Refinishing Hardwood floors--what color?

[Anonymous]

So we're refinishing all of the hardwoods in our house. They are white oak, and are currently stained this way:




What color do you think we should do? I don't really like the current color too much. Should we go to a natural stain? Which is basically like this:




Or something inbetween? Does the style or age of the house matter? Thoughts?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I would go as light as you possibly can. My previous home had light oak flooring and I much prefer it to the dark cherry color in my current house. Dark floors are much harder to keep clean as they really show dust and dirt.

[Anonymous]

Light floors really show imperfections in the boards and fillers, often that's why the previous owner went dark.

[Anonymous]

Don't stain. Just seal and poly.

[Anonymous]

Funny...we went with walnut, which is pretty close to what you have.

I love the look of white oak without a stain, but it doesn't look as nice in our home and with our decor as the warmer walnut.

Consider your rugs and furniture!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would go as light as you possibly can. My previous home had light oak flooring and I much prefer it to the dark cherry color in my current house. Dark floors are much harder to keep clean as they really show dust and dirt.

I see this as a positive. I want to see what I need to clean.

Kind of like how the dark, speckled granite in my last place hid crumbs on the counter. Annoying!

[Anonymous]

We refinished our oak floors and went with a medium brown. I love the color, but unfortunately the floors are scratching SO easily (we even had floorers out to recoat because they were scratching so easily). I wish we had gone lighter, so scratches wouldn't appear so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we're refinishing all of the hardwoods in our house. They are white oak, and are currently stained this way:




What color do you think we should do? I don't really like the current color too much. Should we go to a natural stain? Which is basically like this:




Or something inbetween? Does the style or age of the house matter? Thoughts?

Thanks

I agree with others, it depends on your house decor. In my previous house we had natural white oak (clear poly). In my new house I wanted a less refined look (wanted them to look old and distressed). We used white oak but instead of stain and poly we used hard wax oil. Love them. It did deepen the color of the wood, but I love that you can feel the texture and they do not show any dust or dirt.

[Anonymous]

I don’t like the lighter version you posted (too yellow) but I do like unstained white oak

[Anonymous]

I absolutely love your existing color - the current light/bleached look isn’t going to age very well, but a medium brown is pretty timeless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely love your existing color - the current light/bleached look isn’t going to age very well, but a medium brown is pretty timeless.

What a dumb statement. I can post about a dozen more pictures of old homes, palaces. This is Versailles. Do tell me again how this color doesn't age well?

[Anonymous]

If you don’t understand the difference between your photo and what the OP posted I can’t help you there. 🤷‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Your current color looks like walnut or provincial, which are classic medium browns. In my opinion they are kind of like blue jeans. They are classic and pretty much go with everything, but maybe not super exciting. That long would it is not going to age well. It already looks dated. If you want something really edgy, I would look into stripping all the color and then sealing with a clearcoat.

[Anonymous]

What style is your decor? How much natural light to you get? I generally do floors based on amount of light. Full sun, I love dark floors (dark walnut) with bright white walls. The same floors in a dark house will look like a dungeon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely love your existing color - the current light/bleached look isn’t going to age very well, but a medium brown is pretty timeless.

I like your medium brown floors too. I agree light floors are trending now, just as dark floors were trending before. The thing about hardwood is that it can be stained and changed so if you change your mind in the future, you can revert to a different stain at some point. Not saying you'd want to do that too often, but it's one of the (few) perks of hardwood vs engineered wood.