For some perspective....Our floors are white oak with special walnut stain. They were stained 7 yrs ago. We matched flooring and I wished we had sanded and added a bit of gray to The SW to compensate for the natural reddish color oak turns to. If I had to redo, I’d go a bit darker too. Just a personal thing and it would entail moving out of our house as all the flooring is the same everywhere now except for 2 carpeted bedrooms. Good luck with your project.

The poll would be more accurate if you had a picture of the stain next to the option. I would stay away from gray.

What do the new floors look like?

Straight special walnut or sw with 25% grey added. Any more grey than that and you will be regretting it in a few years.

These are the new floors. They are select grade and I didn't realize my old floors were a lower grade until they were sanded down from a dark walnut stain. So a lighter stain will show the imperfections in the lower grade next to the brand new, higher grade.

I am going to get some more stain samples done tomorrow with Jacobean and Provincial to see if I can get a medium brown with little to no red undertone. I am definitely not going grey.

Doesn't your floor finisher have any custom blends of his own to offer you?

What brand stain? I think you can find better colors for your red oak. I would lean a bit darker to avoid the aging yellow syndrome with red oak. Have had several red oak floors and added a bit of ebony to the stain. One home I used all ebony. The grain in red oaks pick up the most stain color. So watch the level of grain too. Here is red oak with ebony stain. I want dark. Not saying this is for you just to show grain pick up of stain. Best photo I could find quickly.

And you need a coat of finish over top of EVERY colour swatch. There's no point in picking a gray only to have an oil based finish turn the darn thing orange.

I hate samples going directly on freshly sanded wood too. A good sample should be on similar wood with conditioner coat first well dried and then carefully notated stain colors, combos, amounts, degree of application, time elapsed before wiping down and good dry time between coats. 24-48 hours depending on ambient conditions. Then poly finish. Every “stained area” directly on this floor, will bleed through and leave mark. At least I would see them. Sanding that down just reduces your wood thickness too. Not good practice.