Your Color Guide for Hardwood Floors

In the not-so-distant past, your options for hardwood floor colors were pretty much brown, dark brown, and really dark brown. But today, the possibilities are vast and wide. While color trends may come and go, real hardwood floors will never go out of style, and part of their beauty is their versatility and your ability to change the colors if you choose (to an extent). 

Right now, the trends in hardwood floor colors vary from traditional, darker hues, lighter, natural tones, grays, and even pops of color. These new color options give homeowners the ability to bring out more of their personalities in their homes, right down to the floors.

Color Trends in Hardwood Floors That Are Leaving Their Mark

Color Trends In Hardwood Floors

As most know, wood floors are an excellent investment to make in your home, and their return on your home’s value seldom diminishes. While trends are just what the name implies, today’s hot colors may become avocado green sooner than we’d like to think.

Even if we take a chance and install a color of natural wood floors that might seem extreme, the odds of them truly going out of style are slim to none. So, putting your personality on your floor through color is still a sound investment in your home’s future.

Hand Scraped Country Hickory Wood

Hand Scraped Country Hickory Wood

This beautiful Country hickory wood really brings the colors of fall to your floor and warmth to your room. It pairs perfectly with another warmer toned wood, or you can make it pop by adding white or brighter colors to the room to bring it together. This is a color that will never go out of style.

Other wood species you might enjoy are: Brazilian cherry, mahogany, or shades of walnuts.

Hand Scraped Ash Acacia Wood

Hand Scraped Ash Acacia Wood

Ash Acacia are brown, dark hardwood floors that go with anything. Darker woods, lighter woods, bright colors are all great companions for this color option for your hardwood floors. You will not go wrong bringing this ash-colored wood into any part of your home. 

Being hand scraped, it brings out the natural grain look of the wood, making it even more appealing to the lover of hardwood floors.

Wire Brushed Loano White Oak Wood

Wire Brushed Loano White Oak Wood

Loano White Oak is a muted brown that allows the other colors of the room to shine as it quietly works its magic. Its warmth brings the outside indoors. It plays better with darker tones, and you will almost feel like you’re being hugged by a dear friend when you are in its presence.

The wire brushed finish gives the wood a more rustic appearance.  It makes this soft brown color stand out just enough.

If you enjoy white oak flooring, other light woods you might enjoy are maple and red oak floors. 

Natural Colors and Stains

Some believe that natural colors are the way to go when remodeling your home’s floors.  The lighter brown tones pair nicely with darker options often used for cabinetry in kitchens and bathrooms. 

As far as stains are concerned, playing with natural elements like teas and pomegranates offers unique, fun colors for wood that still provide the ability to bring a bit of nature onto your floors.   A honey-colored or dark stain can breathe new life into solid hardwood flooring.   

Different stains interact differently with light wood floors and dark wood floors. 

Whitewashed Oak

Whitewashed oak is a classic that seems to bring a little piece of that bright New England vibe to any room. The finish of the wood serves to bring a bit of the beach into any space. Even on the darkest of days, you will feel rejuvenated with this beautiful, whitewashed look covering your hardwood floors. 

Blonde Hardwood

 Blondes really do have more fun, don’t they?  Bringing the past back around and reminiscing of something from the 60s, blonde wood is an excellent choice for modern floorings. It can be paired with any hue, but when put with lighter colors, you cannot deny the brightness that the wood’s color brings out. 

Matte Finish

While the finish of most hardwood floors tended to have a gloss of some kind, today, we see that matte-finished woods are hot. The muted matte finish tends to let the rest of the room take center stage, yet its supporting role is a winner every time. A matte finish is a soft addition to your room’s color pallet that will “wow” your visitors every time they enter the room.

Other options include a high-gloss, satin finish, or polyurethane finish for a more dramatic sheen. 

Grey Hardwood

Grey Hardwood

Hitting it right in the middle, grey hardwood is a winner because it is not too dark, and it’s not too light. It allows you to take full reign over the decorative choices for a room and not have to worry about how the floor color might clash. Gray is a classy color choice for any hardwood floor. Grey is great.

Click Here To Read - Everything You Need To Know About Grey Wood Flooring

Colored Wood

As crazy as it might seem, painting or staining your floor an unnatural color for wood is a stylish way to jazz up your flooring and make your personality sing! One hot hue that is making the rounds in homes all over the world is Indigo. While playing with colors like this in one area of the house is recommended, letting it completely take over your home is not. A little dab will do ya here.

Graphite Hardwood

Using a deep color like Graphite allows you to have a sleek modern look in your space when you go with white to offset the colors on the walls and ceiling. Talk about making stark contrasts look like they were made for one another. This dark/light combo is a match made in heaven.

Unstained Oak

Wire Brushed Unfinished Natural Oak 10"

Unstained oak gives the wood a “raw” look, and it really works. Again, as with so many of these trends in hardwood, the unstained oak allows the rest of the room to be the focal point. It is not a wood that has to scream to everyone, “Look at me!”  We know it’s there, and it’s gorgeous.

Dark Painted Wood

What a beautiful way to make use of the hardwood floors you already have. Painting them dark gives them new life. By keeping the rest of the room white or bright, the wood is the perfect contrast to the rest of the room. And knowing that you will only be out the cost of refinishing the wood is sure to make you ecstatic. (You can also paint tile floor for a dash of pizazz as well!).

Photo Finish: Color Variations of Hardwood Floors

Like in so many different aspects of our lives now, the options that we currently have in terms of the color for our hardwood floors are quite staggering compared to the not-so-distant past.

Our options were brown, brown, and brown when it came to hardwood color choices, and now we see rooms mixed with three different hues of brown just on one floor sometimes. We can even fool around with classic wood patterns (looking at you, chevron and herringbone!) or textures (like cork). 

Also, don't sweat the imperfections. While laminate or vinyl floors, for instance, are easily controlled, solid wood floors may have knots, scratches, and maybe a dent here or there (especially if you have pets or kids). While wood floors are known for their durability, something as simple as dirt and dust can change their appearance. Good news...the textured look is totally in right now. 

While it might seem crazy to take a bold chance with the color of your hardwood floors, it’s always good to remember that if you try something and absolutely hate it, that doesn’t mean all is lost.

Because hardwood is forgiving and resilient, at least a few times, while it might be a pain, you can refinish them, and try, try again. Knowing that a bit of your time, elbow grease, and the cost of the refinishing products will be all that you are out of pocket feels better than thinking you need to replace your hardwood floors completely if your eye for decorating happened to be a bit on the blindside. 

So go ahead and make a bold choice about the color you decide to go with on your new hardwood floor, or just repurpose your old one in a new way. Either choice is going to add some renewed life to your home!

Sources:

Planning a Remodel in 2021? 4 Flooring Trends You Should Know About | Realtor.com

These Are the Wood Floor Color Trends to Know Right Now | Martha Stewart

2020 Best Hardwood Floor Color Trends | Elle Decor

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