Most floor pros have custom mixes or blends that they use to give customers more colors to choose from. Have you asked your floor finisher?

He's asked me to pick 3 colors to start.

We have friends that went too grey - almost ashy/black in places. I don’t think they love it. I would choose a light beige grey but that’s my preference. Do you have samples we can take a look?

My floors tend to get red over time, which I guess is expected. Currently, my floors have a lot of Provincial.

We are adding wood and putting in the flush registers which is why we're addressing this area for color.

The sample of Special Walnut is second from the left. It looks very red. When people mix a color with natural, is that what makes the color more "sheer"?

Annie A, do you know what color your friend went with? Thank you.

#1 issue = oil based finishes causing orange to glow over top of the colour you put down.

#2 Issue = red oak has red in it...therefore you need GREEN based colour to cover it

That tells me a green based stain, like Jacobean, is used to wipe out the red in red oak. That's how you create your own colour.

The MOST IMPORTANT part of this = NO oil based finishes. Not at all. You really need to work with water based polyurethane (do NOT use 'oil modified' either...it goes YELLOW).

Whatever colour you choose you will want a SINGLE coat of finish put down after the stain patches are put down. Never, ever choose a colour without a single coat of finish or you will be choosing blind.

Thank you, SJ McCarthy!!! My current floor has a water based finish. What I am planning to use is a Dura Seal stain, sealer, and 2 coats of Bona Traffic HD.

Thank you VERY MUCH for attaching this picture - a HUGE help! 'Really like this color - neutral. Hopefully not too light but I think it will probably work. Thanks so much again!

@ Appelbaum - Which Bona Sealant are you planning on using? Bona has sealants that range from 'milky white' through to a STRONG yellow/orange. Choosing the RIGHT Sealant is going to maintain the colour without turning it red/orange/yellow over time. Have a look at Bona's web page and check out the colour ranges they have for their sealants. Only ONE of them is a 'clear coat'.

Their BOTTLES have 5 pics of colour (whitish - YELLOW). The PRODUCT will have a blue box around the COLOUR it deposits on your floor. The link shows an example of what I'm talking about:

https://www.bona.com/en-US/Bona-Professional/Products/Coatings/Waterborne-Finishes-and-Sealers/Bona-NaturalSeal/

And remember not all sealants are allowed over stains. So again you want to be careful. If you want, you can make a TOUGHER finish by working with 3 coats of Bona Traffic HD...you won't have to touch the floor for 20+ years if you go with 3 coats of finish at the beginning.

Please recommend medium ferry/brown stain. Trying to achieve this look.

Do you want brown or do you want pink?

I definitely don’t want pink. But I am hearing the classic grey vines out with pink (although I have a white oak I think). I want something not too grey but not brown, taup or ash brown whatever the color name. Thank you for your help!

Lana Shulman, you can go light if you have white oak. You need to know the wood you have, that makes a difference!

Color came out very good! Not dark,not light, and looks different throughout the day depending on the lighting.

Looks great!

It does look great--what did you use?

Originally I wanted lighter stain so we started with country white by Duraseal , but then added Jacobean to get this color.

I am so sad and frustrated! After all the struggle with the color and achieving perfect results, there was a smudge of poli in one spot that’s really noticeable. The mire we fixed it the worse it becomes, I think I will have to redo the completed area:(. What do you guys think?

We are having to redo my living room due to a "fix" that gouged the area with the sander. Ughhh. They may have to tape it off and sand down to correct.

This is exactly what we did. Taped it off small area sand it down and stain went in darker looks ugly!

When we had a stain that was a mixture of colors, we purposely had some left over that we kept for repairs. I see the issue now. We used a single color, so hopefully, will not have a problem with our color repair.

We are trying to repair once more she if it will not work resending everything.

Your color is very nice! I hope you can get this corrected and are happy with it.

Thank you!

My concern is they are STOPPING the 'patch' in the middle of a plank. That can look really 'cubic' which is part of the reason the first patch looked the way it did. I wonder if they continued the colour patch down the ENTIRE LENGTH of the planks they are working on. This would give a more natural look. Everyone knows wood has different colours and variations when it is raw. If something is darker, then the entire plank being darker is a more natural look.

Just a thought.

They are not stopping in the middle, the planks are not long... I recently noticed that, I bought it as new construction condo whatever builder used was there ... I very dark stain before so it wasn’t noticeable.

@J. Appelbaum what color mix did you end up going with and how did it turn out? We are also interested in redoing now orangey red-oak to a grayish dark brown look for our floors and I've been looking at jacobean, dark walnut, heritage gray and aged barrel, or a combo? Would love to see what worked for you and how it turned out. Thanks!

I went with dark walnut. In retrospect I really didn’t try Jacobean, but that might have a looked nice too. We ended up having to redo one room, so I’m really glad we didn’t mix colors. That can be tough when you’re trying to repair. I also decided not to do the gray after trying some mixing of colors. I really had wanted to go lighter but I am very happy with the dark walnut

I also wanted to mention that I used a water-based sealer in the beginning. Eliminating all versions of oil base helps eliminate the amber that can happen.

They look gorgeous!! Congrats! Thanks for your reaponse. Im really drawn to the ever classy look of the dark stain with the white kitchen, stairfaces and trim (well have light-medium gray walls with white trim throughout) but am just wondering how it would look with some more gray/weathered/barnwood looking furniture pieces we have. Every time I search for photos of grayish furniture they always show it on lighter floors so just trying to make sure things will tie in together. Thanks!!

I found it difficult to do any version of light stain on red oak. The pink/red shows through. The jacobean with the green undertone may work better with the barnwood furniture pieces. You should do samples of the dark walnut, jacobean, aged barrel and herritage to see what you think.

Your floors are beautiful, J. Appelbaum! Love the dark wood!