The trend towards dark hardwood floors is one that can offer your home a variety of benefits. While resale value is higher with light-colored wood, dark color hardwood adds richness to your rooms and contrasts well with almost any furniture style.
It’s been said that dark floors can make a room feel smaller, but this is all about design and can be counteracted with good interior decor choices.
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Darker Colors Absorb More Light
Dark floors can be a great choice for homes that get a lot of natural light. They tend to fade less quickly than lighter flooring options. They also add a sense of warmth and coziness to rooms, making them ideal for homes with large open spaces. However, they do have a few downsides that you need to take into consideration before deciding on them for your home.
Darker wood floors may show dirt and scratches more easily than their lighter counterparts. This is especially true if you choose a glossy finish, which will magnify any scratches or dirt and highlight them even more. This is not a huge deal for most households, but something to keep in mind.
In addition to showing dirt more readily, dark floors will often show up scuff marks and pet scratches much more than their lighter counterparts. This is a big reason many families prefer lighter-colored hardwood flooring if they have kids and pets.
Lighter flooring also hides gaps between planks and imperfections better than darker options. This can be a huge advantage for families with small children and pets, as it will help to make the room’s overall look cleaner and more polished.
As with any home design decision, it is essential to consider your personal preferences and the aesthetic of your space before choosing a color for your hardwood floor. Do you want a modern and contemporary style or a traditional, historic look? A modern or minimalist design will look beautiful with a light floor, while a rustic or Scandinavian style would look stunning with a dark tone.
Fortunately, wood is a neutral color that can complement almost any design scheme. Whether you decide on a light or dark floor, it is always a good idea to have physical samples before you commit to any purchase. This will allow you to see how the floors look in your home, under different lighting conditions and with various furniture, wall colors, and accents. Your flooring seller should be willing to provide samples for free or at a very low cost.
Contrasts Make Furnishings Stand Out
Dark floors make your wood furniture stand out and create a bold contrast against light paint or fabric hues. For example, if your hardwood is a warm chocolate brown, such as our Bruges Brown French Oak, the grain’s natural beauty is beautifully highlighted against the backdrop of a lighter color. This makes mixing and matching pieces with light or dark furnishings easier without worrying about the two tones clashing. The same effect can be achieved with other darker shades of floorboards, such as our Beethoven Black, a more modern shade that works well alongside traditional, rustic, or even contemporary furnishings.
Dark flooring can also help hide grime, stains, and scratches better than a light color. This makes them a great choice if you have children or pets who tend to be hard on their floors. However, it’s important to note that a glossy finish can exacerbate this problem by reflecting light off the surface and highlighting every speck of dust or dirt. For this reason, choosing a matte or satin finish for your dark floors is important.
If you’re looking to create a more formal look, a dark floor can add a sense of elegance and sophistication to any room in your home. This is especially true if you choose a rich mahogany or other exotic hardwood floor that can be used to complement the color of your walls or high-contrast works of art in the space.
Another advantage of a dark floor is that it can help increase your property’s resale value. This is because many buyers have shown a preference for homes with dark flooring over the last few years.
Dark flooring has become a popular choice in both modern and traditional homes, with homeowners choosing it for its ability to provide an instant sense of style and contrast. In addition to this, dark floors are easy to maintain and can easily be made to suit any decorating scheme. The only downside to choosing a dark floor is that it can make spaces appear smaller, but this can be counteracted with careful planning and the right wall colors.
Darker Woods Are Easy to Clean
When it comes to cleaning wood floors, a dark color will hide scratches and nicks a lot better than a lighter stain. This can be useful for homes with children and pets as the floors will not show dirt or marks quite quickly. The darker shade will also help conceal any cracks in the floorboards or gaps between them a little better than a lighter stain.
All wood floors will scratch and dent over time, regardless of the stain or species used. However, dark stains tend to show these marks more prominently than lighter stains do. Using an Old English Dark Wood Scratch Cover can help hide these marks so that your hardwood looks as good as new. To do this, you will need to start by wearing some gloves and ensuring that your work area is protected. Then you will need at least two old rags and, if possible, some thick painter’s tape. Start by soaking the first rag with your dark wood floor’s scratch cover.
Once the rag is damp, rub it over all the visible scratches and nicks on your floorboards. It may take a while to fully cover these areas, but the results will be worth it. Once the rag is dry, switch to your second one and repeat the process as needed until the scratched and dented areas are completely covered.
If you want to keep your hardwood looking as good as possible, you should try to screen and recoat it once every 3 to 4 years. This will help your wood flooring last a long time, keeping the color and finish looking beautiful.
Another thing to remember is that a dark floor will attract and collect more dust than a light floor, so you will need to sweep and vacuum a bit more frequently. This can be a problem for some people, but for others, it is just another part of the maintenance process that they are willing to deal with.
If you decide that a dark floor is the best option for your home, then it will be worth the effort to maintain it. Just remember that a weekly sweeping routine will go a long way to keeping your floors looking their best.
Dark Floors Make Rooms Look Larger
Dark floors are a bold design choice that adds a sense of depth and character to any room. It is often feared that they can make a room look smaller, but that actually depends on the color of the walls and ceilings. Using the right shades for these areas of your home can give the space a more expansive feel.
Lighter colors reflect light better than darker ones, making a room feel bigger and more open. When choosing a shade for your floor, consider this same principle. Then, choose a tone that matches or compliments the rest of your decor and furnishings. For instance, the rich tones of our Beethoven Black hardwood have a natural wood grain that contrasts beautifully with light furniture and neutral tones in a living or dining room.
In fact, some people even use the combination of dark flooring and lighter walls in a space that gets little natural light. It works wonderfully to create a unified look for the whole space and makes it feel larger than it is.
However, if you have a very small space with little light coming in from the outside, you might want to consider a lighter shade. That way, the natural light that does come in will be reflected by your walls and ceiling instead of being absorbed by the dark floors.
Another consideration, if you are thinking about dark flooring, is how easy it will be to maintain. While they can be beautiful, dark finishes show scratches and dirt more easily than lighter ones. If you have pets, this is even more of a problem since continual pet hair and dander can leave noticeable marks on the surface of your flooring.
If you do opt for a darker floor, you should be prepared to do more frequent maintenance and cleaning. Regular hoovering and mopping will be necessary, and the use of a dust mop with a soft brush is essential to avoid scratches. You will also need to be careful with the types of cleaners you use, as some can stain your floors or damage them.