I know that white oak floors are all the rage right now, and I do love them so much. But they are quite expensive to install and it is not always feasible if you are doing a renovation (rather than a new build) and have existing flooring that you are looking to keep and just re-stain. Many older homes in New Jersey were built with red oak floors (including my own 1960’s home). So I have worked on many renovations and additions where we have needed to find a floor stain for red oak.
Here is a photo that I took of the samples of several of my favorite Minwax stains.
We selected Weathered Oak and I am thrilled with how it came out in my client’s home. I think this is the closest look to White Oak floors.
In this renovation project we did Early American which is stunning:
In this home from the 1920’s, we used Early American on the floors, and Provincial on the open shelves.
Here is another photo of various minwax stains at a client project- we are going with Weathered Oak!
So don’t stress if your home doesn’t have white oak floors - there are lots of gorgeous stains for red oak floors!