If anyone did those stains on oak wood share your pics please!!! Must decide by Saturday. Thank you

Have you lived with a dark floor? They show everything.

I would clear coat the beautiful wood you have without stain. It is the easiest to care for - shows the least dust and scratches, goes with almost any style and is also what I am seeing in many new design pics. It is difficult to get rid of dark stain deeply imbedded in grain, so it is not very easy to go back to the unstained look.

Thanks for replies, but thats the new floor my old flooring is a medium brown with heavy red undertone that I don’t like.

Also flooring company told me that the tannins in the white oak with the clear polyurethane will turn it very yellow

Have to repeat it - dark floors show every crumb and piece of dust. You will be swiffering all the time and not be able to keep up.

Too dark for me , but as I stated on another thread, I’m too OCD to have something like that. My current medium toned walnut is more than enough maintenance for me. Daily vacuuming + swiffering. Besides, others will disagree, but I think very dark floors darken the overall look in the house and make it look smaller. Just my thoughts, but go with what you love, knowing what you’re in for.

I am with the others that your natural floors are beautiful. I can’t really differentiate much with your dark choices so hard for me to make a suggestion. All but the bottom left look pretty much the same.

I have Provincial and love them. Not too dark, not too light. I really think a medium rather than dark brown is best.

Tannin pull can be PREVENTED by using a sealant PRIOR to the 2-3 coats of finish. I'm not sure why your professional wood flooring refinisher did NOT tell you that. And PLEASE have a coat of FINISH applied to the stain patches BEFORE you decide!!!! It can be a SHOCK to see the difference between the raw stain and the stain+finish.

If you don't like the old floor, then perhaps you should look at changing them all right now. Of course, a natural oak against a stained oak should look fine.

The "turn very yellow with water based finishes" is an odd statement from a flooring professional. Traditionally the 'very yellow' comes for solvent based/OIL based finishes. Yes it is possible that tannin pull will help yellow the oak, but again that can be PREVENTED using sealant.

Please RECONFIRM the product being used (and list it here) and CONFIRM that the company you are using KNOWS about sealants OVER white oak....my spidy senses are telling me something's up here.

Love the look of the natural wood, especially with those cabinets. It looks so warm and inviting and is similar to what I'm doing in our build. Light to medium wood is timeless. The dark stains, as others have mentioned, will end up showing EVERYTHING - I have had dark floors in the past. Dust, drips, crumbs, etc. drove me nuts.

SJ McCarthy. What is the formula, brand to use that allows white oak to look in its current state but be finished. That would be appreciated!

LOVE LOVE LOVE dark wood floors. I did them in my last house years ago and am doing them again in my new house. Sure they show dust and dog hair but I have a roomba and I swiffer whenever it bothers me. I love the look so much I am willing to deal with any care issues. 3/4 English Chestnut 1/4 Ebony stain on a mix of red and white oak but this was after we tried 3/4 Mahogany and 1/4 Ebony but that came out terribly. Mahogany was too red.

oak floor stain link to the issues of finding the right color

Same floor below as above just in different lighting.

And a poll on dark or light wood floors [poll dark or light hardwood[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/poll-light-or-dark-hardwood-dsvw-vd~5047868)

I say get what you love. You won't mind cleaning something you enjoy. ~boxer

I love dark floors when I see them but also Into the natural coastal style. We also have low ceilings and don’t want home to feel dark

Boxerpal so pretty your house

Love to see more pictures of white oak stained dark or light that doesn’t have red or yellow undertone

Antique Brown and Natural 2 to 1 on white oak.

My dd has Dark Walnut on white oak. Her floors are beautiful but definitely dark and show every speck. I will try to find a pic.

I just did my floors dark. If fact he did 2 coats of ebony and still was too brown so he did a coat of True Black and now I love it. It is definitely more work to keep clean but I don’t feel like I’m a slave to my floor by any means. I’ll post a pic tomorrow.

For a natural looking white oak, I prefer to see Loba 2K Supra AT (the ceramic infused polyurethane) in Satin. The Loba EasyPrime is used as the sealant.

https://www.loba.de/us/products/waterborne-finishes/2-component-waterborne-finishes/product/2k-supra-at/

https://www.loba.de/us/products/waterborne-finishes/sealer/product/ws-easyprime/

If you REALLY want the look of "raw wood" without anything on it (as in "just sanded") then the Loba 2K Invisible Protect is the go-to for the Loba line (no need for sealant).

https://www.loba.de/us/products/waterborne-finishes/2-component-waterborne-finishes/product/2k-supra-at/

Bona has lines that will AMBER even if they state "water borne" product. So be careful with those ones. And MANY water borne products have HIGH solvent contents (...yet still state water borne) which we would refer to as "Oil Modified" product. These ALSO amber (turn yellow).

If you are into SUPER SCRATCH resistance then the Loba 2K Supra AT is a "must". If you MUST HAVE the 'raw wood' look then the Loba 2K Invisible Protect will give you the look you want - but it is not as tough as the Supra AT.

No No No to the dark floors. Yes they might look nice, but the dark floor trend is on the way out for a reason.

As Aurora Tea did, we used Provincial and found it a good neutral brown not too dark not too light.

IloveRed do you know the brand you used and the finish. It’s beautiful and anymkde pics?

DrB477 can you upload pictures please

Kmandel..my floor guy used Bona water based stain. He then used 2 coats of the Bona water based finish, banned everyone from the house for five days, then covered the floors. When the interior of the house is finished he will use to more coats of finish. He said the last will be a matte finish. I hope I am correct in explaining this. This is how we picked the color. All of these samples have 1 coat of finish over the stain to see the true color.

Good luck! One of my hardest decisions. I wanted a classic color with no orange. I picked the #5

If you want something a little darker #4 was beautiful and rich. Straight Antique Brown. It was too dark for me.

Here is dds white oak. This is Dark Walnut. Beautiful in person but very dark. Three children and shows every speck of dust and lint.

This is provincial in our living room. It's on Douglas fir not oak.

I had the majority of my floors installed six years ago and then some more recently. They decided to "water-pop" the second time. It made the color richer. Unfortunately, it is a little off where the two rooms meet. If and when I ever strip them down to finish it all off as one then I will have the water pop again. It really made a huge difference. I found quite a few websites confirming what the installer said so that made me happy. Just wish they "matched" better.

Ask your installer about water-popping.

S J McCarthy - Slightly off topic, I was going to have some furniture built, but when I had some light gray stained color samples made, there was a lot of brown and yellow showing - more, I think, than the original raw wood. I'm now thinking of getting a different cabinetmaker and trying again. What should I be asking (or telling) him in terms of achieving a light colored gray stain?

Dark flooring does show a lot. If you love it buy a robotic vacuum. That will help them stay nice and clean. I like all the stains with your cabinet.

A note re yellowing. We had our 20 year old red oak floors refinished with Bona Traffic last year (water based). Our refinisher told us that the sanding would remove the significant yellowing of the initial finish, and the new sealer would not yellow like oil based would. We have seen absolutely no yellowing.

I’m at a vacation rental house this week, and I am shocked at how the dark wood floors show every speck! I’m so glad I am seeing how it is to live with this before making my own floor decisions. You’d have to listen to the noise of a Roomba while it does the work for you to go that route.

Character White Oak with Driftwood stain, BonaTraffic.

We used Special Walnut (oil finish) on white oak, looks very similar to this floor:

Not too light or dark, and no yellowing, after over 4 years.

Kristin Petro, interiors inc. is driftwood bona or duraseal that was used? Satin finish?

Anymore pictures of that floor

Duraseal Provincial on white oak, satin finish. SW Passive wall paint.

I believe it was Duraseal and Bona was just the finish. Top photo was from builder’s photographer. Bottom is from my phone.

A note on the robotic vacuum. I have a Eufy and it actually isn’t loud.

Be bold. Go dark. Or colored

If you want gray on cabinets then paint them. Gray stain over yellow (or brown or red or orange wood) is SUPER difficult to achieve. Gray on flooring is tough enough to do and EXTREMELY expensive. Cabinets can be tougher still. If you want gray cabinets, then look at paint, not stain.

SJ McCarthy - going to go natural. Which Loba product do you recc. What is the most popular for natural looking floors that have white oak. Loba 2k invisible protect or Lobs 2k Supra? I have little kids and a small dog which is best and will look the best with my white cabinets shown.