The floors in our master bedroom suite are finished, and I couldn’t be happier with the result! Our floors are red oak (this part of the house has new red oak floors), and I finished them with Bona Natural Seal and Bona Traffic HD in an extra matte finish. After sanding the floors starting with 36-grit, and then moving to 60-grit, 80-grit, and finishing with 100-grit, I did one coat of Bona Natural Seal (which I purchased here — affiliate link). Then I did two coats of Bona Traffic HD in the extra matte finish (which I purchased here — affiliate link). Then I sanded that finish very quickly with 220-grit sandpaper on my 5-inch sander (after learning the hard way that I’m not strong enough to use a floor buffer), and finished with a final coat of Bona Traffic HD. I applied all of sealer and finish coats using a 14-inch roller and 14-inch Wooster microfiber roller cover that I purchased at Home Depot.
I’m going to share a ton of pictures of the finished floor today because when I was trying to decide which Bona sealer to use on my red oak hardwood floors, all I wanted was to find pictures. I wanted loads and loads of pictures, but those are hard to find. If I found pictures, there would only be about one or two pictures of each room, and it was hard to tell what I was looking at based on the lighting. I was able to find quite a few videos, but they were either 15 second walk-through videos of finished floors, or longer videos showing the entire process from start to finish with only a minute or less showing a walkthrough of a house with the finished floor. I just wanted pictures, and I wanted to see the same room from different angles, and I wanted a lot of them. So today, I’m going to show you these finished floors from just about every angle I can, and I’m going to provide some info that I hope will be helpful for anyone who happens upon this post who is looking for info on Bona finishes for hardwood floors.
So here is what our newly finished red oak hardwood floors look like with the Bona Natural Seal and Bona Traffic HD in the extra matte finish. I’ll start with the foyer of the bedroom suite.
The foyer only has one ceiling light that has two bulbs in it. Both bulbs are 5000K (daylight) LED bulbs. As you can see, the foyer has no windows, so there’s no direct natural light in this room. Keep in mind that if you use warmer lighting (which most people do), the color of the floor will look warmer than it does under 5000K LED lighting. Also, I did not use Bona Red Out on my red oak floors.
Next, I’ll move on to the bedroom. I can’t wait to get rid of these striped walls, but one project at a time. I’ll start working on this room as soon as I’m finished with the walk-in closet. Anyway, this room is the one that has the most natural light since there are three windows. I took these pictures early this morning (around 7:00am, only 30 minutes after sunrise), so it wasn’t during the brightest part of the day. This room has four recessed LED lights that are set to 5000K (daylight). So again, if you use warmer lighting, the floor color will appear warmer. Here you can see the beautiful low sheen of the Bona Traffic HD in the extra matte finish.
And finally, here is the walk-in closet. This room has some natural light, but since there’s only one window, and these pictures were taken early this morning, there’s not a whole lot of natural light coming in through the window. The room has seven LED recessed lights on the 5000K (daylight) setting, plus a center chandelier with three 5000K (daylight) LED chandelier bulbs.
So if you’re trying to decide which Bona product to use, especially on red oak hardwood floors, I really hope this is helpful! I do find it interesting that the color is slightly different from picture to picture, but I think that’s just because my phone (I take all of my pictures using my iPhone 15) picks up lighting differently at different angles. But it’s actually very accurate to how I see the floors in person. Depending on the angle, the lighting, and the time of day, the floors may appear brighter, or they may appear slightly darker and warmer.
But the overall appearance of the floor with the Bona Natural Seal and the Bona Traffic HD is going to be slightly darker and warmer than the bare, freshly sanded red oak flooring. These pictures were taken at different times of the day, so you have to take that into consideration. But here’s a picture of the freshly sanded floor on the left, sanded to 100-grit, and the finished floor with the Bona Natural Seal and Traffic HD on the right. The difference is very slight, but I do think that slight touch of warmth from the finishes makes a very big difference.
If you prefer the appearance of the floor on the left, you’ll probably want to stick with Bona Nordic Seal, which is the lightest color available. But if you like the natural red oak look but want just the slightest touch of warmth, the Bona Natural Seal is the right choice. I’m absolutely thrilled with my choice, and I couldn’t be happier with my floors now!
And just for fun, here’s a quick comparison of what I had previously (red oak stained with a mixture of dark walnut and special walnut) and the new lighter, brighter red oak floors.
What an amazing difference!! I love the lighter floors so much more! And now the countdown begins. The floors require three days to fully cure, and then…I can finally move my washer and dryer into the closet!! I’ve been waiting for that moment for far too long, and I’m more excited than a kid waiting for Christmas morning to arrive.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
