Finished! Here is before and after of the kitchen: Before: After: So we used general finishes water-based stain (rosewood) to darken the wood and take care of any wood variations, followed by a few coats of general finishes gel stain (georgian cherry), which really smoothed out the open grainy-ness of the oak. My husband wanted the color to be very dark, without any light/dark variation, but you can still see that it is wood. The gel stain is great, because you don't see any paintbrush marks. I applied the gel stain with a sock, and just rubbed it in (rather than wiping some on, and wiping excess off with another sock/rag). I then applied one coat of Aqua Zar water-based polyurethane in semi gloss, then a final coat of Aqua Zar water-based polyurethane in satin (because we didn't want it too shiny). I had heard that if you use several coats of satin only over dark stain, it gets cloudy. The satin over semi-gloss looked great. After much deliberation, I opted for the Aqua Zar water based because I wanted something without fumes (we have children/pets), and that would be quick. In retrospect, I think that I could have used an oil-based polyurethane, or even general finished gel topcoat, and it would have been fine. Overall, the project was very easy and came out great! Thanks for everyone who provided input! Diane

We finished our #2 grade red oak installation stained with Rubio monocoat smoke 5%. Here is a photo with the unfinished #2 red oak on left and the 25 year old dining room floor (smaller planks) on right. Overall, I love the smoked effect of the Rubio! I do regret not getting something a bit more dramatic in color though like a white or a darker brown. The redder planks of oak still look pinkish. I thought that the green of the 5% smoke would soften the pink. We will be installing the same oak in the other sitting room and kitchen and I would like to try a whiter shade or a darker shade to try and mask some of the pink. (I didn't waterpop and maybe that could have added a more opaque effect from the smoke 6%). Advice please: I bought UMO to add the extra level of protection and sheen. Tomorrow will be the 36hr curing time from the smoke 5% 2c to apply UMO. Should I just save the UMO for when we do the other rooms in a year or so? Is is possible to blend this smoke 5% floor with a new floor done with a different shade (a whiter or more medium brown shade)? Can a new shade be applied over this smoke 5% or should the floor be sanded? Thanks!

I got a bunch of stains to test, and while the walnuts and oaks match, we hate the dark grain they make in the oak. It just looks too much like 80's oak furniture. Some things about stain are so puzzling. - I have no idea why even a light stain like golden oak makes the grain dark, when golden pecan and colonial maple don't. Do some intentionally have lighter bases but darker solids so they deposit the dark into the grain? We much prefer the no-grain ones. - Why do golden pecan and colonial maple look indistinguishable on my sample, but light years different on the Minwax color chips of the same wood? Well those are rhetorical questions, unless someone knows the answer. Since the teak floors get more orange as they age, and the Minwax color chip shows colonial maple as more orange than golden pecan, maybe I'll use colonial maple.

Semigloss will reflect light more than satin, but if there’s no light to reflect that won’t help you. It may also accentuate any defects in the floor. If electrical upgrades aren’t an option can you bring in more lamps? Even with overhead lighting, lamps improve the ambiance significantly. Lighter paint also reflects light, but again you must have light to reflect. Whites really need natural light to look good in my opinion, otherwise they accentuate shadows and make the room feel dingy.