{"id":134,"date":"2023-04-29T22:10:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T22:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/?p=134"},"modified":"2026-01-07T04:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:31:24","slug":"how-to-decide-on-a-final-stain-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/how-to-decide-on-a-final-stain-color\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Decide on a Final Stain Color"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our last blog post, we went into great detail about choosing stain colors. If you haven\u2019t seen that post yet you can read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the hardest decisions you may have to make when it comes to your hardwood floors is choosing the color you will eventually stain them. This is an important decision because you will have to live with your choice for a long time.<\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve followed the advice from that post, you\u2019ve probably narrowed your choice down to 2 or 3 of your favorite wood floor stain colors.<\/p>\n

So, in this article we\u2019ll show you the steps we can help you go through to finally decide on a stain color that you\u2019ll be completely 100% happy with for your hardwood floors.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

First things first though\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s with the Small Wood Floor Stain Color Samples???<\/h4>\n

One of the biggest complaints we used to hear when helping people choose a stain color was that the wood floor stain samples are far too small.<\/p>\n

And you know what? They were right. Most stain samples are no more than a few square inches\u2026 if that.<\/p>\n

\"Stain<\/p>\n

How on earth could you get a good idea of how it would look on your hardwood floors from such a tiny sample?<\/p>\n

So, to address this frustrating issue, we decided to make things much easier for you by assembling some much bigger wood stain samples on sections of actual hardwood flooring as you can see in the image below. They have also been coated with one of our finish systems so you can see exactly how the stain color will look on the floor once finished.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

Now you can put these larger samples on your floor, step back and get a much better idea of how your entire hardwood floor will look.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to Use Our Large Stain Sample Boards\u2026<\/h4>\n

We suggest that our clients give our large stain sample boards a test run for a few days in their homes. This will help you to see the 2 or 3 colors you\u2019re having trouble deciding on in different light settings \u2013 in the morning, during the afternoon and in the evening under artificial light.<\/p>\n

You may love one particular color in the bright morning light but after a few days of living with the sample board decide that it makes the room far too dark in the evening.<\/p>\n

We also suggest moving the stain sample boards around the rooms to different locations. Put them up close to your furniture to get an idea of how they work together.<\/p>\n

\"Naperville<\/p>\n

Does one color look better with other wood pieces of furniture more than the others?<\/p>\n

How does each sample look with your rugs and sofa?<\/p>\n

Think about the ambiance of the room you\u2019re hoping to obtain when choosing your stain color. Remember that the wood in your home doesn\u2019t have to be all the same type and color, but they do need to work well together.<\/p>\n

After a few days of seeing the large samples in their home environment, most of our clients have a much easier time of making their final choice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But What if I Still Can\u2019t Decide on a Stain Color?<\/h4>\n

In some special cases we have clients who still can\u2019t decide between 2 similar stain colors on the sample boards and are wondering what a blend of both might look like. Or maybe they would like to see a lighter or darker shade of a certain color.<\/p>\n

In these situations, we are happy to put some actual custom mixed stain samples on the actual hardwood floor itself. We can sand an area in one of your rooms and apply the custom mixed stain colors side-by-side so you can easily see the difference between them. That way for certain you\u2019ll have the exact color you were looking for.<\/p>\n

\"Stain<\/p>\n

Usually, this last step is not needed but we are happy to offer it to our clients to make sure they\u2019re 100% satisfied with their final choice.<\/p>\n

Once the difficult decision of stain color choice is made, the rest is looked after by us. We\u2019ll prepare your hardwood floor for staining using the detailed steps you can read about here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then your newly stained hardwood floor will be coated numerous times with one of our top-of-the-line finish systems<\/a> to properly protect it for many years of enjoyment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More Information:<\/h4>\n

For a more in-depth article about choosing a stain color you can download the PDF article \u201cWhat Color Should I Stain My Hardwood Floors?\u201d<\/em> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Updated Jan 2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post will make that tough decision of choosing a stain color for your hardwood floor much easier!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"How To Decide on a Final Stain Color","_seopress_titles_desc":"Can't decide on a stain color? This post will make that tough decision of choosing a stain color for your hardwood floor much easier.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-staining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}