Whether to use clear or coloured stain for Vic Ash staircase?

Hello, complete amateur here - any help appreciated if possible, please. We have just installed a Vic Ash staircase in a new house and are hoping to achieve a light brown colour on the treads. We're also putting in a french oak floor with with Feast Watson liming white and water-based polyurethane coat. The builder has asked us to choose Cabot's stain for the Vic Ash stairs and I 'm leaning towards the Cabot's CFP floor water based in the hope this is close in colour and won't yellow over time. I've attached photos of the raw stair and floor boards and a finished floor with the specs mentioned above. I appreciate there's natural variation in timbers, but if anyone has an opinion on whether this is a reasonable choice of product, or whether I need a coloured stain, that would be appreciated, thank you. Pics attached.

I have used Cabots' CFP floor water based finish on a European Beech kitchen bench quite a few years ago. It has definitely darkened a little with time, but not seriously. It is likely that the formulation will have changed since I used it, so this may not be much help, except that I would expect the new formula finishes to darken less. Any finish will change the colour of the wood, even a clear finish. If the sample patches in the paint shop don't show enough for you the only real solution is to try some test patches on cut-offs of Vic Ash from your staircase. Buy small cans of potential finishes and paint patches. Make sure you label the patches so you don't get confused.

The Vic Ash doesn't look very brown on my screen. If that's the case and you want it to be more brown you will need a stain. Once again, test patches are the best solution. If the stair is fully internal and does not get a lot of light, then a spirit stain on the timber would be OK. If it receives a lot of light and or sunlight then you would need a pigment stain as the spirit stains are interior-only (not light-fast in direct sun).

Hope this helps you Annie.

David

Hi David, thank you so much for taking the time to send through your suggestions, I really appreciate it. Best regards, Annie.