We are building a home using some recycled lumber on the ceiling and wainscoting. We salvaged pine tongue and groove and fur beams which we milled and stained clear and installed on the ceilings. The old wood has a lot of rich color because of it's age. For the flooring, we are going to buy new pine which will be white if we just put a clear coat on them. We want them to blend with the old wood. How do you suggest we get that old wood look with new pine in as few coats as possible? We would like to avoid the muddy look pine can sometimes get. If you want I can upload a picture of the finished pine tongue & groove and fur rafters & trusses to give you an idea of the color and richness that we want to achieve with the new pine floors. We want the new pine to have a color similar to the old wood, not the scratches and holes as those will come with time.

Also, how do you feel about Tung Oil finishes?

This is such a great resource! Thank you!

waterlox tung oil is what Carlise and other antique wood manufactures often recommend. id say it would work well for what you are doing as well. You can tint waterlox a little in the first coat to add some color if necessary. Tung oil is pretty stinky so be prepared to air the place out when its dry.

One of the only effective ways I have seen to make Pine look old is sand, pre seal the pine with a wash coat of de waxed shellac (mixed 50/50 with denatured alcohol) and then you need to use dyes to mix up the amount of yellow/orange that you want. The way I have seen it done was to mix a paste dye into alcohol .This helps control penetration of the stain/dye.

IF you just stain pine the common way, it comes out extremely blotchy. Where the method I described can yield a very even color across all the boards.Again, the dyes I saw used were yellow and orange to create something of an amber solution.