Walnut, Gunstock oak, or lighter. But stain manufacturers test their stain for holdup with only their own finish products. Highly recommend sticking with one well known company rather than mix and matching, so if there is a problem you have recourse.

Also, after the staining job, be sure your floor contractor puts down a sealer prior to the multiple coats of finish of your choosing.

Do it once, do it right. This is after expensive floor stain and refinish failures on my part by an "excellent" floor company.

Mid. Oak.

I hate, hate natural or light floors. Medium and dark look so much richer to my eye. OP, why not get what you like??

I think that either light or dark looks good. What I can't stand is the medium oak that our house had. It was neither here nor there-- just blah and dated. It was the equivalent of builder grade oak cabinets.

My floor guy told me dark makes rooms look much smaller. I thought that was interesting. We did natural and it looked awesome. I think we did semigloss. I was warned not to do matte.

We did natural. Just so you know, it does "golden" over time. But I like that anyway. We have little kids, and I'm glad the scratches don't show any more than they do. Dark would look awful for us.

Gunstock oak seems to be a classic.

Natural. In less someone really knows what they are doing, the staining always looks uneven.

Anonymous wrote:Darker colors are very in right now. My understanding, however, is that they show dust/dirt/scratches more easily. We have natural in our house, it it looks nice. Golden oak is slightly darker but also a good choice.

impractical stupid trend that will go back to light again

Darker colors are very in right now. My understanding, however, is that they show dust/dirt/scratches more easily. We have natural in our house, it it looks nice. Golden oak is slightly darker but also a good choice.

light, natural is good. We did dark in the past and it was terrible

Golden Oak is one of the choices, thank you! Any other suggestions?

We like Golden oak.

We are about to refinish our hardwood floors (main floor) and need to pick a stain color. What colors are good these days (thinking of resale)- light, dark, etc? I can't think of anything we need to worry about re: matching, so we are pretty open. Thanks!