I can choose any stain. do you prefer something else

Keep in mind the DuraSeal stain sample card usually shows the stain color on red oak, not white oak, and the same stain color will look slightly different on red oak than it does on white oak. Pick your wood species first. My preference is white oak; more people are using it now because they are tired of the same old red oak that everyone has (red oak is the most widely used wood species in floors because it's been the builder's choice for flooring for years). Grey is the hot new color in floor stains; it's extremely popular right now. You can't go wrong with any of the "light to medium brown" color stains such as Chestnut, Provincial, Early American, and Special Walnut. These are timeless. Make sure you have your flooring contractor put down stain samples on the floor before you make a decision. The actual stain color on the floor can look much different than the color on the small stain sample card.

do you know what species of wood that you are using?white oak, red oak, maple are something else.

the easiest solution would be to find a different granite that similar undertones to your expresso stained cabinets.

I see a red undertone in the wood cabinet I'm not sure what the wood is. depending on the wood species, the red undertone may become darker/more prominent over time.

I'm not sure tat you can get enough color dimensions with a simple stain on a wood.

the attached wood floor has multiple color dimensions and works fairly well with red and Yellow undertones. however, colors came from multiple pocesses including heat, stain, and dark oil sealant. the wood is ash.

I guess you could see what what the darkest brown if not ebony stain looks like on the species of would. in that respect if our pick a wooday like hickory, then the wood could provide extrate dimensins to the color once it is stained. of course, you may not like having such variations in color.

I would stick to a med toned oak wood (or other wood type) not to dark, not to light. The cabinets are already dark.

We can choose between red and white oak. because it's a big box builder we have limited options.

I am getting large samples on the actual wood and not deciding based on the swatches. thank you all for your ideas and suggestions

Reddish oak looks fine with our Espresso island (our main cabinets are off white).

Your granite is going to read YELLOW when it is installed. I'm afraid that anything too gray is going to contrast with the counter top. The gray is out with your choice of counter tops. The light "beige" one will be a contrast with the counter tops as well. That leaves the sample on the top...the warm midtone brown as the only one that will NOT produce a clash.

Because your counter top is going to be a strong yellow in appearance, you can work with either a white oak or a red oak...either way the colours should work out well. Of course white oak is easier to work with in the future. Getting rid of the cinnamon tones in red oak can be a bit of a pain...but it works with the yellow granite.

Thank you. it seems the chestnut stain is the consensus. we have limited granite choices. I don't want a black based granite because they show every streak and water mark and make me a little crazy. the white/grey choice we were offered has a purple red in it that made me think of blood. so the gold base was my best option