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Staining hardwood floors, what color to choose?

7 years ago
My wife and I just bought a new home. While the current floors in the upstairs living space are beautiful, we are planning the stain them another color.

The kitchen and family room have a lot of natural cherry cabinets and we are having a difficult time determining a color that would work okay with the cabinets since we aren’t planning to alter them. We were considering a darker stain for the floors, like a chocolate or mocha, which would be a nice contrast to the white walls. However, it appears this would not go well with the cherry cabinets.

We are interested in some feedback and/or examples of what staining colors might match well.

Thanks.

Comments (12)

  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago


    Those floors are gorgeous! Why are you wanting to change them? Is it because they are similar in color to the cabinets? There is an overall monotone feel to it, but that is more because of the cabinets in my opinion, there is a lot of them! They are beautiful though so I could see why you wouldn't want to paint them, you could stain THEM darker but that would be major work, harder than the floor anyway. I'm not sure any drastically different color on the floors would look good with them though. All I could think is to suggest is to stay with the same reddish tone but go a shade darker or lighter than the cabinets to get contrast but not clash with them.

    And here's a totally off the wall idea, I'm not an interior designer so take with a grain of salt. but if the toekicks of the cabinets were painted another color it might help it not feel like the same color running from the floor up to the cabinets.

    These are what I found in a quick search, maybe not the best examples but just to give you an idea of what I mean.

  • PRO
    7 years ago

    My favorite stain is a medium toned one--Special Walnut. It's not too light or dark, and has a neutral brown color, no obvious red/orange/yellow hues. I think it would look nice with cherry cabinets. But it's hard to really discern to color of your cabinets from the photo, so you need to try it out in the room and see it for yourself with your lighting, both natural and artificial.

  • 7 years ago

    I would not mess with the floors. Get some hardware on the cabinets, will help break up the monotony and also be functional.


    Removing the 4" backsplash and replacing with a full backsplash is something I'd also think about.

  • PRO
    7 years ago


    Here is how your kitchen might appear with a slightly darker stained floor

    I would 86 the hanging fixture. It's distracting and dated.

  • 7 years ago

    Leave the floors the same, paint the island and walls, add backsplash.

  • 7 years ago

    I'm in the same situation as you currently. We attempted to go mid-tone warm gray with our lighter cabinets - stain look great during the daylight but at night it showed a blue-ish tone. As a result - finalized on no stain on red oak. Just sealer and Loba 2K Supra finish. Lesson learned - Simple and natural.

  • 7 years ago

    Dark floors show scratches and dust much more than light floors - daily Swiffering needed. Partly because of this, many are trying to refinish their floors back to light, but that is difficult to do. The dark stain gets deep into the grain and into the end grain of the wood - very difficult to sand totally out. I saw an attempt to bring dark floors back to light at a remodelers' parade and it was not very pretty.

  • 7 years ago

    It looks like the floors have been stained/finished to match the cabinets. If you must refinish them (and I would ONLY do this if they ABSOLUTELY need it) I would work with a water based polyurethane. Just as dcarendt has done, going NATURAL with a water based finish will offer a degree of separation which would be JUST ENOUGH to offer some visual interest.


    Personally I think the COUNTER TOPS need changing more than the floors. My first choice would be a CRISP white (no gray) or a soap stone/slate counter top would be EXTREMELY handsome.


    You need some CONTRAST in the kitchen. Right now you have mid-tone sitting on mid-tone sitting on mid-tone. You have the lightest version of "brown blahs" I have yet encountered.


    Changing the counter tops would be faster and probably cheaper than changing the finish of the wood.

  • 7 years ago
    Ditto to adding hardware/interest. How do you open all those doors and drawers? Beautiful kitchen. I think the floors and cabinets work well together. Ante up the counters and backsplash.
  • 7 years ago

    If you do change countertops, consider moving the stovetop to the countertop to the right of the sink. Remove two or all of the 4 upper cabinets for a vent hood. Venting a gas cooktop on an island is difficult. Cooking on an island can be difficult too.


  • 7 years ago
    Thanks all for the comments on the flooring. While we like the idea of a darker colored floor, we don’t think it will work. Given the openness of the space and current colors in play, we think whitewash will work nicely on the floors.