I have site finished walnut hardwood floors. We stained ours with DuraSeal Special Walnut. We could have gone lighter or darker. A darker color would have covered up the grain & color variation. I found this pic of Mirage Natural Walnut. It's lighter than our floors.

This is a pic of Mirage, Knotty Walnut in Colorado stain. This is closer to our color. The lighter color might work better with your chocolate cherry cabinets. Do you have samples of the flooring & your cabinet?

Thank you for posting that. I love your floor - actually much better than the first picture. I don't have pictures of my cabinets but they are Waypoint Brand - cherry with a chocolate glaze. Do you have white trim or stained trim? I also saw another floor I liked today as well. Johnson Handscraped walnut - Tuscan Series - Palazzo. It is very dark and rich like yours is. I have already ordered my cabinets and so there is no going back on those. There would be very little contrast. I don't know if it would be enough to have light walls, light granite or quartz and backsplash, and contrast in my rugs and furnishings. My contractor needed me to make decisions yesterday. I love the rich dark color of your floor and the very subtle color variations. Would you mind sharing your other finishes (cabinets, countertops,etc.... if these are in your kitchen)

The second pic isn't my floor (mine looks just like it). It is Mirage, Knotty Walnut in the color Colorado. It is a beautiful floor. When our raw wood was delivered, I was freaked out with the lighter boards (the sapwood). Once they were installed & stained, those areas of the floor make a darker stained floor rich & warm.
Our cabinets & countertops are white but the floors are throughout the house with a black background rug in our dining room & dark stained furniture.
I looked at your Waypoint Cherry in Chocolate. Very pretty.
I found a couple of pics with walnut floors and wood stain cabinets.

Another pic.

Last pic

I just reread your original post & now realize you aren't doing walnut in the kitchen. Here's a pic of our floor in the dining room before putting the furniture back. Even if your trim is not white, if your walls are light, you will still have the contrast between the floor & the wall.
We also have lots of windows with transoms. The sunlight highlights the beauty of the variations in the walnut.

This post was edited by romy718 on Fri, Aug 22, 14 at 11:31

Thank you so much for all the pictures. They are beautiful and have really helped.

@romy718 Beautiful floors! Have you had any issues with sun fading your floor color? We're considering Mirage Knotty Walnut w/Savanna (mid-tone brown) stain and wondering if stained/pre-finished makes a difference? I guess American Walnut is one of those woods that can turn lighter with age or direct sun exposure, but not sure if that's reduced by stain and special finishes. Any ideas, and what's your experience? Any feedback would be appreciated ASAP as our contractor wanted our hardwood decision yesterday!

No noticeable fading after about a year & we get a lot of sunlight. We love the floors but they do dent when moderately heavy things are dropped - much softer wood than our previous oak floors. We have small dogs but a large dog could be a problem. Ours are site finished & stained. I have heard that pre-finished walnut floors have a harder finish.

Thanks so much for your helpful reply! A couple more Q's: Is your Walnut American Walnut or Black Walnut, as maybe the latter reacts differently to light? Also any color difference under rugs? Our friend's Mirage Oak never changed color under their large rug but I think Oak is more stable color wise. I was hoping to avoid having to rotate or move rugs around to avoid this. Also hoping our new construction low e windows will provide some fading protection too. Your feedback is much appreciated! :)

I put in walnut flooring by Kahrs in our last house and noticed the same thing that romy718 did regarding denting. It looked awesome though, and I'd love to do it again if it fit into our overall plan for the place we live now.

FWIW, I have site-finished, unstained red oak and, after 8 years, there has been a slight color difference under a rug next to a slider with an eastern exposure. Not horrible, but it's there.

I just lifted up my large area rug in the FR. There is a very slight color change. No color change under small mats at the sink & range. We had color change under the oak also, when we removed the big area rugs. The only scenario I see the big rugs being removed is when we move, at least 10 years from now.

I believe American Walnut & Black Walnut are the same thing. Brazilian Walnut is a different wood species.

Thanks all! If anyone else with Walnut can post pics that would be great! :)

Oh not necessarily just color changes, but just pics in general! Not sure what to think about the denting, as our previous Oak floor would dent also if we dropped something on it. It seems a matte/cashmere finish and variation in the walnut color would actually hide the dents and scratches better than our previous clear red oak floor w/semi-gloss finish! That said, no grandchildren yet to test it out!

I have 3000 sq feet of american walnut and tons of natural light. It has faded considerably near the french doors. Although it is incredibly beautiful I don't think I would ever choose this wood again because of the fading.

Love my site finished walnut!

Hi Isabel, Are they a stained or natural walnut and do you remember the brand of hardwood, if it was pre-finished or site finished, and what kind the protective finish it has? About how long were they installed before noticing fading and was it due to direct sunlight or Southern exposure? Seems details like this seem to matter as to how walnut reacts, even climate and location! If you could let me know asap it would really be helpful, thank you!

Mdln - your floors are absolutely gorgeous!

Carynia - my 1 y/o grandson has been visiting for the past 7 weeks. Lots of blocks & toy throwing. The variation in the color of the walnut does hide the scratches & dents and the floors have survived.

Another option to protect your floors is UV blocking window film. We have a couple of rooms that don't have blinds or shades. I had 3M window film applied to protect the furniture from sun exposure, but I suppose it is also protecting the floors.

Hi Carynia, It is Urban engineered natural walnut, no stain. not sure of the coating but Even though they say you can refinish once or twice our installer said it's almost impossible to refinish these floors because the pre finish finish is so hard. Anyways, I live in Northern California, most doors face southwest and the floors have almost become monotone near the window. All the deep dark brown that I loved so much to contrast the natural cherry is gone in these areas and there is a very noticeable difference under the rugs. It started fading immediately, we got our solar shades up about 3 months after the floors went in so it has slowed.

In other areas of the house it has not faded and it truly is a beautiful wood. Visitors always ask about the floors and they don't notice the color change like I do. When I get bummed about it I try to pretend I'm a visitor and not noticing every tiny detail:) good luck in you new build. so exciting.

you can see in this photo the original brown color and initially I had the rug turned the other way and it is less faded than the parameter. the initial fading probably happened within 5 months with no protection.

This is unaffected part of the house.

Well due to a final deadline and lack of a better alternative free of other issues, we decided to go ahead and order Mirage's Knotty Walnut Savanna. We had to submit it today so here we go, hoping for the best and fingers crossed we'll be happy with it! It won't be installed for a month so I'll try to come back and post pics and follow up on things. Our decision was largely influenced by Mirage's reputation for their high quality wood and preparation, although another poster with Mirage Walnut Natural did mention after a year she had some fading by a window, but minimal and nothing objectionable. Also taking into consideration most with fading issues seem to have Natural rather than stained Walnut, so I'm wondering if stain might be protective in some way? Mirage also has UV protectant in their finish and that's supposed to delay/reduce any color changes. All our new Milgard Tuscany windows also have the latest 'code required' Low E glass so that might help too or we can consider additional UV window film if needed. Honestly, we hope to be enjoying rather than worrying about all this so much, the fading issue has already made me forget my early concerns about denting or wild color variations lol! So all the above factors plus mainly Eastern and not Southern daylight exposure we're really hoping we'll be OK. We do have one small room that will get lots of SE sunlight so it will be interesting what happens there. ALSO does anyone know about the 'rug' rule? I think I've heard one shouldn't cover new hardwood at all for at least something like six months, anyone know about this?

Isabel - Thank you for posting photos, your floor is beautiful! If the fading is mostly by your French doors have you considered covering over that area with a runner type rug or even even removing the faded wood and doing a beautiful tile inset in its place? I've also been told that although pre-finished flooring is harder to sand and refinish, it's not impossible and is doable for usually about $1 extra per sq ft than if re-doing a site-finished floor. They just need to use stronger 'sandpaper' type stuff. Hard finishes are so common these days I'm sure it can be done these days. If handscraped maybe not but your doesn't look handscraped. If you have the fading under control with UV shades it might be worth considering!

Btw, whereabouts are you in Northern CA? We lived there for sixteen years both in Sacramento and Sonoma County so you're making me nostalgic! If your Walnut has ever been exposed the the sizzling sun of Sacramento valley then your fading issues wouldn't surprise me! We're in a lovely area of the Pacific NW now.

mdln- thanks for the pics of your beautiful floor and cute little dog!

Romy718- thanks for your feedback and the UV film idea :)

Sorry my post is so long, probably putting you all to sleep! I'll try to do Walnut flooring updates as things progress here!

I'm sure you will be very happy, the wood is beautiful just was a bit surprised as to how quickly it faded and I don't know any rules about rugs. we have a north facing dining room where the wood is perfect and I have thought about replacing the faded with the wood from there and putting tile in the dining room. We could add rugs but then I feel like we just get more lines and more stuff to clean...BUT it's not really something anyone notices and we aren't really perfectionists…quite the opposite so in the end it's not that big a deal:)

We are in Aptos, south santa cruz county so maybe considered more the central coast. I love it here. I feel really lucky to live here and enjoy views of the ocean from my kitchen window everyday…makes up for a lot. best of luck building and don't forget to post pictures! we all love pictures!

Isabel - Lucky you to live in a little piece of paradise! That's how we felt in the hills of western Sonoma county, but the place we've landed now is nice as well, just different. A bit longer rainy sesson but balanced by snow-covered views of the Cascades and Canadian mountains, and still within a half hour drive to bays and the ocean. From BC to Southern CA the Pacific coast is a magical place, can't imagine living anywhere else, faded walnut floors or not! As for floors, mine won't be in until the mid-end of June so I may not have news or pics for awhile. Still, any preventative tips are welcome!

I asked the window place if my Anderson French doors were Low E and he said 'yes' but then added that some materials and even wood can sometimes be affected by OTHER types of rays besides UV, Help! So what in the world does that mean, anyone know?! Guess it's back to googling again, but then I really don't want to become completely obsessed with this fading issue either and would rather enjoy life a bit more too! ;)

it just it what it is…can't control it. live and learn. If I do another house I will likely go with a lighter wood and there will probably be a problem with that too. I had natural red oak in my last house and that fades too. when we sold that house not one person noticed fading on the floor. OUr neighbors there had sepele wood floors and I'm sure they had every protection possible and the floor by their back door was down to raw wood.

You are in an awesome place, enjoy it. enjoy your new place!

I don't know if this has anything to do with your fading issue - most woods tend to darken as they age, but walnut is the exception and tends to lighten with age.

yes, I now know that. unfortunately the flooring store told me it would continue to darken like the cherry. oh well.