Veronica Hughes: Custom stain color for hardwood floors

I wanted to share the next step in the process of refinishing our floors with Bona, and mixing the custom stain color for our hardwood floors.

We had been holding our breath, hoping that the rumors of a “ completely ruined and pet stained floor” weren’t really true. Luckily, we only found two small places.

Dark cat stain on the floor

This one was in our bedroom near my closet. This is after the first sanding.

Pet staining on floor

And the second one was Oldest’s room. We got lucky, and the middle bedroom was stain-free. We talked about the options for way to deal with the staining. One was to remove the damaged boards and replace them with new ones. But, because our floor is the other side of 60 years old, the old wood could grab stain darker than the new wood, so there could possibly be a lighter spot where the patch was. Or, we could let him continue to sand, and see how light the stains would go. He explained that if we were going to go with a natural colored, or light stained floor, he would have to replace the boards, but since we were planning on a darker stain,it might not even be an issue.

We opted to have him continue to sand, and see if they got to the point where they weren’t noticeable. Luckily, by the time he was done sanding, they were such a light gray, we opted to just leave the boards as is.

Mixing a custom stain color for hardwood floors

Jay from Exquisite Flooring was very patient in mixing our custom stain color. He was such a good sport, putting up with my color pickiness. I think because I do custom paint color consults, any tone even slightly off would make me crazy. I knew I wanted to closely match the wood floors we already had downstairs.But, I wanted to go slightly darker and richer than what was there. And, I needed to be able to see it at night and in daylight before we did it to make sure it looked right at both of those times. I know,I’m extra.

Matching a custom stain floor

He would open a can, he would mix different drops of stain, and I would look at them with my head tilted slightly on an angle, shake it and say “not enough….” and we would start over.

Mixing custom stain colors for a wood floor

He had the entire Bona stain system,and would measure each one to get a custom stain mix.

Custom mixing stain to match old floors

I would then step back, and try to see how it compared to the old floor downstairs. The one in the upper right hand corner was the closest, but it still looked a little light, and not a deep or rich enough tone. We ended up mixing a few drops of one, and a bit of another, and then added in one more.

Stain matching on a custom wood floor

How many did “samples”we end up with in total? Lucky number 14. I told you I was extra… I finally looked at the last one that morning and said “That’s it!”.

I knew it the minute I saw it, that it was our custom stain color. I can’t wait to show you how it looks, and to talk more about the process of refinishing the floors, we are so thrilled with them!

This post is sponsored by Bona, opinions are entirely my own.