Our new home has engineered Brazilian cherry on the second floor throughout (including kitchen) except one carpeted room (the first room you see when you walk in the front door). The stairs leading up to third floor and third floor are carpeted, too. We want to remove all carpeting and replace with hardwoods.

We will use engineered Brazilian cherry in the second floor room that faces the front door because we think it will look really bad to use another wood.

First question: To make the old and new woods look good together (they will meet in a wide doorway), should we use a transition piece between the two, then change the orientation of the planks for the new? Or perhaps simply find a plank of new that looks close in color to plank of old and place them together without transition? (The carpeted room is dark, so the floor will look darker than brighter front door area).

Second question: We don't want to put Brazilian cherry on stairs and third floor because of the environmental issues (we are willing to put it in small 2nd floor room, but that's it. I know. That's not consistent at all). So, wondering if anyone has ideas on what type of wood to use on stairs and upstairs room that will look great with the Brazilian cherry (jatoba). We do plan on reselling at some point so that's a factor, too. We're thinking solid quarter-sawn red oak stained cherry. Does this sound like a good plan, or will that look weird? The staircase is open to large expanse of the Brazilian cherry. I guess the most important thing is to have a similar grain and color. Can we use some kind of staining trick on the oak so it has similar color variations as jatoba? Thanks so much for any ideas, opinions.

You really have only two options here, not the three as you seem to think.
Either try and get the same flooring and carry it throughout the entire space, or go to something completely different, such as natural maple.
Using a different kind of wood and trying to fake it into looking like Braz. Cherry, will look exactly that. Dont even consider it if resale values are of concern to you.

I think I misspoke. Our primary goal is to make the stairs look complementary to the jatoba floors, not necessarily to try to mimic them. That would look like a pathetic attempt. Oak is a different wood, and I was thinking a cherry stain would make it look nice and warm and rich, just like the jatoba. When you say completely different, do you mean completely different color and grain? Thank you!

IMO ...Oak just doesn't look right with Braz. Cherry. Oak doesn't have that '"exotic look", no matter what color you stain, it will clash. People will notice the Braz. Cherry and say "Oh, and that's Oak".
It's a matter of taste. I think different species can complement eachother. It's a fine line when your trying to complement or blend a Brazilian wood with Domestic. I would have to disagree with Dennis. I think a natural Maple will stand out like a sore thumb, a completely different feel, and will not tie together. I think you have to blend tones , with the right wood. I would consider Walnut. The look and feel will blend, and has that "exotic" flair. It will look sharp against the cherry.
As far as the "odd ball room".... Would you see any of the Walnut areas to tie in with that room? It may look like patch work trying to match up the cherry into that room.

I took this quote from your first post, and that is definitely not oak.

Why not do the stairs in cork?

At first I said...What the heck ? lol. But after thinking about it I thought ...Heck ya ! There's some great cork out there that would look awesome with Braz. Cherry. Just have to be careful that they offer good looking nosings. Last cork job I was suppose to install on steps, the manuf. told me I needed to use oak nosings and stain as close as I could ( ofcoarse it was LL stuff

Floorologist - people can't really see the room we want to put braz. cherry in from the staircase and vice versa. They open out into the living area from the same wall. You might be able to see maybe a foot of wood at the same time. So I'm not sure that matching the floor in that room with the staircase will matter. Maybe! I am concerned about the old and new braz. Cherry looking like patchwork. But not sure what else to do.

Walnut is another interesting idea - I'll get a sample of that one as well and see how it looks.

One thing - the brazilian cherry floors we have are very matte and they do look engineered (they dont have very much depth in appearance), so any glossy kind of wood will stand out if put on the stairs, I think.

Nobody likes the red oak idea? I thought that quarter-sawn or rift-sawn grain on red oak would be similar to Brazilian cherry. Then staining it cherry would help make it look complimentary. Let the Brazilian cherry floor be the focus and keep the stairs neutral But I see your points about exotics vs domestics, going with a very different but complimentary grain.

Cork is actually on the 1st floor and the stairs leading up to the first floor (rug is on the stairs leading up from 2nd to 3rd floor). But it's kind of an ugly orange. I could look into cork, though.

I think I need to get unfinished samples of these woods you all have suggested, stain them cherry, and then hold them up against the braz. cherry floor to see how they look. I love these creative flooring ideas.

The USFloors New Dimensions cork is the highest grade I have see out in the last few years. Theres lots of cheap grade cork out there, And they do supply trim pieces stained to match.

I like the Rustico best so far.

http://www.usfloorsllc.com/products/nat ... imensions/

Although I did just do a Santos Matte a few weeks ago and liked it alot as well. But it is not the wide plank.

http://www.usfloorsllc.com/products/nat ... -classics/

Forgive me for putting your quotes together, just seemed like a natural

Why not do some border work in the "problem room". Seperate yet integrate with Braz. Cherry and Walnut This would solve the problem of the Braz. Cherry matching, by being creative with border work, yet also introduce another specie.

( Pops would be proud... "Creative Floors" Sherman Oaks CA. 1957-2002 )

Have you thought about Patagonia Rosewood? I think the grain is a nice complement to Braz Cherry, and the colors are pretty similar.

As far as the environmental issues go, have you looked into the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)? They are a nonprofit that works to ensure responsible forest management worldwide. They have a great database search option that allows you to look up a company to see if they use sustainable harvesting practices. Check them out at www.fsc.org.

Ben and Howard have some excellent advise IMO. I have only held some Patagonia Rosewood samples in my hands. Beautiful stuff if you can aquire it FSC.

Nice website Ben! I did enjoy reading Engineered Flooring vs. Thin Solid Flooring

Although there are more and more engineered manufacturers planting thick wear surfaces that can be sanded as many times as any soild these days

Patagonia Rosewood looks really beautiful.

Yeah, because I have lots of time on my hands I've looked into the FSC label and what it means. It seems as if it's not really a credible label. If anyone is interested, the following is what i learned. If you're not, Stop reading!!! It's kind of a debbie downer moment for those who really want to buy an exotic wood and feel unsure about it. I want to buy an exotic wood and now I almost wish I hadn't looked into it.

From what i've read, there are three FSC labels: FSC Pure, FSC Mixed, and FSC Recycled. FSC Pure is supposed to mean that 100% of the wood product comes from sustainable and responsible forestry. I have read the FSC Pure criteria and I do not see that it explicity states that wood bearing this label does not come from old growth forest. You have to call the wood manufacturer and ask. I've asked several environmental organizations and wood flooring manufacturers if FSC Pure Braz. Cherry even exists, and I've been told over and over again, Absolutely not. This is true of other exotic species. Also, there have been problems with the independent oversight of FSC forests and monoculture/tree plantations are ok under this label.

Most FSC certified wood out there is FSC Mixed. That generally means that the wear layer is not FSC certified, but that the backing wood is. You can see the problem there. FSC Mixed certified Brazilian Cherry means the Brazilian Cherry can come from anywhere - generally old
growth rainforest in Brazil.

I'm not interested in judging anyone who buys or sells exotic woods. For me, I just don't feel right about it. I will say, though, that EcoTimber - a company I think is trying to do the right thing - doesn't sell tropical species anymore, because they can't claim that it's FSC Pure, and FSC Mixed doesn't mean very much.

I love the look of exotic species!!!! I want to match that Braz. Cherry!!!! I would love to suck it up and just buy some anyway. It doesn't sit right, though, so maybe I'll look more into those exotic looking domestics you guys recommended to me.

I hear ya. I recently got chewed out here for the mear mention of sustainable forrestry on a consumers thread.

If they could only harvest the old wood without destroying the whole dang forest like these guys do

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/hel ... index.html

I worked on a beach house earlier this year where the builder speced out sapele hand railings and stair treads. It looks very similar to Brazilian cherry. There's some advantage to that in his opinion as brazilian cherry is so dense that it can sometimes crack if it is allowed to dry out. Most Ebony species is are also known for cracking if allowed to dry out. Anyway, just throwing sapele out there as a suggestion.