Dark floors are not a one coat process, even with water popping. You need to pay the upgrade for more work if you want dark. Ebony has a greenish undertone, just like white oak does. You are most likely looking at a custom stain as well, with several "recipes" being tried before you find the one that you approve of. But, be careful what you ask for. Be sure that you actually can live with dark floors first. They look great right after you dust mop them, but just like a dark colored car after it's washed, 15 minutes later, you see more dust and dirt on the surface. In a builder grade situation, I would suggest one coat of Provincial, or Special Walnut, (or English Chestnut if you want to more counteract the bit of green that white oak has) and leave it at that. These will be a one coat medium brown that you can live with and won't cost you an arm and a leg for custom work. If you upgrade to more work, both from the flooring guy and for yourself for the added long term maintainence, then a mix of 2/3 Ebony and 1/3 Red Mahogany, waterpopped, 2 coats, has been a successful recipe that I've used for clients in the past on white oak. Remember to always test on at least a 2x2 sample patch before giving your approval to any stain, no matter if it's straight out of the can or a custom mix. How the individual floor finisher handles the wood and the individual wood itself, plus the lighting in your home will have the greatest impact on color. It's what turns every site finished floor into "custom" work.

btw, this was my thinking. We are going with Malay Tan stained concrete floors to cut the cost as we can always add different flooring later. This lets us focus the budget on the rest of the stuff that is harder to replace. So, upstairs, we have this flooring: https://www.superiorhomeflooring.com/store/p38/Dark_Hollow_Falls_|Shenandoah_Collection|_12mm_Laminate_Flooring.html Called Dark Hollow Falls Shenandoah. The total upstairs master (we will have 2 master bedrooms) will have this flooring and the stairs will be stained to match. The entire downstairs will be the Malay Tan. Now, my thinking was, later.. if we wanted the entire house to have this flooring, and we had the Chestnut cabinets, this would be awful dark. So, we may go a shade lighter on the cabinets so they do not blend together. Russ

I did not use it on my floor, but I did use it on my front door, which may or may not help:My floor is oak, and we have not changed the finish. The door is mahogany instead of oak, and so it may take the stain differently. I could show you a photo of the exterior of the door, but it is a slightly different color because we put a different stain on that side first and then tried to remove it because it was too red, and while we did remove most of the stain, there was a slight residue that makes it slightly different from the interior side. No one has really noticed until I tell them, however.

Did you paint your railing? I like that look and we are looking for pointers as we are hoping to do ours!!