To be honest, I prefer the color on the left! The color on the right may be trendier (grayer), but, IMHO, is less classic. Ask your floor guy if he can stain over it. Once you get your rugs down and furniture in, the floor will recede into the background.

Thank you for the input! It's funny as I thought of dark walnut as being trendy but we don't want really dark floors, wanted a warm walnut shade, and we tend to have more classic taste. Just dislike red floors but obviously our wood choice made this a challenge! Thanks again for weighing in.

...and that is why you demand a sample (several boards of your wood) with the stain applied BEFORE you OK the start of the staining. No, I would not accept that stain. No, I would not continue with the same flooring guy. Tell Hubby you want the floors redone after the winter holidays. And find a Pro who knows what he's doing.

chestnut is very red. not sure why that was even used since red oak is already red based! What brand stain was used? lemme guess, Minwax???? smh.

you want more of an ashy color. you could try canceling the red w/green based stains, but I don't know how thats going to work. what you need right now is a flooring expert. not a floor guy or a contractor. an actual flooring coloring artist. no, they aren't cheap. you paid for cheap and look what you got. you will still need to remove that color and redo the floor.

I think you can work with the color on the left and it could actually give the room a bit of classic warmth that is absent in your computer-edited color on the right. Between the vision you had and the fact that nothing is yet in the room, I understand your focus on the floors but once you add in an area rug, furniture, and accessories, I think the space can be charming!

ok,,what I'm reading from the OP is she doesn't like the color and is asking if it can be fixed. It would appear that everyone is telling her to "get over it,,,and it looks fine". hmmmm. She said 'she doesn't like it'. Is is warm? yes. Is it livable? yes. Will it work? yes. Does she like it? NO. And if I'm honest, I don't like it either. It's too pink.

So, Jamison, as you can read, everyone is telling you to get over it, accept what you don't like, and move on with your life. lol. Do you want to do that? move everything into the room and get settled, and try to see if it works? I suppose you could. If not, then you'll have to move everything out of the room and start over.

Just call a flooring coloring expert and see if there is something simple he can do to correct the color. The other option is to remove what's there by sanding and redoing the entire floor. please do a test sample on spare boards first!

Personally I would have used Weathered gray and Walnut or Dark Walnut combo to get the color floors you want. Varathane or Genereal Finishes stains.

even tho I hate Minwax, here is a sample board, and what you should have had by your contractor

mixes w/gray tones

Sure, it can be resanded and redone. Money can make anything happen, if you find the right contractor this time. And remember that you have RED oak and adjust your expectations accordingly.

But. If you can't even talk to your husband about redoing it though, my guess it that money is not going to get spent.

Thanks all for the responses! Been in a hotel with kids shuttling back to house and not much online time. I tried a 50/50 mix of weathered and classic gray over a plank that had the current stain, and this did seem to tone down red without being too muted and too gray. If any color experts know of a color or color mix to try over our stain, I'd love to hear it. Someone mentioned green tones might help. Any idea which colors fall into the green area? The stains BTW are duraseal. Again, goal it to reduce some of the red but not get too much darker.

It's funny some of the presumptions made and how things get off topic of color correction. Someone said you paid for cheap you got cheap. This guy was not cheap and presented himself as a flooring expert, but disappeared as a resource after he got our deposit. Sent workers to the house while he became complete inaccessible and did none of what he promised, including trying color stains. Also, another person said if you can't tell your husband you don't like the color, then money won't get spent fixing it. LOL. My hesitancy at telling my husband that the color is not what I hoped as it's been a mentally and physically exhausting process...emptying out the house, missing work time, doing battle with a dishonest contractor throughout whole floor install process I didn't have the heart to add another setback until the time was right. He took it better than expected. We do not want to resand although I've no doubt that's ideal to achieve the color we had hoped but at this point we will do a second stain layer to mute the red a bit. (I loved hearing many folks say that all will look better once furniture in, etc as this reassured me I'll like floors better after our things are back, but since floors not yet sealed and I am told a second coat of stain possible, I do want to take a stab at reducing the red). Again, please let me know if any color gurus know of any shades I might sample as a second coat to tone down red. Thanks again for all of the great input!

Putting stain on top of stain, especially one with high solids with minimal penetration, is a really good way to have adhesion issues with a topcoat. Frying pan, meet fire. If you want another color, you are going to have to sand back to bare wood.

Thanks Sophie. The two flooring experts we've since spoken to have assured as that as long as we are not using a different chemical base (i.e. use oil stain then water stain) a second coat of stain won't be a problem. Although we realized that there us a huge variance of opinions on all of these issues so you may be right, but we will have to trust this second team. Hoping I can figure out what color combo will achieve what we are looking for.

jamison, you need an ash color. ash will offset some of the red. that's why I mentioned a color expert. he will know what mix of stains to use. Perhaps try calling Duraseal and see what they recommend, being that their stains were used.

Thanks Beth! So by ash do you mean gray tones? Total amateur here :) Hubby is coming home with several colors so we can do the mad scientist thing again. The gray/weathered oak was one option, not sure if I should also be trying some type of diluted brown?

Don't panic.

We did our floor last year and I didn't like them too much. Yes, I obsessed over the color before hand, did my research, yada yada yada...

Even with a sample board, you can never be too sure. Light changes all day long so will your floor.

Also, we have a mix of red oak and white oak (literally, mixed) and I can't see a difference. I might if someone pointed to it, but I would have to look really hard.

No. I don't get the attitude here, either.

Now, a year later, the color of my floor (closest to Jacobean) is a non-issue FOR ME (caps so I don't get everyone up in my face, here). It's just a pretty finished hardwood floor that keeps me from falling into the ground :)

ETA do you plan on painting? Your paint choice is making it look reddish also.

jamison, it's like when they color your hair. there are red tones, ash tones and neutral tones. ash is greenish/grayer undertones. so if you picked a stain w/those tones have absolutely no red, it should help neutralize or cancel the warm tones. I've only worked w/GF, Varathane, Cabot and Minwax stains when redoing wood, so I can't comment on the others. they are oil based, so that shouldn't be an issue w/mixing w/what you have. General finishes and varathane has walnut that has no red to it. I've mixed varathane walnut and their weathered gray and got a darker gray tone. do you have any spare floor pieces? put on the color that is currently your floor (i'm hoping they left the stain at your house). let it dry and then do a few sample spots w/different mixtures. do one w/just the walnut, another w/walnut/gray, and try different ratios of each. stay away from any stain that has red in it. There are also aniline dyes, but that's a whole other ball of wax!

Thanks Beth!! I didn't have the original Duraseal stain but I just got some and will try exactly what you suggest. I don't have walnut but do have medium brown...is that also low in red? Also have neutral, classic gray and weathered oak. Question, once first coat of original color dries on my sample, do I need to sand at all before second "correction" coat?

"A year later it's just pretty finished hardwood that keeps me from falling into the ground". Hilarious, Penny. I am sure this will be my sentiment too a year from now so thanks for the reminder....and the much needed laugh!

Stain should NEVER dry on a surface. It is meant to sit there for a bit and penetrate. Then the excess is wiped up. If that is the route to be taken here, then you most assuredly will have adhesion issues with a topcoat. A peeling topcoat after you move in and have your things everywhere is a much bigger mess than a sanding back to bare wood now.

jamison, normally wood will absorb all it's going to absorb w/one coat. subsequent coats usually will sit on top (think nail polish), which you really don't want. With large grain wood like red oak, you can often get it to absorb a bit more. as for sanding, you don't usually want to sand on the second coat because it will erase some of the first coat and leave bare spots. if the first coat raises the grain, you can smooth it down w/a very fine grain, say 320 or above, and give it a very quick pass till it's smooth, but not necessary. with the 2-3 coats of topcoats, this will be remedied. Sophie has good advice about multiple coats.

as for the medium brown shade you have, without seeing it, I can't say if there is red or not. usually dark walnut has the least amount of red. anything that says "warm" will have red tones. you will have to get a spare piece and do some samples on them. Your best bet, really, is to sand off the old stain and start new.

Some of the greatest adhesion failures (when the finish peels like a sunburn) occur when MULTIPLE coats of stain have been applied. I'm sorry to say but this is a grave concern for all of us in the wood flooring industry.

Sophie has offered her 2cents worth - twice - and has pointed out the massive concern with applying stain over stain. If you want this applied over what is already there, then you might have to sign a waiver stating that the risk for failure are much higher and that you take full responsibility for it if something goes wrong.

thank you Cancork. I also stated the same thing way back,,, sand off and redo it. But oftentimes homeowners want a quick fix and ignore well given advice. She's asked repeatedly about toning down the red, so I guess completely removing the current stain is not going to happen. I always tell people who finish wood to get the color they want in one coat. you can't apply more coats to darken it. They do it anyway. since OP is hellbent on toning down this red, I'm just advising her on the color. I'm not going to guarantee how well it stands up over the years though!

We were mad scientists trying to mix the recommended ash and brown shades to reduce red, applying them as a second coat over samples that were stained with the same color as the floors. We came up with a mix that seemed to work. The result was darker than we wanted, but less red so an improvement. Then, on a whim, applied some of our new formula to unstained samples and liked it so much better! It was even absorbing very unevenly as a second coat compared to when applying on unstained wood, so I believe the concerns expressed by many of your are very valid. (So Beth H, I appreciate both the stern warning and the "if it's your only option and you insist on doing it" color correction suggestions!).

Our contractor was a nightmare since day one (that's a whole other story but, as a side note, do better than us and do your research, check references, Yelp reviews, etc. This is too big a project and too much room for error to give to generalists. IMO, they need to be proven experts who do nothing but floors). However, we succeeded in having him resand on his dime, since he did not mix the stain samples as promised. (But... another hotel stay, more missed work and more canceled plans so not an ideal path). But, I am very glad we did not decide to live with a color we disliked, and take on risk of second stain coat. The inconvenience was worth it as I am thrilled with the final product. Actually, the final color is better than we expected as once we realized we should have gone with white oak to achieve our desired color, we tempered our expectations. However, even though it's red oak, we ended up with a warm medium brown tone that we were going for. Back in house- socks only- the day after final water poly coat no smell at all, can return furniture this weekend....yeah! Thanks again for the expert guidance.

jamison, it looks great. sorry it took so much for you to get the final result.

Looks great! What was your final stain selection after you resanded?

Jamison, we are in the exact same nightmare, with the exact same color you showed, and are resanding. Way over budget now and stressed. Could you tell us the final color or mix combo you used. It looks beautiful and exactly what we are after..

Jamison,,,if you see this comment, could you post the final colors you used? thanks