Jo Anne - Your fooors are gorgeous! Did the top gloss coat darken the color from just rhe Bona Natiral seal alone? And did you use just one coat of Bona Natural? Your floor sample looks datker than mine. My floors look so light with the Bona Natural on them (as you can see under the kitchen island in my picture), and I am not sure if i just have very pale red oak floors or they didn’t put enough Natural on or it just needs a top coat.-?

Bona Natural Seal will color change faster than Nordic seal. It will turn blonde in no time.

Go with Nordic seal if, you want it to stay light for the longedst time possibel.

@g and s floors - Thank you! Did you see how light it looks in my kitchen? The nordic snd natural look identical! Do i need a second coat of the natural? I don’t want the wood to look white washed so i wanted to go with the natural-? I have red oak…

Do two coats of whichever sealer you move forward with. The second coat will help block tannins and slow down the color change. You do not see it now, but once, the poly is applied. Tannins will work it's way through and color change will happen. What you see now will look much blonder later.

You have several samples that were done over to the side - did you have a sample prepared of how you've had them finished?

Our floors are read oak, no stain, Bona IntenseSeal. This was done 2 years ago, and we haven't seen any color change.

@g and s - Thank you! Question - when you say ”blonder” do you mean yellow?

@dani_m08 - Im not sure what you are asking. The floors aren’t finished yet. The samples to the side were stain options that I didn’t like. The orange-ish stain on the rest of my floor is what I am gettign rid of. The Bona Nordic and rhe Bona Natural near the island are the two sealers i am considering.

Yes - yellow, pale yellow. Your traditional Scandy look.

You have two topcoat choices. Traffic HD and Traffic HD Raw. Raw show grain dimension and is matte in all lights without the layer of traditional finish.

@g and s - Thank you! in your experience - you like the way red oak looks with bona natural?? My floors are 19 yrs old and are quite pale when sanded down. i just want to make sure there will be some depth to them with the bona natural and not be too pale. I was concerned the nordic was too whitewashed looking… I have no experience with floors and am struggling with this decision!!

I don't believe you used Bona Natural---which is the color of the wood with a nice finish. You used Bona Nordic which is a whitewash and makes your floor much whiter than they are naturally. I chose natural because I wanted to lighten up the house (they were stained deep brown red before by the last owner) but I wanted the warmth of the wood to show through. Bona Nordic would not have worked in my house--it is very light.

@Jo Anne - Do you know how many coats of Bona Natural you used, and do you have red oak also? The floor people said they used Bona Natural but maybe they didnt put enough on - or maybe they messed up the bottles and did two sections of nordic!

If the Bona Nordic sample is the one in front of the island, but closest to the sliding glass door, I can see a difference in the photo. I thought you mentioned in your post that they did part of each bona natural and bony Nordic. I think I have white oak, hard to remember. With the topcoat, it was a total of three coats. I know it can be surprising how light it looks, but once the old color is sanded away, it won’t look that way. I’m gonna try to dig up a picture of my work in progress.

Not sure if this photo will be helpful. At the upper right corner, you can see the remnants of the dark reddish stain I was having removed. The rest of the floor is the raw sanded wood, except for the area between the two masking tape where he experimented with different Bona. I ended up using Bona Traffic and Natural and Seal (I probably have the names wrong) but my goal was tohave the natural color of the wood and the lowest possible VOCs. Even though the sample areas look quite light, the finished product looks more warm.

@Jo Anne - Such a transformation feom your old floors to new. Absolutely gorgeous! I think you may have white oak -? I wish I did. This would be much easier. I am having the owner of the floor conpany come tomorrow to help.

The floor company is now informing me they may not be able to get all of the orange stain off of my newel posts and railings - information that would have been helpful a month ago! I do not want to stain my floors dark nor do I want to paint my railings. I will have black iron balusters, so black paint on railings/newel posts will be too dark and white will be too much contrast and not the clean, contemporary lookI am going for. It looks like Bona sealers are out because they will not cover the orange, so I need to find a stain that is light enough for my taste but will cover the orange. Or, I can replace all of my posts and railings (which are alot because my house is four stories (including basement). Ugh. Has anyone out there encountered this issue??

Have you considered gel stain? My stairs were a terrible red stain and the railings were white, I painted them black and sanded and refinished the stairs. before I did that, I looked into gel stain and it was a good option--see the youtube videos on that.

I assume the floor company would have mentioned that - but actually since they forgot to tell me they may have trouble with the railings, then maybe not!

Does anyone know if there are places that do floor stain color consulting?? The flooring company that my design-build company uses does not offer suggestions - they just out down whatever stain samples I say - and I have no idea what to do. I haven’t liked any if the stains they put down yet. The design-build firm leaves it to the flooring people because they dont know about floor stain color. i have to figure this out asap and am quite stressed!

I am still looking for ideas for floor stain for my red oak. I really want a soft light caramel brown color. My floor people will put down whatever combinations I want, but everything seems to pull pink or be too dark. I like Bona Natural but it may be a bit pale on my floors but even more pale on my railings and newel posts. Anyone out there have a great stain combo for a light caramel /soft brown for red oak floors, newel posts, and railings??

For a caramel color, use Berger seidle latte machiatto over pinkqualizer for red oak.

@G&S - Do you know of any Bona, Duraseal, or Minwax colors that mimic that look? I think those are the brands this floor company uses. And, is there any way to achieve the look without using a bleaching agent like red out (is pink qualizer also a bleaching agent -?)?

Pinkqualizer/red out helps keep it lighter. Without it, it will be slightly darker.

Duraseal and Bona foes not have anything similar to this.

Below is Latte Machiatto on white oak.

Is that latte color also a good color for red oak?