Help with choosing a stain for flooring please!

[mrsbird1129]

Does anyone have any experience with Duraseal stains? We have it narrowed down to Spice Brown, Dark Walnut and Rosewood. Any thoughts on those if you have experience with any of them? If not, what factors went into which color stain you chose?

We tend to like darker woods and have some espresso furniture, should we avoid an espresso/darker color like Spice Brown? Will that matter? A lot of our rooms need furniture; if we do a dark floor, will it be harder to get furniture at a later point? Does lighter flooring tend to be easier to match furniture to?

www.duraseal.com/images/FullStain.jpg

Thanks for any suggestions! I've never picked out stain for wood before, so I'm not sure where to start besides we tend to gravitate towards darker colors.

[housegeek]

I personally would go as neutral as possible, so rosewood would be out. The spice is nice, I didnt see walnut on there
And I love love love dark wood floors

[vanillahip]

Duraseal comes highly rec'd by people I know IRL, and is probably the brand we'd go with next time we refinish floors!

I actually really love antique brown (not on your list but dark walnut doesn't exist so I thought maybe that's what you meant?)

It's less red/ more neutral than the spice IMO.

What type of wood are your floors? I've read that red oak doesn't take the dark colors as well, so if you have red oak and want the very dark look you might even try ebony (this pic is ebony on red oak after the grain was "popped" with water)


And I really wouldn't worry about "matching" your furniture to the floors, if you go nice and neutral in the floor you can do white/black/espresso/cherry/whatever color furniture floats your boat!

[sierramist03]

I'd do neutral or nutmeg personally.

[studytime45]

Jul 1, 2012 22:01:36 GMT -5 vanillahip said:

Duraseal comes highly rec'd by people I know IRL, and is probably the brand we'd go with next time we refinish floors!

I actually really love antique brown (not on your list but dark walnut doesn't exist so I thought maybe that's what you meant?)

It's less red/ more neutral than the spice IMO.

And I really wouldn't worry about "matching" your furniture to the floors, if you go nice and neutral in the floor you can do white/black/espresso/cherry/whatever color furniture floats your boat!

The colour in this picture is what I would pick, personally. Very, very pretty.

[kaylie]

I would stay away from the Rosewood - I think it has too much red and would make other decorative choices (like paint color) harder. I like the one that pp included and I think spice brown would be nice as well.

[FoxInFiji]

I agree with everyone else. Stick with a medium toned neutral color. Not too red or too yellow. You want to have some contrast with your espresso colored furniture and the floors. Plus dark floors show every speck of dust, hair, and waterspot. They are a huge chore to keep looking nice.

[mrsbird1129]

Thanks everyone for the input!! I do like that Antique as well, hmmm... I wonder which one our guy has labeled dark walnut then? I'll have to ask!

[kellikans]

we had our floors done with DuraSeal in Dark Walnut. it's not nearly as dark as one would think:

upper right:



just refinished (polyurethane still wet):





with our black furniture:



more true color:

[mrsbird1129]

Thanks for sharing those photos!