' these floors change throughout the day. The 5 different lighting situations in a house are: early morning, mid-morning/noon, afternoon, evening, night). I'm going to guess your light midtones will change character (in a fascinating way) throughout the day.

I would be surprised if you chose to 'redo them' in two weeks time. I think you have a very good chance of falling in love with these floors well before the two week social distancing requirements are over.

Let us know how things work out for you.

Thanks SJ, really appreciate the guidance. It is certainly a classic color, just not as dark and muted colors as I originally wanted. Perhaps the darkness would be dreary, especially in the winter as I have a fair bit of trees blocking direct sunlight in the winter.

And no, I did not do a proper job of ensuring the color ahead of time. I should have forced him to put a finish coat on it, and that's on me. The biggest problem was I did the custom mix for the test sample and applied myself, which in hindsight was a very very bad idea! Lesson learned.

I enjoy it lighter. It will bring in moe light and you tend to have more color freedoms. I did my floor and was actually disappointed in the fact that it turned out darker. Now I have to be careful with my colors because my room darkens easily.

I do see the amber but I actually like it. I'd recommending bringing in some colorful things to compliment the floor, maybe some blues or greens.

I like it. I have dark floors I inherited and they suck all of the light from the room.

@ Mark Huntley. Ok. We know this is NOT the professional's mistake which means the costs fall on you to change it. So we know this will cost you a second time if you wish to redo this. Which means you have two weeks to figure out if you will 'love' the colour. It also means you have two weeks to decide if you can come up with the sand/refinish money AGAIN. An easy way to figure out the cost for a sand/refinish is this: $5/sf is the 'average' rate for a flooring professional to come in and sand down an existing floor, applying a stain and applying a finish. That's labour and materials included.

Simply take your square footage and multiply it by $5 and you get the cost of the redo. You will also need to factor in the extra costs of moving furniture (again) and living out of the home (if you have to) once again.

Since I'm a pragmatist with a STRONG love of a healthy bank balance I would leave this alone. The job is well done. The stain is beautifully done. The finish looks good. Technically there is nothing 'wrong' with this floor.

Only you can decide if you can live with this floor. And only you can decide if you can afford to have it redone. And only you can decide if you want to live through yet another sand/refinish so soon close to the finish line.

I really hope you can love this floor. It is beautiful and beautifully done.

@SJ McCarthy Didn't realize the cost of a sand/refinish would be so steep. In time, you'd want to re-do the floor anyway. If this is long-term housing, maybe the OP could consider bumping the refinish date a few years earlier and getting the desired color later. If a floor should be refinished every 7 to 10 years, maybe they could aim for 5 or 6 years out, which really isn't that long in the overall picture.