Honey Oak Floors: Dated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that cherry colored floors look dated and actually think that the espresso/dark brown wide plank floors are already looking dated. Honey oak (with just clear varnish and no stain) is classic.

Yes cherry is pretty 90s/2000s.

I personally like a medium to dark oak. Gunstock or one step above that (Hickory I think?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have honey oak floors and love them because they are very classic and neutral. It doesn't have the sexiness of the new trendy floors on HGTV and that is perfectly ok.

+1

+2
It came with our new old house. Although we would not have selected it, but it's not bad looking. It's tough because it's solid wood, which can be sanded down and refinished many times.

[Anonymous]

I'm going to dissent. We had an older colonial with honey oak floors and I never liked them very much. The color was very hard to decorate around and yes, I thought it was dated. We stained them darker and I love them. They feel more neutral now and every color looks good against them. I've also seen much lighter floors that I liked a lot and were similarly neutral and appropriate for any wall color. For me, the in-between, kind of yellow/orange tint of the honey oak just wasn't that pretty.

I don't think you should change them because they're dated, but if you don't like the finish and don't want to work around them bite the bullet and re-stain them now. It's harder after you have all your stuff in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to dissent. We had an older colonial with honey oak floors and I never liked them very much. The color was very hard to decorate around and yes, I thought it was dated. We stained them darker and I love them. They feel more neutral now and every color looks good against them. I've also seen much lighter floors that I liked a lot and were similarly neutral and appropriate for any wall color. For me, the in-between, kind of yellow/orange tint of the honey oak just wasn't that pretty.

I don't think you should change them because they're dated, but if you don't like the finish and don't want to work around them bite the bullet and re-stain them now. It's harder after you have all your stuff in.

How long was the process for each step? What products? When could furniture be placed on the finished stained floors?

[Anonymous]

We have honey oak floors and over time they yellow terrible. THAT is what is ugly to me!

We are refinishing them in August and are applying a clear stain.

[Anonymous]

I second PP - AREA RUGS!!

[Anonymous]

The honey oak look is technically very 1990s and so, without proper planning to minimize them, can really date a house.

We bought a house a few years back with honey oak yellow/orange floors and despised them, so they were our top three must-fixes before we moved in. But we painted the whole house first, and the change was amazing. If you'd asked a third party, they would have thought the house when we bought it had "white" walls and that we repainted with "white". But the original "white" walls were very creamy, and we changed to a cool white. This made a huge difference to the floors. We still didn't love them, so we stripped and did a clear water based poly on top, and they looked pretty "neutral" when all was done. (This is because clear coats, esp old oil based ones, had a light yellow tint to them that only gets worse over time.) They will never been trendy (at least not until the next trend rolls along), and no one will ever remark at how beautiful the floors are, but they are no longer an eyesore.

So if you keep the yellow floors and want to avoid having a house that feels 20 years old, you need to focus on decorating with cool colors. That means that brown, yellow, red, orange cannot be major decorating pieces in your house. If you have a traditional medium stained brown wood dining table, your dining room is going to feel like it's out of 1998 against your floors. Sorry!

[Anonymous]

Yes. They are dated. I have them as well.

[Anonymous]

Yes, very dated and it's never coming back in style. It's a sad color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, very dated and it's never coming back in style. It's a sad color.

You have no idea if this is true.

[Anonymous]

I think honey oak is terribly dated. Basically anything that reads yellow or orange is not a current look.

[Anonymous]

We have honey oak floors with sapphire blue cabinets on the bottom and a mix of the sapphire blue and white cabinets for the top ones.
Counters are a grey silestone . Hardware is grey. We love it. Older house yes.

I think you could pair any color painted cabinet if you think some of got to coordinate it.
For instance our white cabinets aren't just white they have a brown glazing that makes them less stark white.

[Anonymous]

My house has honey oak floors but our decorating aesthetic is beachy so jhave very light gray walls, white couches and built ins, white kitchen, and decorate in times of blue, green, some yellow and "sandy beige". House looks nice.

I've seen some similar homes decorated in reds and other Warner colors and agree that it doesn't look as nice - it enhances the warmth of the floors rather than having them act as a neutral

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that cherry colored floors look dated and actually think that the espresso/dark brown wide plank floors are already looking dated. Honey oak (with just clear varnish and no stain) is classic.

+1 if I was going to stain my HWs it would be a lighter color, not darker. But I won't, I like our classic floors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, very dated and it's never coming back in style. It's a sad color.

The floors we have were original from 1940. They must have been in for a long time because 76 years later most of us still have those floors.
What do other people have?!