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wwwonderwhiskers

Matching Red Oak to White?

wwwonderwhiskers
12 years ago

Hello. We're in a new construction, and are almost finished. We chose a fabulous #1 common White Oak floor in 4" width, which was site finished with Minwax English Chestnut and Waterlox satin finish.

The stairs were done the same. Originally we thought to do the stairs, rails, and spindles all in a natural white oak to let the wood show through, and have a dark floor.

The issue is, that the builder did not order white oak rails & spindles with adequate lead time, so he is offering red oak. If we held fast, this would delay our move date a month. While we're a little sick over his error and poor offering, we feel like we have no choice.

So the question is, what to do with these Red Oak rails?

Any suggestions? Any suggestions which stain will negate the red oak coloring qualities so it will look more like white? We're open to either lighter, or darker.

I'd be OK with painting the spindles since the house has painted trim, but we're trying to coordinate the railing with the flooring. Coordinate - does not have to match.

Matching does not seem like a smart idea - although we've found weirdly enough that the Red Mahogany staining pen on sample seems really close to the floor now, if not a little blue-er. Not sure I trust a 4 year old staining pen on an approximate sample of red oak.

Going lighter, I wonder if the Fruitwood or Provincial color stains would counter the red, yet retain nice wood?

Going darker, I wonder if the Dark Walnut or Jacobean would work? On the minwax sample sheet it's hard to tell which of those two are redd-er, and which is green-er or blue-er.

Thanks for reading, and would enjoy your comments or response! Thanks......

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