Every species takes stain differently. Red oak pulls pink under a light stain. White oak goes gray-brown. Maple blotches unless it is conditioned first. Fir goes orange over time no matter what you do to it. We know the wood in the South Sound housing stock, and we know which colors work on it and which ones fight it.
The process is straightforward: sand to bare wood, water-pop the grain for even absorption, apply two or three sample colors in an out-of-the-way spot, and let you live with them for a day. Once the color is chosen we stain the whole floor in one pass so there are no lap marks, then seal and finish.
Popular requests right now are light natural whites and warm neutrals on white oak, deep espresso and walnut tones on red oak, and custom-mixed grays. We can also do reactive finishes and bleached looks for a Scandinavian style.