What you have in your pics is a factory finished floor. It is difficult to get that kind of consistent look when staining unfinished, especially if the unfinished has boards with mixed sawing characteristics. The face sawn material will take up and hold the least pigment and will be the yellow boards you are seeing. We can sometimes get a more even look by using a sand grit sequence to allow more pigment to be deposited on the floor and by doing what we call waterpopping; you may still get variations, but it will look as even as it's going to get. I don't do this...but some of my colleagues will first use an analine dye and then, when it is dry, will follow that up with a pigmented stain. Talk with your finisher.

I prefer a mid tone brown (cool in tone = same effect as gray) like Early American or Walnut. The walnut has a green base which means it will kill the red in the red oak. Going gray is a tricky business. We've seen gray (imagine a watery paint sloshed all over the floor) make pet stains (any liquid stains actually) look WORSE. And that's the last thing you want to see.

@jjam Your floors look beautiful. @Angela Wacker I hope your floors turn out beautiful. @mdln these are such a good ideas/solutions next time I am doing a renovation I will make sure to get this kit. I went by the house in the morning and took a closeup photo (prior to getting confirmation from the contractor and subcontractor) It does look like white oak. @SJ McCarthy thank you for all the information, it gave me ideas on what to ask the contractor and how to have a conversation about the floors. I even came up with a few more stains to try in case the original choices did not work out. The contractor e-mailed me early this afternoon agreeing to test a few more colors. We asked him, again, regarding the type of floors we have and the new ones they installed, initially he said the floors were red oak, but then he texted us an hour later letting us know that the sub had informed him that it was white oak!?! What!! @Beth Thank you!!!! @SashaDog Thank you!!!! @G & S Floor Service @Timothy Winzell it appears you guys were right - it is white oak -probably. Quality/grade? who knows! I cant believe the contractor did not know this! It appears my worries about the floors looking red after a light stain were unnecessary. We stopped by the home to see the samples on our "white oak" and the white stain looked nice with the top coat on it, not pink. The birch was nice, but we decided to go with the white as it looks more like the natural color of the wood we love. I am still anxious about the overall outcome, but crossing fingers that it turns out nice. I am going by the house tomorrow and working from my car so I can take a look and stop the workers in their tracks if it looks bad lol. I am just kidding...but maybe I am not :) Here are the two samples we tried Bona Birch and Duraseal White with bona HD on our "white oak" floors (this is not 100% for sure lol). Leaving the picture here in case someone is looking for a picture of these two stains. You are all such a wonderful group of people! Thank you for helping me through my anxiety. This morning I felt so stupid to have been worrying about a floor stain when so much more important things are going on in the world. Anyways, thank you and much love to you all. Stay healthy!! -Mari

I believe that a natural finish is very consistent with MCM. My red oak floors are 80+ years old, and last refinished 20 +/- years ago with a natural finish. I don't see them as orange, more of a golden yellow (YMMV) that has darkened some over the years, but I think their color looks fine with my mahogany buffet & china cabinet, and my 200 year old very dark, unknown wood secretary. Your walnut sample has light and dark variations - if you decide against natural, I would ask your refinishers if they can come up with a stain that is similar to the lightest variation. Some refinishers are willing to mix stains to get a desired effect - not all will, though. Are you refinishing the stairs, also? I would encourage you to do so. They really are orange. I think that if you could replace the brass fireplace surround with a dark bronze (or perhaps paint the existing one), that could help pull the various elements together a bit better. Pulling out the gray/brown tones that exist in the stone will help to deemphasize the pink - a bit.