classic gray – The Artesian Project

Last week we had to choose the floor stain which was REALLY HARD. The wood floors will be throughout the entire first and second floor and are not easy to refinish – so we have to like it. Plus, they set the tone for the whole house. After seeing the the unfinished wood installed in the house, we loved how the light bounced off the light floors and kept the space nice and bright. We also knew we wanted light floors to keep the dog scratches down to a minimum (my friends with really dark floors love the look, but hate what their dogs and kids can to do them!).

So I scrolled through dozens and dozens of photos on Houzz finding finishes I liked, like so (right?!):

Mediterranean dining room design by orange county architect Sinclair Associates Architects

Only to realize that the base wood product was different than the red oak which was installed in our house, so it is going to absorb the stain differently and have a different overall appearance – which makes a whole lotta sense. So then I dove deeper into Houzz and researched red oak and some specific Minwax Stains I had in mind, which is when I found this baby, light and clean without looking unfinished:

Contemporary kitchen design by san francisco interior designer Jeff Schlarb Design

So I relayed this to our contractor and he put some samples down of the Classic Gray Minwax and the Pickled Oak Minwax:

The Pickled Oak was pretty, but I was afraid the floors would look unfinished in that stain – the pink of the red oak was still very prevalent. The Classic Gray looked great, but it was much darker than what we were looking for. So next on the sample board was a 50/50 mix of the Pickled Oak and Classic Gray, as well as some Provincial Stains as I wasn’t sure I wanted to totally rule a brown tone out just yet:

The 50/50 Classic Gray and Pickled Oak mixture was exactly right; it kept the floor light enough that the space wouldn’t feel too heavy without being so light that it looked unfinished – and it is interesting. Now if only I could have realized that before I picked the Classic Gray, had a major freak out moment, and then went back and changed it to the mixture – whoopsies, luckily they had not started yet…

We wanted more of a matte finish to show some texture and keep the floors from ambering later on, so the floor installer used a water-based satin sealant as opposed to an oil-based high gloss. Here is what the final product looks like:

The cabinetry is being installed today and I can’t wait to see how they all look together. Heeeere’s hoping! I hope this post saves anyone else an ulcer that is trying to pick their stain.