While dark wood floors are great for creating a natural look, light wood floors are better at hiding dirt. There are benefits to both light and dark styles, leaving you to decide which will look best in your home.
Light hardwood flooring can make a room appear more spacious and modern while showing less dust and scratches. Dark hardwoods offer a richer, more dramatic look and can create a cozy atmosphere but may require more maintenance to keep clean.
The Cons of Dark Hardwood Floors
Not great for small rooms because they make them look smaller. Dirt, dust, and debris are more visible. Scratches are more visible.
Greige and white oak are two of the most popular choices for hardwood flooring when it comes to house resale. They provide timeless elegance and neutrality, making them ideal for any home.
Lighter colors tend to make a space look bigger and more open. Dark colors do the opposite. Dark colors can absolutely look very nice, though. It just depends on how you want it all to feel.
Rugged and rustic dark hardwood is a 2024 flooring trend that can make a bold statement in your home. The rich tones of dark wood species like cherry, hickory and mahogany invite sophistication and warmth to dining areas, bedrooms and living rooms.
Medium-toned tiles, such as beige, tan, gray, or brown, are a safe bet for easy cleaning. They're not too light to show every speck of dust, nor too dark to show every water spot.
And lastly, grey and white-washed hardwood floors provide a contemporary yet timeless appeal. Choosing any of these hardwood floor colors that never go out of style will ensure your home maintains its elegance and value over time.
What Flooring Adds the Most Value? Hardwood flooring has long been the top choice for homebuyers and remains so today. According to Realtor.com, installing new hardwood floors may increase a home's value by as much as 2.5%, though some realtors place that figure at 6 to 10% or more.
Dark hardwood floors are a beautiful, classic floor option that will never go out of style. This flooring style brings sleek elegance and a bit of dramatic flair to a home. However, while dark floors remain in style, they do not always work with every design style, such as modern or contemporary.
Marble, White, Bronze and Wood
Keep the overall effect elegant and light by balancing the dark floors with white cabinetry and walls, warm bronze metals and wood accents just a few shades lighter than the floors.
Pairing light and dark woods creates a striking contrast that adds character to floors.
Floors with a white finish go with almost everything. A light burlap-like color is a great choice because you still get a light floor, without installing a truly “white” floor. You can use a variety of wood species to create a light floor.
Light flooring will help give the illusion space and make your room feel larger and darker flooring will create a more dramatic ambiance. Depending on how much natural light is supplied to your interiors will help dictate if darker flooring makes your space feel smaller.
Dark floors may be a bit more difficult to clean than their lighter counterparts, but they are really great at hiding problems. For example, they don't fade as easily which means that they may need less refinishing over time.
Whether used as a backsplash or on the entire shower wall, blue tiles will make a bold and stylish statement. Warm Neutrals for Flooring: Neutral colors are timeless classics that never go out of style. In 2024, warm neutrals like beige, cream, and taupe will dominate flooring options.
Dark wood flooring is making a bold and luxurious statement in 2025. The rich, deep tones of dark wood species, such as walnut, mahogany, or dark-stained oak, add sophistication and warmth to living rooms, dining areas, and bedrooms.
Looking at the current wood floor colour trends 2024 and potentially into 2025 we can see that natural browns and white wood floors are the most popular. Natural browns are the most popular wood floors followed by white wood flooring. Natural brown and white are hardwood floor colours that never go out of style.
Chocolaty-brown wood furniture isn't the only way we'll be seeing this color in 2024, reveals Ramsey. Rich, brown wood furniture will be taking Southern homes by storm in 2024, as well as warm, brown upholstery.
Natural Wood Flooring
The allure of natural wood as the ultimate flooring choice is undeniable and has stood the test of centuries in both residential and commercial settings.
We often recommend light colors to give the room an airy feel. For example, blonde, light brown, or whitewashed hardwood can make the room seem more open.
If you have a light-colored floor, dirt and dust are less likely to show. This is because lighter colors reflect more light, making them appear brighter and cleaner.
Materials like laminate flooring or luxury vinyl planks offer softer services that are highly water-resistant and need little attention. And hardwood floors – still the most popular flooring option – are fairly low maintenance, especially when compared with carpet.
Most designers will tell you that ideally, yes, your hardwood floors should match or at least coordinate throughout your house.