You sound like you want what I wanted. The guy doing our floors said special walnut would be too dark. He suggested provincial, and I love it. It's hard to photograph the color of it, but here are a couple pictures to give you an idea. Sometimes it looks a little red in photographs, but it isn't red at all.

I'll also post your link below to make it easier for others.

Here is a link that might be useful: blueyoung's link

mpagmomï¼ thank youï¼ your floor looks amazing. And that's what I want, not yellow not red. Is your floor white oak?
Can I ask how long have you have it installed? Any changes in the color so far?

We just wanted the clear poly. We choose super matte finish with q&r oak so no real grain:

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Yes, it is white oak, and the floors were finished almost a year ago. I just pulled up the edge of a rug to see if it was lighter or darker underneath and we couldn't tell a difference. I think in general they darken a bit with exposure to the sun. I have a satin polyurethane finish. Good luck with your house!

My floors are being refinished this week. Ours are red oak and we choose the Golden Oak stain by minwax. Here's a pic with 1 coat poly and stain. More coats are coming tomorrow.

Do any of you have spacing or filler between your boards?

mpagmom, judging from Minwax's swatches on their website, I though Provincial is darker than Special Walnut. Thank you for posting your pic.

ratrem, love ur kitchen!!!!! Your floor looks great too. What a beautiful show room you have!

khallock, your floor looks darker than minwax's swatches. Do you think it's the light or it is kind of darker than the swatches?

Here is a link that might be useful: Minwax wood stain

Mpagmom, I like the Provincial Stain on the White Oak floors! Thank you for sharing.

Blueyoung - The Golden Oak is definitely darker than the swatches. I remember looking at the swatches at Lowes and I wasnt keen on Golden Oak. But then our floor guy brought over some stained boards, and I liked the color. I also like Special Walnut, but it was slightly darker than Golden Oak. My hubby didnt want to go as dark as Special Walnut. Provincial was darker than Special Walnut.

Remember I have red oak. I am not sure what white oak would look like with the same stain. Our flooring guy is also using oil-based polyurethane on top and I have heard that makes the floors darker than a water-based polyurethane would.

I have some more pictures. These are with just 1 coat of poly. My floors will be done by Sunday and I can post more pictures then with 3 coats of poly.

Close up with flash (1 coat poly)

Sorry to be off topic, but mpagmom, what is the aqua paint color in your house?

We have 5" white oak floors. We had them mix a custom stain, 75% jacobean, 25% walnut. I didn't want any red or golden tones...just brown.

My gosh the minwax color boards are definitely off. Two homes ago I had all my wood stained provincial and it is a lovely stain and definitely a mid tone. The home we are in now has all the woodwork and wood panel doors stained special walnut which is actually a dark walnut with a hint of henna tone to it. The jacobean is also very nice.

Msrose, off topic is what we do here. It's Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray.

mpagmom - Would you believe I just looking at The Nester Blog and saved a picture of Comfort Gray about five minutes ago? I think it's a sign I need to find a place for this color in my house :)

Nini804--would you be able to share any additional pictures of your floors? They are gorgeous!!! I'd like to see more!

mpagmom,
More off topic: Is the comfort gray also in the room adjacent to the one with the fireplace? And what's the cream paint color in the fireplace room?

There could not be a clearer sign, msrose.

Nosoccermom, the cream paint in the great room is SW neutral ground. The adjacent room (my foyer) is also comfort gray. I only used 3 colors in the whole house because my builder charged by the color.

holly-kay, can you please post the pic of your special walnut floor? I'd love to see how it looks in large area

We installed new 3" white oak planks throughout the main part of the house. The stain is a custom mix of 75% Jacobean and 25% Coffee Black. (I was told Coffee Black was the equivalent of Minwax Special Walnut.) I showed my floor guys a couple of pictures of what I wanted, specifically Nini's gorgeous floors, and we worked from there. I wanted the floors to be dark enough to be rich and yummy, but not so dark that every strand of cat hair and crumb would scream at me. I brought a couple of drawers from some of my QS oak antiques to make sure the floor wasn't too matchy-matchy. We ended up with the same formulation as Nini's.

Edited to add that I didn't want any red or yellow undertones in my floor. Just a nice, pleasing, rich brown color. My floors are finished in Bona waterborne, which my flooring company swears by.

This post was edited by breezygirl on Sun, May 5, 13 at 17:33

Oh no! I was all set for no stain but now seeing Nini & breezys floors makes me reconsider! Argh! Breezy--any more pics of your gorgeous floors you can share?

I don't want yellow or red--I want drown. But not dark, because I LOVE light and need to keep the space light.

I'm stuck!!!

I can't help you with the stain, but I'd strongly advise sticking with polyurethane for reflection and durable finish and not doing poly waterborne finish. We had a whole house done with poly waterborne, and it just doesn't hold up.

O/T: for those with glass cabinets, have you all lit them? Or, if you didn't, do you use incandescent overheads rather than recessed non diffusible LED lights? My electrical quotes for products alone are insane and I don't even like LED light much. thanks very much.

Buildinva--There are more photos of my kitchen on my old partial reveal thread linked below. If you click on any of the pics, you'll be taken to my photo bucket account with even more pics. In some of the photos you can see where the floorboards were cupping a little when we first moved back into the house. Those have almost all laid back down since that time.

FWIW, I've never had wood floors before, and I LOVE these! I still find myself admiring the color on regular occasions!

EDIT: Forgot to add the link!

Here is a link that might be useful: My partial reveal thread with many pics

This post was edited by breezygirl on Fri, May 10, 13 at 13:21

Are you using red oak or white oak?

We just installed red oak in our entire house and used a mix of medium brown and provincial. Provincial was too light/red and the medium brown was too dark. Our floor guy put the stain on the unfinished floor and let us think about it overnight; when he came back, he mixed them and we went with the 50/50 mix and LOVE it!! Not too red, not too brown, not too dark, not too light :)

Here's a pic....just please ignore the dusty floors under the island.

mpagmom,
this begs the question: What's your third paint color? (What do they say about imitation and flattery :)

Red oak and white oak will take stain differently. Red has the pinky undertones that will need a bit of green in the stain to counteract that. White oak has some greenish undertones that sometimes need a bit of red to warm it up or else it's too cool.

Whatever you do, your flooring professional should do samples for your approval before you decide.

Sorry, nosoccermom, I missed this! The third color is SW Light French Gray. My 3 daughters chose it for their two bedrooms and bath based on this picture:

Very pretty and very sophisticated!

These our are kitchen/dining room floors.....red oak, no stain and 3 coats of Glitsa polyurethane that was buffed. Floor was refinished 4 years ago and still looks great!