Tolland, CT Hardwood Floor Refinishing — Part 2: From Raw Wood to Stain and Finish

In Part 1 of this Tolland, Connecticut hardwood floor refinishing project, we showed the amount of work that went into finding the right color. The homeowner wanted to move away from the strong orange tone of the existing character-marked cherry while also finding a color that would work with the home's white oak flooring.

We made multiple samples directly on the floors and spent considerable time working with the homeowner before settling on the direction.

Now comes the part where all that preparation begins to pay off.

Part 2 shows what happens when the selected stain actually goes onto the floor—and something homeowners don't always get to see: how dramatically the appearance of a hardwood floor can change from raw wood, to freshly applied stain, to dried stain, and finally to the finished floor.

Applying the Stain to the White Oak

The first photograph captures the stain being applied to the freshly sanded white oak flooring.

This is one of my favorite stages to show a homeowner because the contrast is so dramatic. On one side you can see the light, freshly sanded raw wood. On the other is the much richer color created by the stain.

You can actually see the transition happening across the floor.

Seeing the Entire White Oak Floor Come Together

Once the room was completely stained, we could finally step back and evaluate the color across a much larger area.

This was particularly important on this project because we weren't choosing a color for the white oak alone.

We were trying to establish a tone that could also work alongside a completely different species of wood elsewhere in the home.

And that brought us to the more difficult part of the project—the character-marked cherry.

The Character-Marked Cherry Looked Completely Different Raw

The third photograph is important because it shows the character-marked cherry in its freshly sanded state.

Without stain or finish, you can really see how much variation exists from board to board.

That variation was part of what made this floor beautiful, but it was also what made the color selection challenging.

The homeowner didn't want to return to the strong orange/pumpkin appearance the cherry previously had. At the same time, we didn't want to hide all of the natural characteristics that made this particular floor interesting.

Bringing the Cherry and White Oak Closer Together

This is where all of the stain sampling from Part 1 became important.

We weren't trying to pretend that cherry and white oak were the same wood. They're not, and each species is going to accept stain differently.

The goal was to find a color direction that allowed the two floors to work together.

Once the stain went onto the cherry, we felt we were getting there.

But there was still another change coming.

Why Stain Doesn't Look the Same Throughout the Process

One thing homeowners sometimes find surprising is how much a stained floor changes before the project is complete.

When stain is first applied, it can look extremely rich and deep because it is wet. As the stain dries, that color can become noticeably flatter or duller.

That doesn't necessarily mean anything has gone wrong.

The next transformation happens when we begin applying the finish.

Watching the Color Come Back to Life

You can see this especially well in the fifth photograph.

Part of the floor has received finish while another area is still waiting for it.

As the finish goes down, the grain, color variation and character of the wood begin to pop again.

That's why we always tell homeowners that evaluating a custom stain is a process. The appearance immediately after stain application isn't necessarily the same appearance they'll see after the stain dries—and neither is exactly the same as the completed finished floor.

The Color We Had Been Working Toward

By this point, we could finally see the result of all the decisions that started back with those stain samples in Part 1.

The cherry still looked like cherry.

The white oak still looked like white oak.

We weren't trying to erase those differences. Instead, we worked toward a common tone that allowed two very different hardwood floors to complement each other throughout the home.

Most importantly, the homeowner loved the direction the floors had taken.

For us, that made the additional sampling, communication and patience worthwhile.

Next: The Finished Tolland Floors

In Part 3, we'll show the completed floors after the refinishing process is finished.

That's where you'll be able to compare everything we've shown throughout this series: the original flooring, freshly sanded wood, stain samples, the selected stain, finish application and ultimately the completed white oak and character-marked cherry floors.

For a project this complicated, the final photographs mean more when you can see everything that went into getting there.