Light vs. Dark Hardwood Floors

Purchasing hardwood floors is an exciting upgrade for your home. This high-quality flooring is made of sustainable, natural materials and never goes out of style. However, choosing the hardwood color can be challenging. Because hardwood flooring lasts for a long time, it's important to make a decision you'll enjoy for years. 

Both light and dark hardwood flooring have pros and cons. The best choice for your space depends on your personal taste, the flooring's undertones, the space's lighting and your home's overall aesthetic. Here's everything you need to know to find the perfect hardwood shade for your house!

Light Hardwood Floors: Pros and Cons

Light-colored hardwood floors are popular for several reasons: 

• They brighten a space. 
• Light wood floors make rooms look larger. 
• Compared to darker flooring, they don't show scratches, dents or dirt. 

This color flooring is very forgiving, making it perfect for families with young children or pets who like to run through the house. Although you should still be careful with light hardwoods, scrapes from moving furniture or dropping items won't show up as much as they would on a darker floor. 

Lighter hardwood is associated with a casual style, making this flooring a good fit for homes with a modern aesthetic. When you choose light hardwood, you have a neutral pallet for wall colors and furniture. You can either pair light hardwood with light, neutral walls or create contrast with darker paint colors. 

If a casual style doesn't suit your home, light hardwood may not be the best choice. Although it's more resistant to visible scratches, lighter hardwood does tend to show spills and stains more than dark. While natural hardwood tends to darken over time, this process is much more noticeable with light wood stains. 

Dark Hardwood Floors: Pros and Cons

Many homeowners prefer dark wood flooring for several reasons: 

• It brings a sense of rich, luxurious warmth to a room. 
• Dark wood floors create architectural contrast. 
• The darker hue camouflages spills, stains and aging. 

The deep, warm color of dark hardwood floors is perfect for homeowners who want contrast in their homes. Because of their dark stain, natural color changes to the hardwood caused by aging and sun exposure won't be noticeable. Having dark floors in a room automatically makes the space feel more elegant. 

A dark wood floor works well with many different wall colors — choose light neutrals for contrast or deeper, rich colors to extend the sense of luxury. Homeowners who enjoy a historic or traditional style often choose dark flooring. It also works well with farmhouse-style homes. 

If you have young children or pets, dark wooden flooring may not be the best option. It tends to show scratches and dents because the stain is typically much darker than the natural wood color underneath. When the flooring is scratched, the lighter color may show. Dust and dirt also show up more easily against dark flooring. 

How to Choose the Best Flooring Color

The right color flooring for your home depends primarily on personal preference. If you already have a color you love, that's a great choice for your new flooring! However, several other factors can help you decide on the best option if you aren't already in love with a specific hardwood stain shade. 

To choose the right hardwood flooring for your home, consider flooring undertones, lighting and your home's overall aesthetic. You can take a sample swatch home or use a visualizer application to see the flooring in your own space before you invest.

Flooring Undertones and the Color Wheel 

When you look at hardwood floors, you probably see varying shades of brown, possibly with some gray shades thrown in. However, every hardwood stain has a different color as its undertone. To make the color brown, you mix even amounts of red, yellow and blue — the three primary colors. 

Depending on the balance of these colors, the flooring may have pink, red, yellow, green, blue and even purple undertones. When you pair flooring with a color on the opposite side of the color wheel, it intensifies these undertones and makes them more noticeable. For example, a purple wall will make flooring with a yellow undertone appear more yellow. 

To match your home, think about the colors you decorate with. Would you prefer a calmer space where colors match in tone? Or would you enjoy using opposite colors to create brighter shades in the room? If you go with a walnut or similar true brown stain, it will work well with any paint color you choose. 

Lighting and Flooring Color

The light bulbs you use can also affect how you perceive the color of hardwood floors. Many homeowners use incandescent bulbs, which make rooms and colors look warmer in tone than they really are. Flooring with a warm undertone will look warmer, while cooler tones like blue and green will appear more neutral. 

With fluorescent lighting, you can purchase bulbs in tones from warm to cool. Daylight fluorescent bulbs have a bluish hue that can make cool tones look cooler and warm tones look more neutral. Most showrooms use neutral lighting, so it's important to look at a flooring swatch in your home to determine exactly how the color will appear in your space. 

Architecture and Aesthetics

Another way to decide whether you prefer light or dark flooring is to consider your home's overall style. Some flooring colors pair easily with different house styles, remaining timeless regardless of décor and paint changes. Of course, you can also break out of traditional patterns and just choose the flooring you like best!

Typically, modern homes with playful architecture and a casual feel work well with light-colored flooring. If your style is minimalist, Scandinavian or contemporary, light flooring is a good choice. Homes with Victorian or American craftsman architecture are more traditional and work well with dark flooring. Cape Cod homes work well with light or dark floors. 

Shop a Large Selection of Hardwood Floors at Carpet & Tile Mart

Looking for the perfect shade of hardwood? Check out the wide selection of quality, affordable flooring at Carpet & Tile Mart. With physical locations in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, we have samples available so you can see and feel products before making a purchase. You can also use our online visualizer tool to see what our flooring would look like in your home. 

We've been providing quality flooring since 1967 when our founder began selling overstock and remnant flooring to customers at an affordable price. It's our mission to offer customers a convenient, high-value product that's always accompanied by professional service. Our approach means you can find the flooring you need quickly, at a fraction of its usual cost. 

Visit a store near you or browse our website today to find the right hardwood flooring for your home!