White oak floors are a stylish and timeless flooring option that can be customized to suit your design needs. Learn the differences between red and white oak, sand and stain flooring versus engineered hardwood, and more!
White Oak is a popular option from contemporary to rustic interior designs. A select White Oak shows growth rings that are much closer together so the grain has a more of a uniform flow, making it look smooth and clean. These tight smooth grain patterns are sought after for contemporary and modern homes.
Light wood floors continue to be a hot trend in hardwood flooring, especially on White Oak. From natural and muted tones that give your space a raw, organic look to the increasingly popular whitewash that creates a relaxed vibe, light wood floor color options reflect light and will brighten and open up your space.
In past years we have seen gray become an extremely popular color for flooring. This seems to be continuing into 2023, but now we're seeing more of a broad interest in “smokey-toned” floors, which includes a lot of grays and browns (or a combination of the two).
White oak floors are here to stay
Thanks to its light color, white oak hides dirt, scratches, and other imperfections, whereas they would be much more visible on dark wood.
There are few wood flooring options that are as versatile, durable and character-filled as white oak. Whether you choose new wood flooring or you want the character of a reclaimed wood floor, white oak can elevate the style of your home or commercial space effortlessly.
White oak is readily available as a flooring material and, as hardwood flooring pricing goes, is reasonably affordable—especially when compared to walnut, cherry, and popular imported options. In recent years, white oak has surged in popularity, often seen installed in a herringbone pattern with a natural finish.
Downsides to White Oak Flooring
The high density gives the wood more durability, but makes it a bit harder to work with. Another example of a downside is that white oak is trendy, but red oak is still more common because there are more of them domestically and grow more quickly.
The typical choices are charcoal or pastel. We like charcoal for its warmth, but we also know that granny-chic is in style for 2021, so certainly pastels (like light blue and mauve) are an appropriate option to pair with white oak. These soft wall colors will make the room bright, just like Granny would want it.
Classic medium-toned browns such as cherrywood, mahogany, oak, maple, walnut, birch wood, and hickory are all timeless colors that never go out of style. Cherrywood is a deep, rich color that has a deep mahogany shade with warm tones of red or brown, often mixed with hints of pink and even purple.
Hardwood Flooring
It's beautiful, it's durable, and it never goes out of style. Not to mention all of your friends, family, and neighbors aspire to have it, so you'll have your entire network envying your home's flooring design.
Wide plank floors are making a comeback.
Wide plank is on the rise again, and Broxson notes that recent trends include red and white oak wide plank floors. She says we'll see more light and almost bleached tones and dark espresso colors coming back, as well.
Oak. The light brown to darker tones of White Oak undergoes a medium degree of colour change with slight ambering over time.
As mentioned, red and white oak own the solid hardwood flooring landscape, with the former the most popular. You can distinguish the two based on grain and color. You might think your hardwoods will be red because it's called red oak. Not so.
White oak has grey and brown undertones with a cooler hue, which makes white oak much more versatile and able to coordinate with most interior designs and other wood floors.
The inventory is low, the demand is at an all-time high and so are the prices. Many are surprised to learn that the availability of white oak is not the issue— as many as 5.2 billion white oak trees cover 235,000 square miles in the United States. So what's causing these significant shortages and an uptick in prices?
“I think it's all due to combination of a high demand for flooring, stairs and trimwork, and that a lot of the logging stopped during Covid and created a bottleneck. It's very popular for flooring right now.” This article was originally published in the April 2022 issue.
Here's a short list of wood species that tend to play well together in designs: walnut and maple. white oak and walnut. cherry and maple.
Wood cabinets are back in a big way in 2023, continuing the trend we've been seeing over the past couple of years. These aren't your honey oak cabinets from the 1980's…
Curved Sofas, Chairs, and Tables
When asked about the future of furniture in 2023, every interior design expert we spoke to agreed that curved pieces are dominating.
For Fall 2023, the company predicts bold hues like Rose Violet (a red-tinged fuchsia), Red Orange (a vibrant, fiery orange), Red Dahlia (a deep red), High Visibility (an almost-neon yellow), Kohlrabi (a playful, vivid green) and Viva Magenta (the 2023 Color of the Year) will take over our wardrobes, per WWD.