Neutral colors, muted hues and warmer whites will help create a soothing color scheme in rooms with dark wood floors. Colors can work with dark hardwoods, too—just long as you don't go too dark. Too-dark colors can make rooms with dark floors look dark, uninviting and overly enclosed.
Choose a complementary color palette.
Once you've determined the underlying hue, apply the principles of the color wheel to select colors that complement your wood floors. Shades of blue help balance wood with yellow or orange tones, for example, while green looks gorgeous against floors with true brown coloring.
Neutral tones are the way to go. Shades of white, cream, and gray work with any shade or undertone of wood. Both cool and warm undertones thrive beside neutral colors, which bring focus to the unique grain, character marks, and other details of your wood flooring.
The traditional take on light hardwood is to go with a lighter color wall like white, cream or soft gray. For those of us who need and desire a bright space, then complementing the floor with a light tone makes a lot of sense.
Colors like warm tans or creamy beiges are a great option. Because they complement the dark wood flooring, especially the chocolate tones in the wood floor color. This post has the best creamy paint colors, the ones which interior designers always recommend as an excellent choice to their clients.
Many home experts agree that the floor color should be darker than the walls. The rule generally applies because lighter walls and a dark floor make the room seem larger. Most homeowners prefer a spacious looking interior. However, the rule can change with low ceilings.
BM Dove White
You don't want a paint color that has a yellow tone to be on the walls in a room with light wood floors. Dove White has an LRV of 85.38, it's high up on the scale as we would expect it to be and is the perfect neutral white to use with your light wood floors.
Valid House suggests that color schemes ranging from white to black, and even blue, purple, or more muted blondes, beiges, and browns can all blend with lighter hardwood flooring admirably.
Beige, tan and ivory work great with light and dark shades of wood. Here is Mesa Verde Tan AC-33 by Benjamin Moore. Notice the wood floors are a contrasting color to the trim. The contrast is nice with the trim, while the darker colors are highlighted again in the rug.
Painting walls with a light neutral paint color, like white, lightens and brightens a room while letting the wood floor take center stage. "If you're looking for a neutral backdrop, opt for a warm white that has similar undertones as the floors," says Sue Wadden, director of color marketing at Sherwin-Williams.
Don't Fear Dark Wood Colors
It's a misconception that dark wood floors constrict our sense of space. Paired with the right combination of wall color, trim, and molding, darker species like walnut and exotic Brazilian cherry can, in fact, make a room look bigger.
It's unsurprising to us that the most popular color for floors is grey, and in particular, grey wood, like that shown above. Grey flooring is the ultimate neutral – easy to co-ordinate and color scheme around, dark enough not to show the dirt, and yet pale enough to reflect light.
Warm or cool paint colors that are a few tones lighter or darker than the wood tone will accent it more than colors with the same depth. However, cool colors will do better than warm colors regarding ACCENTING wood tones.
Dark brown wood flooring can easily be paired with light grey walls for an interesting contrast. Dark brown is the ideal color if it's played right but the circumstances must be just right.
However, using matching flooring is ultimately a personal choice, and there is no right or wrong answer. With hardwood flooring, you can mix and match by using different colored hardwood floors in adjacent rooms.
For dark hardwood, beige, white, gray, and light blues and yellows will match best. For light-colored wood, opt for brown, burgundy, and earthy-toned rugs. For a rug that's meant to protect your floors from dirt and wear and tear, like a floor runner in your front hallway, choose something darker or patterned.
Best known as the traditional color of hardwood flooring, shades of brown are still as popular as ever. Much like tan-toned hardwood, brown flooring is suited for any aesthetic. Lighter tones can set the basis of a neutral design, while deeper tones have the power to convey depth and luxury.
1) Light and dark flooring
Think cream carpets, natural and neutral toned tiles and whitewashed wood flooring. These attractive, light and neutral colours give a room an open and airy feel, making it appear larger, whilst also drawing in the natural sunlight from outside.
Opt for darker cabinets and a lighter floor
'Typically, darker cabinets are coupled with a lighter floor color to break up the space and to prevent the kitchen from feeling too enclosed,' says Chris Dance, head designer and director at InHouse Inspired Room Design.
Pastel colours
From pale pink to baby blue, sage green to cream, pastel colours go really well with oak furniture.
Dark floors: Dark colors, from shades of espresso to true black, make a dramatic statement with white cabinets. Dark options are best with white cabinets in modern spaces, especially if you have dark accents in your kitchen, such as your backsplash.
Do grey and brown go together? Of course, they do! It's one of the classic combos. Grey is neutral, steady, elegant, and sophisticated.
The key to mixing woods is keeping the undertones consistent. Woods with warm undertones will look yellow or red - think Cherry, Mahogany, and Hickory. These woods will work well together, even if they vary in darkness and grain. Cool-toned woods will look a little bit grey, like Ash, Maple, Poplar, or Pine.
Brown & Purple
Darker woods like walnut pair well with pastel purples, and lighter brown woods pair well with deep shades of purple like plum or bright shades like amethyst. Brown and purple work very well in a room with yellow accents as well, if you're looking to add a third color to your color scheme.