I think it depends on the architecture of the home as to what's appropriate/looks best

It is a traditional home

This is our house.

Medium Brown.

I would ask your realtor if it’s necessary. Do they need refinishing or do you just think no one will like the dark? Some people like dark, some people like light and some like medium. Medium brown is one that’s never really in or out, and is usually safe, but light floors are very trendy now.

Here, Dark Walnut, which is kind of a medium brown is common in traditional houses.

I think the Jacobean works in yours unless you really need a refinish. If you keep the Jacobean you may be able to just have the floors screened and a new finish coat put on rather than sanding to bare wood.

These are both representative of the $3M traditional market in my area (it's a relatively HCOLA, $3M is the lowest end of the top of the market). You can see that they are different, but they are neither too light nor too dark...the commonality is that they are pretty uniform, which is something you get with Site Finished flooring, which is what you are doing.

This is $1M

Really anything below about $900K in my area and you start to get into some really trendy stuff, which in my opinion is aging as it comes out of the box. I have no idea what your price point is. In my area $750K is a pretty modest house so those aren't applicable to you, they would be smaller and mostly cheaper-looking than your house is, so I am not showing anything like that.

@palimpsest thank you very much. This is helpful. I do think the medium brown would work well. The Jacobean is just so dark and we have 2 golden retrievers, as seen in the picture as well as 3 high school/college sons. The dark floors are very unforgiving.

I did ebonized floors in one place, which was water popped Ebony and Jacobean mixed together, multiple coats, so they were not quite black. It has sold several times since and the floors are still ebonized, so resale has not been an issue. But we dust mopped them every single day. And we had no pets in that place.

Medium brown or special walnut.

Special walnut is a nice medium neutral brown. I use it all the time.

Beautiful home!

On looking at your foyer, I see that you're going to have to re-stain the stair treads, handrail and newel post as well. This is a big, messy job, so only do it for yourself, don't worry about resale to some future unknown buyer.

@diana bier interiors, thank you!

Why are you changing that color at all. I love dark floors so for me they would be my choice .I never do huge $$$$$ changs when selling a home there is no way to know what some starnger is looking for Save the money and use it in the new place . I have hsiry dogs too but swiffers are your friend for showings. We put our dogs in their kennesl when we showed out oother house and I swiffered as I walked out the door

Provincial is a nice neutral brown.

Yes, Hallett, Provincial is also a neutral mid-tone brown.

One of my clients recently used it on all her oak floors:

Provincial stain on white oak · More Info

Provincial stain on white oak · More Info

Robot vacuums can be programmed to clean up the dog hair when you are out or sleeping. They have AI now and can recognize objects on the floor like dog toys and either text you a picture for advice on how to handle it. or just totally avoid it without bothering you at all. Technology makes all things possible, even dark floors.

Matt vs glossy finish makes a big difference with a floor too. Glossy makes small defects show like a zit on a beauty queen's face.

What wood is the flooring?

@dan1888 builder grade engineered wood.

The biggest issue is that a dark stain will have seeped down around the edges of the boards, and you cannot sand that out. You will have each plank outlined with a dark frame, if you try to go too light. You cannot go but maybe a shade lighter, or you will just need to replace it all. "Just a bit" lighter isn't a job worth spending $$ to do.