Have you seen such dark floors in real life or talked to one who has them? They show every speck of dust or lint and IMO are no where near as pretty as the a lighter stain.

Trust your refinisher or get another pro to come take a look.

As someone who has dark hardwood in their home...don't. It's a PAIN to keep clean and looking good. We literally vacuum/sweep and seconds later it's back to being covered in dust and lint.

A medium brown like your contractor suggested is much easier to maintain and truer to the time period of the home.

I have floors stained almost black. Stunning, except for the maintenance. I suspect your floor guy was using minwax? The duraseal ebony is very dark.

We just stained our floors dark. I love them. We have pets. At a certain time of day when the sun comes streaming in I see every cat and dog hair. I also saw the same thing when our floors were lighter. I just go into another room until the sun changes positions! Go for it.

i agree with lezlie. do what you like as long as you understand the consequences of your choice. i have a black and white checkerboard kitchen floor, and my grey cat's hair showed on both colors, equally. but i still love that floor.

own a swiffer, plan to use it all the way to the corners frequently.

(sadly, the cat pass about a month ago. its quite remarkable how much cleaner the floors stay.)

I would keep the lighter color, making it less orange, more of a sand tone like the top of your mantel, and not shiny. I've seen houses with the darker floors and they never look clean, with daily life and pets being what they are. I would suggest a large rug in the living room to give a warmer, more inviting look.

ninigret...sorry about your kitty. Yes, I was amazed - we took a three week trip and I could wear the same black pants for Days! I'll always have animals though. Their little furry beings are worth every hair they shed.

@Laura , I have medium/dark-ish brown engineered wood floors that replaced natural light colored oak floors. Yes, they show some "dirt" more but honestly I don't care. They look so much better than the light colored oak. I'd rather have the floor look great and a little dirty then "ok" but clean.

Anyway, I do have one oak staircase going to the basement that I did not feel like paying to have the treads replaces. Therefore, I tried to stain them to match. It was difficult to stain oak darker and have it look nice.

It did take a lot to get the oak to "take" the stain, and oak has a lot of grains. Those grains show through on a medium stain and I don't like how that looks. Way too much variation for me.

But, your ebony stain may not have that problem if you are trying to get them really dark and your floor person can do it.

I think what you have is gorgeous and appropriate for the space. I would not touch it.

You do NOT want matte finish floors! They will "snag" dust, trash, and pet hair. They will look awful. I don't like satin, either, as it does not wear as well or as long. I'm a huge fan of high gloss (gym floor finish) hardwood floors. They are SO easy to keep clean - the Swifter sweeper just glides over them, shiny floors reflect light and make everything look fresh, clean and new, and they last, and last and last. I have floors in my house that are 33 years old and still look great.

Redoing floors is a nuisance - one must move all the furniture out of the house, remove books from bookcases, take down pictures and remove curtains. The dust is unbelievable. One wants to get it right the first time and never do it again while living in the house. If one sticks with a traditional and classic hardwood floor, this is very much possible.

Matte can look dead and dull. No depth. No richness to them. And unfinished. Be careful

I love what you have right now, but I have similar red oak floors in my house. Houzz/GW is full of people who complain that their dark wood floors show everything. If you like to have a Swiffer permanently attached to one arm, go for it.

I have two black and white cats and their shows up everywhere in my house, except the floor. No doubt it's there, but it doesn't show, nor does dust. Now my dark mahogany media stand, forget about it.

Although I have a gloss finish, I've read that satin is preferred. However, Anglophilia makes some good points about less glossy finishes holding dust/fur.

Vinegar and steel wool will work

Thank you everyone! The reason I want to go darker in the space is because it will give a richer look to the furniture I already have. And I'm not moving into the house until June so I have plenty of time for the floors to be done. I'm aware of the dust issue but like the idea of just going in another room! Haha. Thank you so much for the comment on the finishes I probably will do satin or semi-gloss.

Here's a picture of the front door of my home, which I absolutely love. And if I could get the color to match that, perhaps that's the way I should go rather than ebony.

Your new home is beautiful. Congrats! It would be difficult for me to wait 2+ months to get in there.

The floors you currently have are "natural" with an oil based finish. It is possible to get "almost" black with DuraSeal Ebony (you won't want something as dark as your inspiration pick....but you will get very close).

If you don't want the medium brown the installer suggests (which is probably his/her "comfort zone" and the one he/she is most comfortable mixing/applying) then go for the Ebony. If you want deep colour that is NOT red based, feel free to get a snick of Jacobean in there. Jacobean has a GREEN base....and green kills the red/salmon colour in red oak.

If you add the Jacobean, it will get LIGHTER. Jacobean is NOT as dark as ebony, so be aware of that before making that decision. The straight ebony should give you what you want.

The lowest gloss I would look at is satin. It offers a glow without being "dead". The semi-gloss is the highest gloss level I would look at. With a dark floor, they will read like black mirrors if too shiny. I would say your inspiration picture is semi-gloss or a FRESHLY applied satin.

When you ask for the stain samples (you should be offered 4-6 different stain patches to choose from), make sure you get to see the FINISH over top of the colour. You can ask for the satin and the semi-gloss to go over them so that you are picking both the colour and the gloss. This is the only way to prevent massive mistakes. It also takes a few days longer....which can irritate the lower-level "professionals".

Love your house! My vote would be medium brown. I put very dark hardwood in my last house and have medium brown in my new house and although I picked the dark in the old house and inherited the lighter floors, I much prefer the medium brown. They are rich and warm and versatile. At the end of the day though, go with what you really want - it's your space!

My house has dark stained floors on I think red oak--they were done by previous owners. No problem keeping floors looking good with daily roomba use; however, I do not have kids just 2 dogs, French bulldog and a Pug both shed like crazy. Do have to admit I am not a great house keeper so a spec of dust does not bother me. Floors are also hand scraped and not sure what finish, definitely not matte and definitely not high gloss. Not sure if that makes a difference in showing dust.

Those will need water popping to get what you want. Trust me on that one:)

I did ebonized floors in my last place, which was red oak strip just like yours (and not original to the house) and it was very difficult to get a dark even finish. the pores had to be opened and my floor guy now does this by water popping.

It was a lot of work, took several coats (for which there was an upcharge) and he said they could never be sanded well enough to refinish again--the penetration of the stain was too deep and complete.

They looked great. We Swiffered or dust mopped them just about every other day.

I think a darker floor like Jacobean or Dark Walnut would be appropriate for your house but ebonized (which would almost be like a fumed oak finish sometimes done in the Craftsman era, not so much)

I don't think iron acetate stain will get your Red Oak anywhere near the color of the second picture. Instead try DuraSeal True Black stain. Check out the picture on the left in this link: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/303218987392815432/

We have Jacobean on white oak with satin finish. Not as dark as ebony but a nice rich look. Timeless.

My favorite Houzz designer Michael Abrams uses Jacobean or espresso.

I just had my red oak floor refinished a dark brown, it turned out like the third picture. My floor guy said its tough to go any darker, but it is fine with me, I think the maintenance is about the same.

Sonja, your photo is exactly the look I'm going for. The reason being I want a Tudor floor look in the house and a lot of the furniture I have has that look as well. It sounds as though ebony worked for you on your red oak floors?

Laura, I wish I could tell you how my floors achieved that color but as mentioned they were done by the previous owner. I am enclosing a picture of a closet floor that escaped. It is dusk outside so the color is a bit darker than it actually is. Sorry I cannot offer more help.

If you're abandoning the quest to look like your #2 picture, try water pop and DuraSeal Coffee Brown.

If I have a completely new question for everyone, is it best to post it under a new heading or just ask in this conversation? Thank you!

On one hand you have a captive audience that will get notifications on this thread. One the other hand people that didn't respond to this probably won't look. I'd say new question.

The second photo of Sonja's floor is perfect for a 1931 Tudor home. Medium brown is a classic and looks great in a satin or semi-gloss finish. Minwax "Special Walnut" is my favorite. I wouldn't recommend a high gloss for your home.

My new question is going to be whether I should do recessed lighting in the family room. I do not want to because I want to keep the house as period-correct as much as I can. Hopefully you can all find my question there, appreciate it very much!

Hi @Laura! I personally feel that recessed lighting does nothing to make a room look better.... especially for period homes. They are fine in art galleries, basements ( where the ceiling is lower) and kitchens. But they just don't look that great.

Table lamps and floor lamps can give off such nicer light. A hanging ceiling light also works well.

I live on a street of homes built in 1945 and some people added recessed lights to their living rooms. They look bad. It ruins the aesthetic.

Bottom line, you can find much better lightening than recessed at the same price point.

Hi again everyone, I was back at the house today and noticed that in the coat closet off the front entry to the home, you can still see the original stain of the floors that were in the house. I'm going to attach it here. I certainly like it much better than the light oak look that is in there presently, but I still would prefer to have the darkness of the trim colors that you see in the second photo. Thank you all for your input, big decisions to be made about this floor color, but at least I'm now making an informed decision! (Also in the photo is the tile I will be having them install in the entryway and on the fireplace hearth.)

I decided that having wood floors the same color as the trim would tend to hide the trim. I think the contrast of having floors somewhat lighter than the trim allows the trim detail to show. One lesson I did learn is make sure you clean the trim before you do any stain matching.

My preference for finish is a semigloss. I have been told by a supplier that the high gloss finish is harder which is the reason it is used for the build coats. Another explanation I have read is the flatteners added to the finish to cut the gloss can lead to a muddy appearance if too much finish is applied. The final coat determines the gloss level so if you decide that semigloss is too much for your taste, it can be topcoated with a satin. If you discuss this idea with your flooring guy, you can get an idea of how much the upcharge might be for the possible extra coat.

When picking the stain for the floors keep in mind you will probably be putting down area rugs. If you are concerned about a particular style, the rugs will matter more than the floor stain.