Recently we’ve been bringing our designs back to the 70s with dark wood paneling all over every room… NOT! Stain can be a great way to add warmth to a room. Whether it’s wood flooring or stained wood cabinets, staying up to date on the trends of light and dark tones can be tricky. One of the things that makes stain so tricky is each species of wood takes stain differently. So below, we’ve broken down five of our most popular stain colors we use, and are showing how they look on different species. Keep reading for more about Axalta’s Color Choice stains from Hirshfield’s!

We organized our favorite samples into columns of the stain color and rows of the wood type. Going left to right the stain colors are: Dark Walnut, York Shire, Sisal, Ginger, and Whiskey. Going top to bottom the types of wood are: Fir, Alder, Poplar, and White Oak.

Dark Walnut

Dark Walnut is a beautiful darker stain that will bring loads of warmth to any room and it takes pretty similarly across the wood types. The grain adds some charm on the white oak sample and would make for a stunning floor, and the alder and poplar would make an amazing statement on a bathroom vanity.

York Shire

York Shire definitely leans towards a warm golden tone and emphasizes any grain in the wood. I am living for the variation that the stain created. This would be a beautiful accent piece around a range hood!

Sisal

Sisal is the lightest of our favorite stains and takes differently between the types of wood, especially the poplar. This is the perfect example of the advantage of testing a stain first. Each species of wood absorbs stain differently causing the color to vary.

Ginger

Ginger is another beautiful medium tone stain that varies slightly across the wood types. This would bring warmth to a cozy living room with a stunning fireplace mantle accent. Or even in a bedroom if you are bougie and have a fireplace in there as well!

Whiskey

Whiskey is by far the darkest of the stains and is pretty consistent between the wood types. It would be absolutely gorgeous to stain a kitchen island with something so bold as whiskey or even create a statement in a bathroom!

Are you team dark or light wood? Or, are you like us and just can’t choose? You really can’t go wrong with any of our favorite, and we hoped it was helpful to see how each stain looked on all of the wood types. Add some warmth to any room by incorporating a stained accent piece, stained flooring, or stained cabinets!

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