are you re staining the floors?

Not clear on what you are asking.

I would sand the floors and do a clear coat, no color added.

The Walnut Island sounds great!

Minwax is not a quailty cabinet finish. The cabinets typically are finished in a factory, and if not I would definitely not want site stained cabinets, especially with a stain from Minwax.

If you want a walnut island, build it from walnut. If you want light European oak floors like your picture, install European oak… what parts are you trying to stain?

Sorry for not being clear. My bad. I'm asking about miniwax stains for the flooring that will coordinate with the walnut and warm white cabinets. I think because of my cabinet choices, I need a light colored floor, which is fine. But my builder starts with red oak (anything else is an upgrade), so I'm trying to figure out what is a good Miniwax stain color on red oak floors that will coordinate and not lean pink or orange (more neutral). Thank you!

What does your actual real kitchen look like? Because you can't fake things to look like something else, if you are starting with something else. Red oak is a great wood, if you accept that it looks like red oak. Walnut is unbelievably gorgeous. But a cheap softwood like alder, stained walnut, is ugly and blotchy. And red oak that you try to whitewash and make it look like white oak, is just pink oak.

@Minardi this is going to be a new build. So no actual kitchen. Photos are for inspiration only at this point. Thx.

Trying to make red oak not be red is going to be very hard, especially with a builder. Yes you can use green dye or bona red out but unlikely your builder offers either of those. Provincial is great for neutralizing the red because it has green in the stain but it’s dark. If you switched to light cabinets the provincial can look great but nothing like your inspo. Don’t cut corners on the floor- it’s the biggest surface in your house other than walls and you will never refinish them once you are in.

Agree - I would go with Provincial stain and then choose cabinets accordingly

Agree with millworkman. Avoid Minwax.

@ci_lantro it's for a floor, not cabinets.

minwax is a consumer grade product not commonly used by floor refinishers. That said it will be just fine. If your choice is to select from minwax choose from minwax.

" @ci_lantro it's for a floor, not cabinets. "

Poor choice for a floor finish as well. no pro floor guy worth his salt would EVER use anything Minwax

@millworkman what would you use? This is the option I was given by my builder, but willing to explore others.

no pro floor guy worth his salt would EVER use anything Minwax

This is not a pro floor guy. This is a builder grade home with entry level flooring. Minwax will be fine.

I cannot speak to wood species and how they take different colors. However, I have warm white cabinets, walnut counters, and my floors are provincal stain that is nearly the same color as minwax provincal. (I don't know what the wood species is on my floor. They are 80 years old - I didn't select them!)

Has your builder given you wood samples of the red oak in different minwax colors? If not, he should.

I love walnut floors so that is my choice but not some wood colored LIKE walnut for the island only real walnut .

Find a better builder. If his subs use the cheapest most awful products and methods, what exactly do you think your house will end up being? You might as well do laminate, which is cheaper, with a more predictable color, than to use some goober using Minwax. But he probably can't install a floating floor correctly either. I shudder to see the methed up tile guy he is gonna use. PVC liner flat on the floor and nails on the curb here we come.

" @millworkman what would you use? "

What is he putting over the top for as poly type top coat? If a builder / developer type home you may have no choice but Duraseal stain at a minimum. I would use Bona products for the whole magilla were it me.

Stephanie, wood is wood. Why would you think there was a difference between a wood floor and a wood cabinet?

Upgrade the red oak flooring to white oak.

Finally a decent comment.

If you're coordinating with a Walnut island cabinet, White Oak is a good choice. Instead of mindlessly parroting the "Minwax is bad mantra", I'll point out that Minwax owns DuraSeal, which makes a complete line of stains that are often chosen by professionals. Before they expanded the DuraSeal line, we occasionally used Minwax stain, covered by oil poly. I never saw any shortcoming in performance.

Biggest issue with minwax is bleed back. number one reason why it takes so long to dry and causes adhesion issues. Other than that, it’s fine.