tl; dr.

I'm easily confused. ;)

If your floor is the light color with the darker grain, it will be tough to match because when you site finish Oak the softer/deeper grain absorbs more stain than the denser/smoother grain. Factory finished floors have finish rolled on so it sits on the higher portion of grain where site finished wood ends up with more stain in the valleys. I have matched a similar color (Riva Pearl) but the grain didn't have as much contrast. The solution probably would involve bleaching the wood and applying a white stain similar to the bottom piece in your first pic, but with some stain or tint to tone the color toward your floor. It would still have several coats of finish over the stain but using matte would reduce the plastic look. Having the wood wire brushed would also make it less plastic and more like your floor.

Interesting! I think we are going to switch to Osmo Polyx oil which is a hardwax oil the satin finish is nice but I know it won’t be as durable as poly. We can always touch up the treads if needed.

I get the sense that however the flooring company (Craft Floor) made the finish, which comes with a 30 year warranty and magically appears to have no product on the wood, is some high tech proprietary process we will not easily recreate. It might be safer to make the white oak stairs look radically different rather than a failed attempt to match them. So either lighter or darker. Darker being considerably easier.

You need a good painter with a good paint shop that can match or adjust the stain how you want it. I would try to describe what you don't like about the current samples and how you want it. Such as more red, lighter, darker, etc. They won't get it perfect, but they can get it close and complementary. We had to have multiple stains due to using different types of wood. The painter got us to a 90% solution. Looks good and nobody else would notice its not perfect.

Thanks T T! I am just so pissed off because my builder didn’t make this happen many months ago. Like, we are supposed to install the stairs now and I only just got the first terrible sample. It is at a critical time when I need to finalize all the cabinetry and millwork, also need to figure out tile ASAP 😭

I think the main issue is that I hate the product they used, a water based stain and varnish, and I want them to use Osmo hardwax oil instead. So there is the unknown variable of whether the painter will agree to use it, whether they will learn how to use it, and if it will even turn out good since they have never used it before.

Good luck izzieo, I hope it all works out. Does the painter only use water based or is there another oil based product they use? I would be a little wary of specifying the exact product to use, especially because they haven't used it. They could then blame the results on the product and not take ownership of getting the finish right. I would give them a chance to adjust the color unless you are convinced the water based product won't work. It didn't even cross our mind what type of stain our painter used (turns out it was oil based), and for one of the wood types, he had to get three color samples before we were happy.

Why the need for a perfect match for every wood element in the house?

The only "matches" here are flooring and a floating stair. Matched off site /white oak and treads then installed

What is your cabinet style? A five piece door will take stain far differently than slab. Kitchen oak is veneer.....as is primary bath

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Minwax gray on white oak- brand new custtom table,

Three coats clear coat on top

I have a hard-wax oil finish on my engineered wood floors. We've been in the house just over 2 years and I'm really happy with how the finish is performing with 3 dogs.

You usually get a lot of "hate" towards hard-wax oil finishes from people who have never lived with that finish!!

Thanks chispa! It totally seems like something people are just unfamiliar with, for instance Osmo is a German company with like 140 years of experience. Newish to North America. If it’s good enough for floors, it seems good enough for stairs. Plus, if the middle of the treads get a bit worn out we can easily rub in some more clear coat just where needed and it’ll be brand new looking. There is nothing worse than a worn typical oil or water based finish chipping or cracking.

Thank you Jan! I’m also thinking of mixed wood tones but the issue is the clashing colours. If I can get the undertones to play nicely, I’m not sure if the stairs should be lighter or darker than the floors. Luckily kitchen hasn’t been finalized but the island is right across from the stairs. The profile is a narrow shaker. I feel like it would look weird having walnut in the kitchen and then dark stained oak right beside in stairs/wood cap and a big slatted wood screen divider. Then there are the window sills which I was leaning toward walnut also because matching the white oak is hard. It seems if we want to do walnut in some spots, the white oak stairs should be kept natural and light ish instead of stained dark? So that would give a range of light wood, medium flooring, darker kitchen and window sills.

Operable windows? I wouldn't break a neck staining. Light, moisture, you will knock yourself out and be refinishing sills in 18 months: )

Interesting! I had not considered that, honestly! Our operable windows are casement but we have many windows in the house and the sills are somewhat deep (I think about 8”) so it will be really nice to be able to put plants, books, drinks, cats, etc in the windows.

I think you bring up a good point, we probably want to stick with a clear coat rather than stained sills because the Osmo hardwax oil finish is very easy to touch up, we can simply brush it on or roll it on and it’ll be refreshed. If there is stain it gets complicated. So this makes me think walnut, it looks really beautiful with the finish.

Maybe just to complicate things further I should do different sill types. Like walnut on most sills but maybe there are some spots I want to just paint to match baseboard warm white. I also think it would be good to have stone or tile window sills in our ensuite bathroom around the tub because I imagine the walnut looking pretty bad pretty quickly!