Stain patch test on original pine floorboards: four shades of brown taped off side by side with LOBA tins and sanding kit

Colour, Proven On Your Floor

Wood Floor Staining in London

Twelve LOBA colours, applied properly after a full sand, and a free patch test on your own boards so you choose from the real thing, never a chart.

★★★★★ 4.9 from 52 Google reviews

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Home · Wood Floor Staining

How We Choose Colour

The Patch Test: See It Before You Commit

The photograph above is a real one, taken mid-job. Four shades of brown, taped off side by side on the client's own freshly sanded boards, so they could stand in their own room, in their own light, and point at the winner.

That's how every stained floor of ours gets its colour. Not from a printed chart, not from a photo on a website, and not from how the stain looked on a different species of wood in a showroom. The same tin of stain can come out lighter, darker, warmer or cooler depending on the timber, its age and how finely it was sanded. The only honest answer is to put the real options on your real floor.

Free of charge on every sand and refinish job
As many shades side by side as you need to decide
Done after sanding, so the colour behaves exactly as it will on the finished floor
Nothing is committed until you've picked

Before and after: a pale worn floor sanded and stained a rich even brown by Howard Naish — Before & after · the same boards, sanded bare and stained a rich even brown.

The Hard Stuff

If We Can Stain Beech, We Can Stain Yours

The before and after above is a beech floor we stained in Gipsy Hill, near Tulse Hill. Ask anyone in the trade: beech is the hardest common floor timber to stain. It's so dense and tight-grained that stain tends to sit unevenly and blotch, which is why most firms will simply refuse to stain it. We took that floor from washed-out pale to a rich, even brown, edge to edge. If your floor is oak or pine, the same care gets you an even easier, deeper result.

The LOBA Range

Twelve Colours, From Bleached White to Near-Black

We stain with LOBA, the German finish system we're trained on. The swatches below are a guide to the range; the patch test on your own boards is where the real decision gets made.

Strong White

Chalky, bleached Scandinavian look

Golden Oak

Warm honey amber

Nutmeg

Warm spice brown, a hint of cinnamon

Classic Grey

Cool grey-brown, weathered timber

Dark Grey

Dark slate, cool undertone

Medium Brown

Balanced mid-brown, the safe bet

Provincial

Dark warm brown, red-mahogany lean

Walnut

Dark chocolate, like black walnut

Heritage Brown

Very dark warm brown, nearly espresso

Jacobean

Deep espresso black-brown

Mahogany

Warm red-brown with a plum undertone

Ebony

Intense near-black, the darkest we do

Real stain on real oak, not digital colour chips. And before anything touches your floor, your shortlist gets patch-tested on your own boards.

How It Works

Stain Is a Job Done In the Right Order

Colour changes always start with a full sand back to bare wood: stain needs fresh, open timber to absorb evenly. Before staining we take the sanding a stage finer than we would for a clear finish, because finer sanding means more even colour. Then the patch test, then the chosen stain across the floor, and finally the protection over the top: three coats for lacquer finishes, two coats for oil. If you are torn between the two, our finishes page settles it honestly. And if you want the craft behind all this, grits, water popping, why stain goes blotchy, we've written the whole method up.

That's the stain going on: Dean working it into a parquet floor with the buffer, machine-driven for an even colour edge to edge.

If your floor doesn't actually need a colour change, we'll say so. Some tired floors just need feeding, not staining: read why not every floor needs a full sand.

No Obligation

Torn between two colours? The patch test on your own boards settles it, and the site visit is free.

Book a Free Site Visit

Straight Answers

Staining Questions, Answered

Do you charge for the patch test?

No. On every sand and refinish job you'll be offered a selection of finishes to choose from, included in the price, and we confirm the choice with a patch test on your own floor before the final coats go on. It's part of the job, not an extra.

Why do a patch test instead of choosing from a colour chart?

Because the same stain looks different on every floor. The species, the age of the timber, how it was sanded and the light in your room all change the result. A chart shows you the stain on someone else's wood under showroom lighting. The patch test shows you the truth: that exact colour, on your boards, in your light. It's the only honest way to choose.

Can you stain any wood floor?

Almost any, but some species take stain much harder than others. Pine and oak stain beautifully. Dense, tight-grained timbers like beech and maple are notoriously difficult to stain evenly, and it's where a lot of blotchy DIY jobs come from. It's specialist work, but it can absolutely be done: the beech floor on this page is ours.

Does staining mean I need a full sand first?

Yes. Stain needs bare, evenly sanded timber to take properly, so a colour change always starts with a full sand back to fresh wood. That's also why we sand finer before staining than before a clear finish: the finer the sanding, the more evenly the colour absorbs.

How is the stained floor protected afterwards?

The stain gives the colour, then the finish goes over the top to protect it. Lacquer finishes are applied as three coats; oil finishes are applied as two coats. We'll talk you through which suits your room and how you live.

Are you on Checkatrade?

Yes, and the reviews are public, both on Checkatrade and on Google. Same name on every job: Howard Naish Wooden Floors Ltd.

From Our Google Reviews

★★★★★

"The team from Howard Naish were incredibly professional and friendly to deal with. The installation and colouring/staining of the floors were also done to the highest quality and workmanship. Would definitely recommend to friends and..."

Mikail Tunç · Google review

Dean Naish at the wheel of the Howard Naish van between jobs

Dean between jobs. One of us, Dean or Luke, is on every floor we stain.

Thirty Seconds, Five Boxes

Tell Us About Your Floor

Leave your details and we'll ring you back to arrange your free site visit.

We're booking about three months ahead at the moment, and a deposit holds your place in the queue. Dates tight? Ring us anyway, cancellations happen and smaller jobs can often be slotted in.

Every job is backed by the Howard Naish Workmanship Promise: 2 years on installation, 12 months on sanding and refinishing. If our work fails, we fix it.

We stain and finish floors across South London. See your area: Balham, Clapham, Dulwich, Wimbledon, Southfields, Tooting, Brixton, Streatham Hill, Crystal Palace, Gipsy Hill, Kensington, Purley, Sutton and Camberwell.

Free Quote, No Obligation

Fancy a Change of Colour?

A free site visit, honest advice on what your timber will take, and a patch test before anything is committed.

020 3131 0122

Book a Free Site Visit