staircase

SJ McCarthy

It looks like you already have a medium stain (?Provincial?) on there so you are aware it will be lighter than any of the options you are looking at. Because you want to get away from 'red/orange' tones (as seen in your photo), I HIGHLY recommend you work with the Jacobean side of things. Just like in the make-up industry, floor stains use GREEN based stains to 'hide' or cover red tinges. Jacobean is green based. Jacobean is often used to create a mix of colour. The green base of Jacobean is used (50:50 or 25:75) to get rid of the red AND to darken a colour. This is normal. It is done all the time (by skilled refinishers). I'm not fond of Ebony. It can go down VERY dark (so dark it looks like black paint). Dark walnut might pull a bit to reddy-orange (browns are made up of reds and oranges and blues, etc). Be prepared to ask for a custom mix. And to stay away from orange all together you MUST WORK with a water based polyurethane. That means you MUST HAVE a coat of finish applied to the samples BEFORE you choose. This is normal. It is natural. It is 'industry standard'. Never, ever pick a stain colour without a coat of your finish (in your gloss level) over top. And make sure you view the stain patches through ALL 5 lighting situations. I like to see stain patches put down on Friday (with a coat of finish) and then the homeowners view it over the weekend. You tell the refinisher what you want on Saturday. The full staining process starts on Monday. That's the IDEAL way to do this.

Reply to: It looks like you already have a medium stain (?Provincial?) on there so you are aware it will be lighter than any of the options you are looking at. Because you want to get away from 'red/orange' tones (as seen in your photo), I HIGHLY recommend you work with the Jacobean side of things. Just like in the make-up industry, floor stains use GREEN based stains to 'hide' or cover red tinges. Jacobean is green based. Jacobean is often used to create a mix of colour. The green base of Jacobean is used (50:50 or 25:75) to get rid of the red AND to darken a colour. This is normal. It is done all the time (by skilled refinishers). I'm not fond of Ebony. It can go down VERY dark (so dark it looks like black paint). Dark walnut might pull a bit to reddy-orange (browns are made up of reds and oranges and blues, etc). Be prepared to ask for a custom mix. And to stay away from orange all together you MUST WORK with a water based polyurethane. That means you MUST HAVE a coat of finish applied to the samples BEFORE you choose. This is normal. It is natural. It is 'industry standard'. Never, ever pick a stain colour without a coat of your finish (in your gloss level) over top. And make sure you view the stain patches through ALL 5 lighting situations. I like to see stain patches put down on Friday (with a coat of finish) and then the homeowners view it over the weekend. You tell the refinisher what you want on Saturday. The full staining process starts on Monday. That's the IDEAL way to do this.

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