going light on red oak hardwood floors
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We love a light, natural white oak floor but, when refinishing, we’re often working with red oak. A few years ago, I was working on a design client project and knew I wanted a light natural white oak floor but the existing floors in the 1950s home were red oak. After lots of research we decided to do a custom mix to try to hide as much red as we could. Since then, we have done quite a few floors using this custom mix and love the results. I do want to say, it doesn’t completely hide all the pink, especially if it is a select or #1 wood but if your heart is set on light floors and you don’t want to rip out all of your red oak (which I ALMOST NEVER would recommend ripping out real, solid wood) then this is the best method we have found to achieve that light look.
So what starts out as orange-y red oak floors…..
Or pink-ish red oak floors…
Can be transformed like this…
Or like this!
After sanding we always apply stain samples on our client’s actual floors. We want them to see the stain across several boards of their own floors, in their own natural and artificial light.
photo by Emily Rose Photography
We have tweaked this custom mix a few times and have settled on a great formula that produces more of a “white oak look” for our clients that have red oak floors and want an on-trend, updated aesthetic.
Ready to have your hardwood floors refinished and want this look, but you’re discouraged because we’re not local to you? Schedule a virtual design consultation here and let’s get started!
photo by Emily Rose Photography
We can’t change red oak into white oak but this method does a pretty good job of achieving that scandi, light, natural look.
photo by Emily Rose Photography