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Flooring Design Dilemma

Hi! I need help picking a stain for my white oak floors

12 months ago

Knocking down a wall and running the wood floor into the kitchen so it will be an open layout. My current floors are old, we think white oak based on a what a floor guy said today, and they have an orangey/yellow tone. My house is very warm, greige walls, brown couches, med/dark wood furniture. My kitchen will have a warm brown (mocha) island and off white cabinets. I am sanding down floors and refinishing- I just want to get the orange/golden tones out but I don't dislike my floor. I'll try to post pics of my current floor. I need help!! I don't know what stain to use!

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Comments (8)

Lyn Nielson
12 months ago
just don't finish with an oil poly, go with a waterbase poly and it won't yellow over time.
HU-142297210
Original Author
12 months ago
Yes thank you- the contractor said water based also but I need help picking the right stain !
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Oak floor throughout living, dining and family room. Currently a "yellowish". Walls are light gray and furniture transitional. I was thinking of something more "brown" would be more modern. Advise?
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decided on white oak, now I need a duraseal stain color, help!!
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Comments (11)
I have Provincial on my wood floors and love it! It’s a true medium brown, doesn’t skew orange, yellow or red, but feels warm (doesn’t have any grey quality). Not too dark and not too light. It partially depends what species of wood you have. Our floors are red oak. Each type of wood looks a bit different, even with the same stain color. Yours being white oak would naturally have a bit less red undertone than my red oak. The other stain color we seriously considered was Special Walnut, which I found to be the tiniest bit less warm than Provincial. It has a bit of green in its base, which counteracts any red tones in the wood to look more neutral. It doesn’t actually look green. Regardless of what any of us recommend, definitely test any stain colors you’ve narrowed down to on your actual floors before making a final choice. Id be happy to take some pics of mine if you want. Just let me know!
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I don't think you will be able to get that light look consistently with red and white oak. You probably need to go with a medium neutral stain on all floors, one that has green tones in it. Green is the complement to red/pink, and mixing complementary colors neutralizes them. I've had success with Special Walnut stain throughout my home. The floors in the original (1920s) part of the home are oak, not sure if red or white. The new white oak floors in the kitchen were installed in 2014; all are stained special walnut. Here is a photo of the transition area between dining room (above the saddle) and kitchen (below the saddle). The color is not too dark and not too light. Depending on the light it can look warmer or cooler. It's my "go-to" color for me and my clients for many years.
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Comments (9)
I like the color you have! It is classic. Maybe not "on trend", but it won't be the gray floor of 2017 for the next 40 years either. Anything "Medium Brown" will be classic. Achieving that on red oak is not always easy due to the red part of red oak. Seriously, though, there is no easy answer to this without samples on your floor in your lighting. You can't make your decision based on pictures on the internet because of the variations in lighting and whatever your monitor does to colors, too. If you can't slow the process down to get samples, I would make my own samples by getting some unfinished red oak and staining it yourself. Be sure to add the top coat to get a realistic idea of what it will look like. Then you can move the samples around. However, you need to know what brand of products your flooring professional is going to use. If you have that information already, please share it and the professionals here will be able to give you some input on the quality of the product.
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Lyn Nielson
12 months ago
no stain needed, just poly over the natural for a fresh look.
PRO
Sabrina Alfin Interiors
12 months ago
Do a clearcoat and be done.
kandrewspa
12 months ago
The flooring contractor should be able to show you patch samples on your floor of what a clear coat would look like, and you could also sample some stains if you decide you want it darker. You should be trying to be two shades lighter or darker than your island, but have the same tone (yellow, red, green). Stains have undertones just like paint colors. You may have to stain the new and not the old in order to get the two to look alike, but an experienced floor refinisher should be able to work this out.

I had an addition put on my previous house and had new wood floors next to old which were blended seamlessly - I didn't even have the old refinished. If you didn't know where to look for the transition you couldn't tell, and even knowing where it was the difference was very fine - and I'm pretty picky. There was a 4-5 foot opening between the two rooms with no threshold.
HU-142297210
Original Author
12 months ago
Wow that’s great -‘I guess I want to have a better idea what to try before he gets there bc I am terrible at making decisions and don’t want to drive him crazy ! Thank you !
PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
12 months ago
Do you have a clue as to how you want the finished room to appear?
HU-142297210
Original Author
12 months ago
Hi! I think I like the early American or only one coat of special walnut may be good
Also like the golden oak in the second pic but I’m afraid of the word golden ! Just light - med brown tones I guess. I actually like the weathered oak also but I’ve read it can look grey .
Thank you for the visuals

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