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The Old House Flooring Design Dilemma

Matching Floors to Existing Stairs

last year

Hello!

As the title suggest, I am currently trying to match my existing stairs to the new flooring we put in. I am aware that sanding and staining the existing stairs are an option, however to cut costs I thought I could try to find a as-close-as-possible fit (I am also aware it's not always possible to get an exact match).

Current stairs: Quarter Sawn Oak (Tiger Oak) - see photo attached

Any thoughts on a particular hardwood that would closely match?

As you can see in the last photo, I've brought some samples home but seems I am totally off on all 6 samples!

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Comments (3)

User
last year
Your stairs look warm. This is just a guess, but some types of wood yellow with age and UV exposure, especially if they were sealed with urethane that's not water based. You might be better off sanding the stairs down and then staining/sealing them with the same product that was used for the new floors. That way they can all age together. Water based topcoats don't yellow like the urethane ones do.

Or if your budget is really tight, then you might need to settle with a match that's close but not perfect, then put a runner on your stairs so only a little bit of wood is showing.

Or paint the stairs, and then you can choose literally any color of floor you want!
Iri
last year
Don't paint those stairs!

I'd suggest having a flooring professional come in for a consultation. You'll have more choices with a site-finished floor and those people can match anything. Well, they can't match that fabulous oak, but they can mix up something that will look good with it.
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From what I can see, it appears to be red oak.
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If I’m understanding this correctly, the area between the two sets of stairs is this discontinued floor, the both sets of stairs are carpeted and the main living area (up the stairs) is also the discontinued flooring. Is this correct? If so, eliminate the discontinued flooring in between the two sets of stairs and replace it with whatever you choose to do for the stairs. You can keep the flooring upstairs as it is, but changing the floor at the entry to match the stairs will make it less disjointed and more intentional. Do not try to match it too hard or it will look just like you tried to match it. I would purposely contrast, but it needs to compliment. If you pull a color from the current floor, I would lean more toward light (although hard to tell, I can make out some very subtle light streaks). I would steer clear of the darker tones as dark floors tend to show everything and these sets of stairs happen to be an integral and unavoidable part of the house, which will make the high traffic very conspicuous on dark floors. I also suggest rugs!
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The wood in the kitchen is Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry). It is an exotic hardwood that has TWO different colour schemes: orange/brown/fiery OR pink/purple/mud-brown (yes...purple...I kid you not). The FUN part of Jatoba (tongue firmly in cheek) is it STARTS OUT life looking like a tame looking 'walnut' brown. It will look NOTHING like the existing floor. And then the COLOUR fires up and BAM! You have colour galore. Jatoba is photosensitive which is a big word that means 'it gets darker/stronger in colour' Just when you thought all the excitement was OVER...your floor turns purple. Not the orange/red/fiery colour of your EXISTING floor...Nope...you 'lucked out' and got the purple option. Go ahead and google 'pink brazilian cherry floors'. You will find dozens of this type of colouring. Buyer beware. Your stunning wood floor *might not be so easy to match. If it were my house, I would remove the wood and the carpet and start again with a wood you want....not one that you inherited.
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PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
Darken the stain on the new flooring to match the existing. Do not paint the stairs.

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