Choosing the perfect wood stain color for floors can be difficult. Here’s a little bit about the process and how we came to a stain color decision!
It’s official, the stress has gotten to me! Whatever you think your stress level will be during a home renovation, multiply it by two three.
I thought I had it all figured out. I knew I wanted a warm, medium stain for our new hardwood floors, but I completely underestimated how difficult that would be.
Sure, I could spend all day pinning and dreaming of what the color will look like, but colors vary from brand to brand, different species of wood and even one board to the next. Ugh!
For the last year, I’ve been pinning hardwood floors I love, recognizing that some are pre-finished. I want a classic, timeless and traditional look.
Unfortunately, so many colors have red and yellow undertones that it was more difficult than I had imagined. These are the wood stain colors we tested for our floors.
Wood Stain Colors for Hardwood Floors
We didn’t test Provincial, one I have always loved. I really loved the special walnut {top left} because it was truest to color without undertones and doesn’t highlight the grain as much, but also liked golden brown {bottom left}.
The golden brown definitely emphasizes the grain, giving it a slightly more rustic look. What to do? Blend them.
Floor Stain Colors
Well, we tried. I found that blended they can be a little unpredictable looking far more yellow on the left and picture perfect to the right.
{From left to right – blended, golden brown, blended, special walnut}. You can see how when the color is blended exactly the same, it differs from board to board.
We have white oak, which tends to be grainier, but truer to color.
Our Hardwood Stain Color
At the end of the day, I want to be extremely thoughtful about my decisions because they can be very costly and I want to love them 10 years from now.
So where did we end up? Here’s our final floor stain decision.
Our Floor Stain
Our final decision! We ended up doing golden brown, but added a little coffee into the clear coat to calm the orange tones down.
Come see our full before and after!
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Help!! We have original red oak floors and I’m leaning towards Provincial. My kitchen is Natural Cream cupboards with Montauk Quartz countertops/backsplash and just want to make sure it doesn’t clash with color scheme. This is so stressful.
Hi Dana,
Provincial is a beautiful stain color! I hope our little floor stain guide helped you make a decision, but I think it really depends on the lighting in every house.
Good luck with your choices, so exciting!
Julie
What brand of stain did you use for your floors?
Hello!
If I remember right, all the stain colors we tested were from Minwax. I hope that helps!
Julie
Please publish the pictures of your floors when they get finished. I’m having the same dilemma! How to choose?
You can find them all over my site by checking out our living room, kitchen, breakfast room, office, etc. Good luck with your decision!
Hi Julie,
We made the same mistake and went with the golden brown stain about a year ago. In some light it looks good and others the tone has too much orange. When you applied the espresso in the finish, did that require you to sand down the wood again. We went with the standard oil based finish (which I think brought out the orange hues) and I’m wondering if we applied another round of stain and add color it would tone down the color. I didn’t even know this could be an option!
No, that’s why we just applied to the clear coat. You should definitely ask your installer! It really helped.
I’m in the process of renovating my kitchen after floors were badly damaged by a water leak. I’d like to select a darker wood stain with a yellow undertone, and the golden brown you discuss seems like it may be ideal. Do you have any pictures of the final result? I’d really appreciate seeing them. I’ve had a lot of trouble finding anything that show this type of hardwood stain in a larger area. Also, if you don’t mind answering, what type of wood are these floors? Thanks!
You’ll find an array of photos on my site under home to see them in various lighting. All photos here are of my home. Quick tip – right after we had new wood floors installed, our roof leaked, destroying a room. In some areas the floor was raised as much as 3″. Our hardwoods guy said he would love nothing more than to take a check from the insurance company, but that it would go back down with a dehumidifier and change of season. HE WAS RIGHT! An entire room of hardwoods saved which saved us the stress of moving out for a week to sand and stain. My sister’s ice maker later failed and she did the same and voila!