What made it difficult
Brazilian cherry is dense and it is not a uniform color. The range across a floor is the wood, not a finish — which means a stain applied over it fights the material instead of helping it.
It also darkens with light exposure over time, so areas that have sat under rugs or furniture come back lighter than the rest and even out afterward.
The room had a fireplace and a hearth to work around, and everything that was not floor had to be masked before any coating went near it.
How it was done
Sanded back to bare wood across the kitchen, hall and dining room as one continuous floor.
The fireplace and the room masked off completely before the first coat.
Finished clear, with no stain, so the color range stayed the wood's own.
How it came out
A floor whose variation reads as material rather than as a color someone chose.
The before-and-after here is the bare sanded floor in the teal dining room and the same floor with the finish on it.
