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Home Decorating Flooring

Deciding on a Dark Stain for Red Oak Floors...Dark Walnut or Jacobean?

2 years ago

Hello

We are lacing in new red oak floors to our existing red oak floors and getting them refinished. We want to go with a darker stain more of a true deep rich brown with no orange, red, or yellow. Contractor is going to put down some samples of DuraSeal and debating between Dark Walnut and Jacobean. Also considering Espresso but not sure if that would be too dark. Anyone have any experience with these colors on their red oak floors? If you can post pics and color stain that would be helpful.

Thanks Everyone!

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Comments (3)

SJ McCarthy
2 years ago
It looks like you already have a medium stain (?Provincial?) on there so you are aware it will be lighter than any of the options you are looking at.

Because you want to get away from 'red/orange' tones (as seen in your photo), I HIGHLY recommend you work with the Jacobean side of things. Just like in the make-up industry, floor stains use GREEN based stains to 'hide' or cover red tinges. Jacobean is green based.

Jacobean is often used to create a mix of colour. The green base of Jacobean is used (50:50 or 25:75) to get rid of the red AND to darken a colour. This is normal. It is done all the time (by skilled refinishers).

I'm not fond of Ebony. It can go down VERY dark (so dark it looks like black paint). Dark walnut might pull a bit to reddy-orange (browns are made up of reds and oranges and blues, etc). Be prepared to ask for a custom mix.

And to stay away from orange all together you MUST WORK with a water based polyurethane. That means you MUST HAVE a coat of finish applied to the samples BEFORE you choose. This is normal. It is natural. It is 'industry standard'.

Never, ever pick a stain colour without a coat of your finish (in your gloss level) over top. And make sure you view the stain patches through ALL 5 lighting situations.

I like to see stain patches put down on Friday (with a coat of finish) and then the homeowners view it over the weekend. You tell the refinisher what you want on Saturday. The full staining process starts on Monday. That's the IDEAL way to do this.
Kelly Bernard
2 years ago
Hi! We are having the same debate right now about Jacobean, Dark Walnut or mixing for a cooler gray-brown with NO red/orange hues. What did you go with? Do you have photos you could share? Thanks!
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kelleg69
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I'd love to know what you went with too.

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