Just wanted to give you more things to think about. Until the stain went on on our floors, I had no idea that some boards were very light and others more much darker, not to mention the variation in grain. If you do, you'll want to make sure that the floor stain looks good with the tone of your cabinets.Īnother thing to consider is know how much variation there is from floor board to floor board. You haven't said whether you also have stained cabinetry in your house. For me they show too much dust and every inevitable scratch. You're right to be concerned about going too dark, although dark floors look great. We probably could have gone a little darker but I was afraid it would be too dark in our rooms that have less natural light. We started the process thinking that we would use a natural stain but there wasn't enough contrast with our medium stained cabinets, so we added some nutmeg to the natural stain. We also have white oak floors but were lucky enough to have them mix a custom stain for us. Over the years, I have agonized over stains more than I have agonized over paint colors, especially when refinishing a piece. I love it as I can see all of the wood grains and love the variations in color - just my preference. I have red oak and have just a natural stain. Also, the store samples may have darkened under the lights.ĭepending on the kind of wood, maybe just a natural stain? They usually show one on oak, (hard wood), one on pine, (soft wood). I have also found that the "color swatches" of stain look nothing like the finished product. My guess is that your difference in the two Early Americans was the manufacturer versus the number of coats of stain. Minwax Provincial has a lot of brown, Early American a lot of red. The other thing is that if you are using multiple coats of stain, there is a drying time before applying the next coat (I don't know about water-based stains, I only use oil). I usually don't do that, but that will usually make for a darker stain. The stain cans will usually say to leave it on for 15 minutes, then wipe the excess. I would assume the floor person is going to use one coat of stain. Harder woods absorb less stain, softer woods, more.
I have done a lot of staining over the years - but have no claim to being an expert.Īll I know is that stains are different depending on manufacturer - Early American to one is not the same as Early American to another.Īll woods take stain differently. This is a long-lasting decision!! so I would not be in a hurry. Here is a link that might be useful: Minwax stains Thank you so much for any info you have on this! (I know pictures would be nice, but I'm at the office right now and I have to figure this out by this afternoon.
So, it there a minimum number of coats that have to be done on a hardwood floor? If I like the one coat color much more than the many coats, can they do it like that? I guess the difference was the number of coats of stain? The stripe of EA was so much prettier than the first sample. It looked SO different from the samples that the floor guy did that I asked him to also do a stripe of the early american. They did fruitwood, golden pecan and puritan pine. So, today I took some of the leftover wood to Sherwin Williams to try some lighter selections. Special Walnut had too much of a green hue, Provincial was much darker than the others (and would show too much cat hair!) and Early American was okay, but not great. They did Early American, Provincial and Special Walnut. Of course, the samples look nothing like the colors on the minwax brochure. I had the flooring people put three different stains on for me so that I could pick one. Unfortunately, I haven't selected a stain color yet! I have to choose one of the minwax colors in the link below. I'm building a new home and the hardwood floors are being stained tomorrow. But maybe this is the better of the two since I will have dark burgundy/cherry cabinets in the kitchen and I don't have to worry about what angle I see the floor from.īy the way, is more pigment bad? Is it just that it might look muddy if not wiped? Our flooring guy said that one person spreads the stain and the next comes right up along and wipes off.Hi everyone. The Early American looks good from every angle, but it is more orangey and I am so sensitive to orange because we used puritan pine on red oak in another room and it turned out orangey. But when standing with the window at your back and lookind down the length of the room, the Provincial looks lovely. Well, on our floor, the Provincial plays a trick on us! If looking towards a window (which we have lots of), the floor looks as if it was wiped with mud.
EARLY AMERICAN STAIN PATCH
We did a patch of Provincial on the floor because we liked the sample. Just wondering what you finally went with? How does it look? Any pictures?
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