Staining it dark will mute the busy look of Hickory.

WATER POP the floor, and go darker on the stain.

You'll get a deeper finish by far.

Ditto dark will calm it down but I do not use hickory so not sure if waterpopping is a must.

Have the flooring contractor sand it and then stain some boards for a sample of a stain before having the whole thing done. You may have to try a couple before hitting the right one. Ask him how many times he has worked on hickory. It's an unusual flooring type.

Thanks-ill ask about water popping he did mention he has hickory floors in his home so he should be familiar. He his goibg to come put some samples down Does anyone has any photos or a stain color? i have sent him the color tone level I like but none were on hickory

Stain is a test on site issue, and there IS no better way. : )

A too dark floor shows everything. You'll be sweeping it more than currently.

^^Nope. It won’t be dark enough to “show everything,” it will probably end up close to the color of the dirt outside and will hide everything.🙂

Looking at the tone variation, this grade of hickory is better than what I see offered as Select and Better. I'd be inclined to sand it and test a matte water poly designed to keep the color as close to unstained and non-yellowed as possible. Ciranova Ecofix or Woodlook(slightly bleached) Link.

This is likely not hickory.

is pickle a type of stain or process he should be familiar with? hes going to come do samples this week i just wanted him to have supplies Thanks

Pickle is a stain color. It is no longer available on the market. Was a popular color back in the 90's.

"Pickle is a stain color. It is no longer available on the market. Was a popular color back in the 90's."

A rare miss for G&S. White pickling stains are still available and popular in certain areas, like where I live in Florida.

Here it is from Bona: https://www.bona.com/en-us/products/professional/sport/stain-us/drifast-stain-white-ga/

Here is a chart from DuraSeal: https://www.duraseal.com/stain-gallery/

And here's an online seller: https://www.ampro-online.com/items/DS101-QT

Back in th old days, Minwax had a color called "Pickle". Which no longer is available. I do follow where you are coming from with using white for a pickled look. We've done that quite a lot. I just consider it as using white for a stain color to avoid confusion.

I don't remember that, but I do remember DuraSeal 201 White. Then they changed the name to Country White. We had problems with the new formulation as it was quite chalky and hard to wipe. It was okay on bleach and pickle, but on straight pickle you could end up with cloudiness and lines.

We switched to Bona DriFast for white but use DuraSeal for all our other colors. We even mix the two brands, with the only issue being that it will skin over in the can, so we generally mix it and use it right away.

He put sone stains on today i like 1 and 2 but woukd really love if 1 was about 30% lighter #3 is 1 with 1 part fhe gray stain from 1 (weird that it looke more brown) and 1 part white I think the stain on 1 was a Pallmans gray new stain I think he mentioned one was Jacobdean is there a bona or Pallman stain thats about 70% of #1? My husband likes the clear finish on 2

So gray!

@marmiegard_z7b you are saying they all look gray?

#1 hides the variation the best. #3 looks like it sucks the life out of the floors - it looks grey and sad.

Yep.

I had thought you wanted a sort of medium range warm treatment that would reduce the variation, and the yellow coloration.

If the kitchen posted is your “ before “, and you say you’re doing a reno, I have no idea what your new finishes and color palette will be, so then no way to weigh in on the “ right color”, even though of course only you can see what things look like IRL, in your lighting.

You are right. I am looking for a more mid/medium brown. It looks like the color that’s the darkest brown in the top corner is Jacobean. I just don’t know enough about stains and the colors so I was seeing if any one had some color recommendations. The square number one doesn’t match a cabinet door that we gave him that we were kind of aiming for but when I said oh, I would really like it about 30% lighter he only had a can of white to add to it, and it just didn’t look very good.

I like 1 and 9 though they are completely different looks. Keep in mind that the wood on the right side has less variation while that under 5 through 8 has the most. I'm not sure what you mean by "lighter", whether that means whiter or more transparent so that the wood tones come through.

You can cut it with a natural. Just keep in mind you will allow yellow into the mix.

Berger Seidle makes a quality line of stains.

https://berger-seidle.de/wp-content/uploads/dokumente/prospekte/us/Classic-ExpressStain-COLOR-US.pdf

Well, good luck! For some reason the samples look somewhat chalky on my screen— less so in pic # 2– but may be warmer IRL.

I think it’s hard because, if you’re trying to reduce some of the bossy hickory variation, it’s hard to tell from a small square sample, because it’s not able to show enough different strips.

So you may want to get the overall lighter look, that you see in natural white oak floors, rather than trying for a more homogeneous mid- brown, regardless of the darker hickory striping that will be part of natural.

What is your overall vision for the space? Mainly an issue if you’re locked into other major finishes and furniture that wouldn’t “ go”, vs starting from the floor up and choosing everything after. Have you searched some pics of natural hickory floors, hickory kitchens, etc for inspo?

I have hickory floors stained dark. I love love love dark floors. I had fools telling me you will have be needing to sweep them or dust them or vaccum them because they show every little thing. Thank Goodness they do because I do not want a dirty house.

Here is a photo of my floors.

Oh and a seam of my marble.. ha ha ha

Anyway, I find the dark to feel wonderfully elegant and yet lived in. I happen to like the variation and the knotty features. We went with dark stain Cocoa mixed with Jacobean by Bona.

Thanks everyone. I’m not super savvy on this house app and how to personally reply to different people but you guys have been fantastic.

G and S-thank you. That’s what I was wondering is how they can lighten it so it’s not such a deep brown. I think my problem is most the floors that I show on my like are on Oak.😊

Timothy W and Marmie-thanks for all of your input and help. I really appreciate it. And boxer I love your floors they look great