Those floors are gorgeous.

We have natural oak floors and I like them -- they don't show dust like anything dark (furniture is dark so I know!). But that's me! I've never been a fan of dark wood floors.

They're pretty but if you don't like them, change them. There are plenty of lovely natural color stains that aren't so dark, don't suck light out of a room and don't show every spec of dust and dirt.

Once you decide on a good floor guy, have him sand off the current stain and then show you samples on your wood in your space.

This thread might be helpful.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5853825/quick-pick-a-stain-color

Can you easily get to a significantly lighter stain when refinishing? It seems like it would be easier to stick to a darker finish without worrying about the corners, seams, etc.

@ Fiona - I can see why you don't want to keep them. The appearance of dust is a difficult one to control with dark floors. And this floor ranks as 'dark'. Or at least a medium dark floor.

For a craftsman style home with a traditional aesthetic, I like a light-midtone floor. A light 'nut brown' stain (like Early American) is a lovely option that respects the look of the home while maintaining your personal design taste.

My one concern is the floors are in PERFECT condition. It appears the sellers had them refinished before they listed the house. As a wood floor lover, I hate to see a beautiful (though dark) wood floor go through an unnecessary sand/refinish.

Each time you sand down a wooden floor you remove 25 years worth of life (a full life cycle of a finished floor = 20-25 years). A solid hardwood floor has 60 - 80 years of service. By sanding a newly refinished floor, you could be reducing the wood's life by 30%.

Think carefully before do a full sand and refinish on this (by all appearances) newly refinished floor.

There won't be any less dust on the floor of a different color. I suggest you buy a Roomba.

Your floors look great. I might consider having the air ducts vacuumed to see if that helps with the dust. Oriental Rugs will look stellar on this backdrop

Thank you all for the comments, a lot of things to consider. Unfortunately the floors are not in great condition even though they are only 5 years I’ll. There are several deep scratches but more importantly there are areas where the stain/ varnish is peeling. A very reputable flooring company indicated that it may have been caused by them adding stain to the varnish in order to darken it. His advice was that it will continue to “bubble” and peel if we do a buff and coat.

As it has to be redone anyway I was thinking of changing the color out

Ah...I see. The homeowner probably used a tinted polyurethane as a 'buff and coat'. The new poly isn't grabbing the old = full failure.

Right. Now that you know it is failing you might as well go for the full sand/refinish and go with a stain that is 3-4 steps lighter than what is on there now.

Your flooring professional will sand down the floor (or at least a large patch) and apply stain samples + 1 coat of finish for you to make your final decision.

Here’s Early American stain on red oak. Dust is not noticeable at all. The previous owner had dark floors and we had them refinished. We love the look of the wood grain. You definitely have to try samples on your floor. Special Walnut is another color stain to look at. Mixing stains to get a custom color for your floors is also possible. A good flooring professional will help you with this.

I recommend not going too gray, which seems to be the trend now. Also don’t go too red. Both gray and red floors will limit your furniture and decor choices, in my opinion.

Carolae shows precisely what I was thinking of. This is the type of 'mid-tone' brown I'm talking about. it would look VERY handsome in your new home.