We have a barn beam that we are using for our mantel piece. Really cool elm from 1895, so we don't want to mess it up.

We have a great room with lots of grey: white cabinets, pewter grey walls and gray bamboo flooring. The stonework is shown below. The temporary tile resting bridge that will be gone.

Should we go with a richer brownish wood color or a weathered/washed-out gray for the mantel stain? The gray seems to actually show more of the wood character.

The two stain options are shown below: espresso on the left and classic gray in the middle. Thoughts?