The darkest stin you can live with . I love ebony floors but you need to know what works for you . Just a nice dark stain that takes the red away and you will need to get the floor finisher to show you actual tests on your floor,Of course now you will need to strip the floor again

Jacobean, ebony, espresso vein you think? I had the walls revere pewter which is probably out of date now. House felt so dark. Perhaps painting the walls white is what I should do.

That is the only way to get the red out. IMO better lighting is how you brighten a space not wall color or flooring.. IMO wall colors are meant to enhance the space after all other choices have been made so not dated just thought out. This is my DR in a very tiny house with dark floors good lighting and a wall color that worked with my stuff.

Weathered oak is not that dark but neutralizes the red/pink in red oak.

You have to sand all over again. The question is..........do you WANT darker floors?

There is no easier upkeep, disguise of minor scratches and dust than a clear coat on the raw sanded species.

Rugs, lighting, paint color all factor in. But the recent insistence on making every bloody wood species mime French White Oak? Is making me nuts.

I just went through this with a client......agonized endlessly. After wasting an entire month, losing our hardwood install date to match what was already there? We finally added, sanded all, went clear , natural, and it looks fabulous.

The floor is but one element in a space. Important? Yes. But not the only element; caveat being the damn thing isn't gray : )

I think ive been worried that the floors wouldn’t match well with the island. On paper, it seemed like nordic would have worked.

And that thing we're seeing that looks like a cocktail table is the island??!

Post more pictures of the entire house!

Plus the floors have been patched throughout the years. The new and old wood are showing up vastly different with the nordic which I think is a level under Natural. I wanted lighter but I just don’t think it is doable.

It looks like you can paint the island. I would not let that deter me. Where is your contractor to answer some of your questions.

It’s a small house. Just looked way better dark but we added square footage and wanted to try.

If that top pic is of your floors now I would keep them, I think they look great! if you paint your walls a lighter color and give yourself a little time to adjust to the new look You may learn to love them:)

Paint the island........ please.

We may paint it. Its pretty close to unfinished oak with smoked clear coat

Ummmmm.....What's wrong with your floors?

Pictures don’t portray well. They are primarily yellow in tone with salmon bleeding through. Only thing to try would be more coats or resand

I guess the pics don't portray well because that flooring in the kitchen looks really nice!

From the pics, I think the new lighter floors look great. It’s easy to say “Just give it time”, but I totally understand thats sickening to think about given the pain it is to remove everything to refinish at a later date.
So, I would run to the hardware store and buy the following:

1. Several different types of lights or one that you can change the hues
2. Small cans with colors to sample on your wall and island - or several paint swatches to tape up if you don’t want to commit to heavily

If the lighting and paint don’t change how you feel about it, then start thinking about the floors. If you have any scrap pieces of the old wood floor and new wood floors (if your contractor did and lacing), sand those pieces and test different stains and what not. Good luck!!! We’re about to refinish ours and I’m nervous!!

I’ve spoken with the flooring contractor. We are going to resand. The old flooring and new flooring just simply clash. 90 year old wood versus new.

For everyone wondering, the new installed red oak with Nordicseal looks fantastic. The older wood and patching with more knots and grain do not. We also did the stair treads which also took to it poorly. In my opinion, if you sand and your floors look seamlessly uniform then try, otherwise go natural or stain- probably stain. We even tried two coats of pink blocker on the older wood to match it up. My biggest regret of this entire house is this one. And a costly one. Looks like a bad bruise thats healing yellow, green, and pink in areas. A bummer is an understatement.

Best of luck! Update with the final result and all the steps between if you remember 😁… our old floors are from the late 60’s… crossing my fingers it goes smoothly

Probably a case of the new flooring being red oak "select", and the other old oak?? Not.! Hence the more open grain and obvious knots and grain, and entirely different take of the Nordicseal.

100% the case. If your house has different grade red oak such as old vintage versus brand new red oak select tied in, NordicSeal is simply not going to register similarly Even after pink blocker. It actually seemed to accentuate the difference instead of masking. The older- more virgin timber- also has much tighter and redder grain patterns. Just a night and day difference. All being said, the new select Red oak with Nordic looked great. I think a newer home with existing red oak you could pull it off. Now old red oak stair treads with NordicSeal? Not sure at all on that.. Not an appealing look in my venture.

Paint the stairs............risers and treads!!. Add a fabulous RUNNER. Black or white...

Leaning that direction for sure. Jacobean, Espresso, Dark Walnut, Ebony, etc. Seems many cut these with Neutral to lighten or Weathered Gray to soften tones. We sampled Rustic Beige before the Nordicseal debacle and it looked lavender.

You are paying a lot in labor now to try to make new and old work out ... in this particular case it might have been cheaper to start over with all new flooring.

It would have. Very regrettable.

Matching simply did not work. This area looked fine with the cherry esque stain. Nordicseal nope. Hope it helps someone else down the road.