There are a lot of decisions to make when installing new wood flooring, but color is one of the most significant choices you’ll face. The paint you choose, the furniture you buy, and the décor you hang up all influence your wood floor color. The wrong choice can throw off your entire home’s color scheme, but the right choice can tie every detail together gorgeously. Interior design should be exciting, not exhausting. Make the job easy with these tips for choosing the right wood floor color for your home.
Consider Sizing
Clever color choices can make a small room look bigger. If you’re working with limited space, lean toward lighter wood colors that will reflect more light and create a feeling of openness. Dark flooring can make a small room feel dark, heavy, and cramped. By installing light-colored wood—such as a light beige or off-white color—you brighten the room and make everything feel a little airier. Light woods are also a great way to brighten a room with dark walls or minimal natural light. If you want to create an open atmosphere in a room, light woods are the way to go.
Match With Undertones
All wood floors have warm, cool, or neutral undertones. Understanding these undertones is one of the most essential tips for choosing the right wood floor color. In addition to understanding how undertones look beside other color options in the room, you should pay attention to how warm or cool tones influence the overall atmosphere of a space. A golden or red-toned floor creates a sense of coziness, making it perfect for rustic and comfy living spaces. Cool tones, on the other hand, pair perfectly with clean edges and other hints of contemporary design.
Take Advantage of Samples
You never truly know how a wood color will look until it’s in the room you’re redesigning. The fluorescent lights of your local home improvement store won’t do justice to your color options. That’s why you should take advantage of color samples whenever you can. Bring cut squares of your favorite colors home and place them in the room. Test them under natural light and artificial light, and also at night. This will give you a good idea of how your new floors will look under every setting and circumstance. If you’re staining existing floors instead of installing new ones, make sure you test out your stain colors as well. The precise color of your stain will change depending on the type of wood you have, so create a swatch to see how the stain looks on your floors.
