Choosing The Best Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
Choosing the best farmhouse style floor stain is overwhelming – not too brown, not too dark, not too gray . . . Check out this 4-step tutorial, and browse through lots of finished farmhouse-style floors to find the best farmhouse-style floor stain for your home!
When we bought our 3rd fixer-upper, we were fortunate to find that the entire upstairs (minus the bathroom) had red oak hardwood flooring. Once we ripped up all the carpet, pulled out the 5 million staples, tore up the tack boards, and sanded the planks down (no big deal) . . . it was time to choose the best farmhouse style floor stain.
For more inspiration be sure to check out:
- Choosing The Best Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
- DIY Ideas For A Pure Happy Home
- 44 Basement Ceiling Ideas
- 8 Creative Ways to Use Brick Pavers
- DIY Farmhouse Decor On A Budget
- 18 Amazing Ideas To Finish Attic Spaces
Choosing The Best Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
1. Know your wood.
Before you can choose the best farmhouse style floor stain you need to know the wood you are dealing with.
The above image is an awesome breakdown of hardwood flooring options from Elizabeth Bixler’s post “Solid Hardwood Floors: Types to Use in Your Home.”
Ours happens to be red oak.
Choosing The Best Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
2. Know your style.
If you are installing brand new hardwood than this step would perhaps come first. In our case, we were refinishing existing flooring, but it is crucial to have a sense of what your style is. You are asking yourself why is she saying this when clearly my style is “farmhouse?” Let’s be honest.
There is the Fixer Upper style farmhouse. as perfected by Joanna Gaines, which pulls very cool tones with little red or orange and leans almost vintage industrial.
There is French Country Farmhouse which if more provincial would classically include warmer shades of brown, red and orange, or you can lean toward a Shabby Chic Farmhouse which is not as industrial as Joanna, but is still not pulling the terra cotta warmth of a classic provincial style.
Or you may be like me and incorporate elements from all of the above.
SO . . . that meant I was looking for a stain that would work with our bedroom suite which was more of the French Shabby Chic gray, but could also work with the warmer tones of our first floor as this stain was coming down the stairs and would meet with the mortar washed brick floor of the foyer.
Choosing The Best Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
3. Know your stains.
I happen to love Minwax Stain so all of these floors are red oak floors finished with Minwax stains. Let’s go window shopping.
The above picture shows some of the most commonly considered options for choosing the best farmhouse style floor stain. But what happens when you mix them???
Let’s go in order of the overall finished tone of the stain.
Dark Toned Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
100% Jacobean
50% Jacobean 50% Ebony
100% Dark Walnut
100% Dark Walnut
Medium Toned Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
75% Classic Gray 25% Jacobean
66% Classic Gray 33% Jacobean
50% Jacobean 25% Classic Gray 25% Weathered Oak
50% Dark Walnut 50% Special Walnut
50% Special Walnut 50% Weathered Oak
100% Special Walnut
Light Toned Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
100% Weathered Oak
100% Classic Gray
100% Classic Gray
66% Weathered Oak 33% Classic Gray
75% Classic Gray 25% Provincial
Choosing The Best Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
4. Know what works for you!
Everyone that knows me can insert their shocked faces here, but I didn’t go with any of the above. In fact, I didn’t find anyone who really ended up with the combo I went with.
Our wonderful floor guy did what I asked him to and tried a couple color combos for me. I didn’t like any of them.
50% Espresso 50% Classic Gray
I really did love the overall tone here, but it was too dark. Will show every spec of dirt.
50% Special Walnut 50% Weathered Oak
Gorgeous color. But too brown/orange.
33% Jacobean 66% Classic Gray
Ugh. This looked like a sickly green.
50% Jacobean 25% Weathered Oak 25% Classic Gray
Getting there, but I still felt the tone was too cool/black.
50% Espresso 25% Weathered Oak 25% Classic Gray
PERFECTION. Up close you can see the way it does pull some cool from the Classic Gray, but the Weathered Oak was exactly what the Espresso needed to lighten it up. Ah look at that wood grain. Gorgeous!
And HERE was our end result!!
**A side note: I did not want them quite this dark. The above sample of floor I hand rubbed the stain into the floor and then wiped it off pretty hard. I should have asked our floor guy to do the same and never thought of it. If you want to see more of the wood grain make sure to wipe the stain off and rub it into the wood really well. The more you leave on the more opaque it will be.**
50% Espresso 25% Weathered Oak 25% Classic Gray
Here is Caleb’s room.
And here is the same wall with the pallets. Read how to do this Easy DIY Pallet Accent Wall tutorial here!
Here is the master closet that we knocked out and framed with old barn beams to create an open concept closet design. Read the tutorial on How to Install Barn Beams on a Ceiling here!!
Check out the final reveal of our French Country Cottage master bedroom including our barn beam framed open-concept closet design!
I would love to know . . . which are your favorite??
For more home design inspiration be sure to check out:
- Choosing The Best Farmhouse Style Floor Stain
- DIY Ideas For A Pure Happy Home
- 44 Basement Ceiling Ideas
- 8 Creative Ways to Use Brick Pavers
- DIY Farmhouse Decor On A Budget
- 18 Amazing Ideas To Finish Attic Spaces
Pin any of the images below for Later!
I am so happy I found your page! We have pine flooring and wow do all the stain colors look different on this wood. Every color option out there wasn’t what I was looking for. I had a sample piece that I put at least 10 different color options on. Trying to lose the orange seemed to be very difficult. Every color even the conditioner made the wood look so orange or a very unpleasant color.
I went with 1/3 Espresso, 1/3 Classic Grey and 1/3 Weathered Oak. We are very happy with the result! Thank you!
Oh Debbie that makes me SO happy! I would love to see a pic and add it to the blog if you are willing. It would be so helpful to have an example of that stain mix on pine. My email is ahna@ahnafulmer.com if you are willing to share. Blessings!
I would love to see a picture of this combination of stains!
I don’t know who mixed your colors. But they are not even close to being accurate. Classic Grey and Jacobean mix would be 10 times that dark. Get a better floor mechanic. These pics are horribly inaccurate….pretty but, wrong
I love these suggestions! I just sanded my very dark stained red oak floors that I’ve had for 20 years, Time for a change, I’d like a modern farmhouse look of light brown with some gray undertones. ( no orange or pink tones for sure) The problem is that 1/3 of my planks look really pink!! I looked at the sample of just a topcoat with no stain, but it looked like I had a strawberry dessert. HELP! Is it worth it to bleach the wood? My contractor said my look just isn’t possible without white oak. I need to prove him wrong! This is too expensive of a job without the right look. I want to stay fairly light but would like some depth in that weathered look.
thanks for shooting me an email. Can’t wait to hear how it turns out!
Hi, thanks for the great information! I have a lot of old barn wood throughout the house and am trying to figure out a floor stain. I’ve tried a bunch, but don’t love any of them. Is there a good ‘lighter’ brown. I tried 75% special walnut and 25% Jacobean, but it seemed dark. Any suggestions? Looking for a color that isn’t as dark, but not orange/gold/red.
Thanks!
Dark walnut is lighter than jacobean but a little warmer toned. Espresso is a good option that is a little lighter than jacobean without being red. Someone recently sent me a great pic of 1/3 espresso, 1/3 special walnut, and 1/3 classic gray! You could try that!
Thank you for this post. We’re also, like others in the process of pulling up carpet and putting down wood flooring. We have wood floors in the kitchen and I love them. They were installed when the house was built in 2005 so the finish has yellowed and they are that “orangey” oak color. I’m trying to move away from that and go with a little darker color but also want to avoid the red colors. The Jacobean & Weathered oak looked beautiful, that’s exactly the finish I’m looking for, but my question is does the water-based and the oil-base stains look the same? My contractor gave me a color list of oil-based Minwax stain colors and I think you’re using water-based.
Cindy that is a great question. Yes, these are water-based. I would ask your flooring contractor if there is a significant difference in final appearance. I have only ever worked with water-based stains as they are easier to handle, but there are advantages to oil as well.
Thanks for this information! I want to hire a company to refinish hardwood floors for me, but I want to make sure that I’m getting what I want. Thanks again for the help!
My pleasure! I am so glad you find it helpful. Would love to hear what you end up choosing!
Thank you – this article has been so helpful! I originally selected dark walnut – but have since switched to classic gray and I am very pleased so far! Thank you for the pictures and information.
Aww I’m so glad to hear that! I hope you are still enjoying them!
This is so helpful! I definitely want light and cool I am living weathered oak and maybe mixed with some classic gray. Will play with the percentages. Thank you!! Refining all of my downstairs the orange red oak floors don’t work with anything I have or like.
Yay! I love hearing that! I would love to see what you come up with and how it turns out if you’re willing to share!
This post is amazing!!! Thank you for this! We are refinishing our floors this weekend and have been struggling on what stain to pick! I’m actually excited now to have a few great options after reading this!
Amy that makes me so happy! Which stains did you choose to try?
Thank you for this very helpful post. We have red oak floors and I’m trying to figure out the right stain and it is hard!!
It can be really stressful! I’m so glad the post helped. Don’t hesitate to ask questions! Good luck
hello, I have just been reading over your page to try and narrow down some colors. unfortunately I just had my floors stained and I have to have them resanded because they look too orangey. I have red oak. I mixed 1/3 weathered oak 1/3 classic gray and 1/3 provincial. I was surprised how warm it looked considering that color combo. any suggestions you may have for me to achieve a non red brown with a mixture of gray on the red oak? thank you for your feedback.
Hi Lisa! Yeah unfortunately the provincial and weathered oak pull orange. To keep it brown without pulling orange you could add something like espresso to the mix. 1/3 espresso, 1/3 weathered oak, 1/3 classic gray. Or if you want it darker try 1/2 espresso. If you want it lighter you could try a section of floor using 50% classic gray and 50% weathered oak or 50% gray 50% provincial. I would love to hear what you find and feel free to shoot me an email with pics! ahna@hammersnhugs.com
Did you use water based or polyurethane sealer?
I was curious if water or oil based polyurethane was used for the 75% Classic grey 25% jacobean stain? The floors look beautiful.
It was a water based poly in satin
I have red oak floors and was considering special or dark walnut but both pulled too many red and honey tones. I absolutely love your floors, but I’m a bit intimidated by espresso. Would you consider this floor very dark even though it’s cut with gray and weathered oak? Is it darker than say Jacobean or Dark walnut? Thanks for your help.
Hi Erin! I think the key to the darkness or opacity of the floor depends on whether or not it’s being brushed on or rubbed in. Our floors are quite dark, and my regret was that I didn’t think to tell our floor guy to actually rub in the stain not just brush it on. Rubbing it in helps the wood grain to come through and did not appear nearly as dark as I did in my sample area. Jacobean is also quite dark, but I think the biggest difference is that Jacobean pulls more brown and espresso probably pulls more gray.
How many coats on the 75%/25% classic gray/Jacobean? Love it. I’m staining a table. Do you wipe off or “soak” the wood? Thanks!
Typically just one coat of the stain. The key is practicing on an area first to see how much you need to wipe off to get your look. Some of it also depends on the type of wood. I always think rubbing stain in and then wiping off with a clean rag gives you more control over the finished look. Good luck! Would love to see a pic when you’re done!
Used the Duraseal version of your final choice on red oak #1. The decorator, floor sales person and stain expert were all amazed at the depth and beauty. The final product with a matte Bona oil finish is a glory to behold. Thank you so much. Big fan!
David that’s amazing! Thanks so much for sharing! If you ever think of it I would love to see a picture and may even add it to the post for others to see with your permission . If you are up for it u can email a pic to ahna@hammersnhugs.com but if not no worries at all. Just so glad you shared! ?
Thanks for sharing these tips! I’m having Fabulous Floors Charleston out this week to refinish some of my hardwood floors in my kitchen, and I’m kind of struggling to settle on the stain I want. This has been really helpful. Still not totally sure what I want but I’m felling like I have some more direction now.
I’m so glad to hear it!
Hi! When you say mix do they mix the stains together or do they do part of the floor in one color and the other part in another?
Mixed together before application.
Do you have pics of stains on white oak? Looking for a medium/light brown with gray highlights for a beach house
Hi Laura! Actually most of these pics are red oak! Our floor at the end of the post is also red oak. Good luck! Would love to see what you choose!
I noticed at the top of the post you mention the floors in he pictures are red oak. Just want to confirm that they are, and not on white oak! Thanks!
Yes! Now I was obviously dependent on what the bloggers said themselves! My floors from our house at the end of the post are definitely red oak.
Ok now I’m totally confused… are you working with white oak or red oak? They stain completely different so hoping to use your post as reference but the wood type really matters!
Steph, I just read through the comments, and I can see why you’re confused. The final answer is red oak. These floors are red oak!
This is really helpful information. Pinned!
I’m so glad to hear it!! Thanks for stopping by!!