Hardwood floors are incredibly sought after for homes and offices, and there are plenty of good reasons for that. Once you’ve settled on hardwood flooring for your home or office, the next big decision is finding the perfect color to suit your interior design.
How to Choose the Right Color Hardwood Floors
Light Balance
No matter what room you’re looking to complement with hardwood flooring, you’re going to need to think about light. The way your floors look in natural and artificial light in a given space is something to really consider. In a room with a lot of natural light, you can seek to balance that brightness with a darker shade of wood. Hardwood floor colors like deep auburn and graphite are great options for rooms that are filled with natural light during the day. If the room doesn’t have much in the way of natural light, however, light colors give you the chance to bring a distinctive pop of brightness to the room. No matter your room’s setup, the light makes a huge difference in choosing the right color. If you’re stumped, feel free to ask the experts at Ozburn-Hessey, who can provide you with a free consultation and estimate. We’ve been installing floors for decades and can make suggestions for what works best in any room of the home.
Fitting Your Decor
When you’re choosing the perfect home or office floor color, you need to consider how it works with the furniture and accessories of the room. A hardwood floor is a striking focal point, but with the wrong color, it can easily become a distraction. When your home is mostly equipped with modern decor, a lighter floor often works better. The most popular flooring color today, regardless of medium, is gray. Gray hardwood floors are incredibly attractive to people because their neutrality and aesthetic beauty complement many rooms. For achieving a more rustic, traditional feel, many opt for darker colors. If your home decor is more classical and you want to harken back to simpler times when wood floors were everywhere, darker is better. You don’t need to go too dark to achieve the desired hardwood floor results either. Balance in all things is critical, so don’t go overboard in the intensity of your darkness.
Making Life Easier
One overlooked reason for giving careful consideration to hardwood flooring colors is their impact on maintenance. Light floors show dirt and dust better than darker floors. Darker floors can lighten in color if they’re exposed to intense light for too long. Lighter floors are more resilient to sun damage, but some woods like cherry and pine can actually darken with extended UV exposure. So, this consideration needs to go hand in hand with your light balance needs. Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate damage, including using blinds during peak daylight hours or installing ultraviolet filtering windows or window treatments. No matter what you go with, hardwood floors are easy to hang onto for decades with only a few refinishings if you maintain them properly. It’s not as easy as some other types of flooring, but it’s also not backbreaking labor. With a balanced maintenance schedule, hardwood floors can last. And that’s another great benefit of hardwood: if you don’t like the shade or if popular styles change, you can refinish it in a different color. Hardwood flooring is versatile in terms of physical hardiness and stylistic adaptability.
The Right Hardwood Color for Your Space
Finding the right hardwood floor colors for your home or office can be a daunting prospect. A bit too bogged down in finding that perfect shade? Give the pros at Ozburn-Hessey a call today for a consultation on what your room needs.
