What is the Right Wood Tone for Your Hardwood Flooring?
We have talked about tips on choosing the right color for your hardwood floors. However, one of the many factors in deciding what hardwood floor is best for your home is wood tone. By this, we mean the color undertone of the wood. This can be accomplished via wood staining or just the natural color of the hardwood. And, it isn’t just as simple as choosing a tone. There are other elements in your home to consider. Here is a short guide on how to choose the right wood tone for your hardwood flooring.
Wood Tone Types
Undertones of wood come in three categories: warm, neutral, and cool tones. There are also subsets of these tones, which can be divided into light and dark woods. It might seem complicated but we want to try to simplify it a bit.
Warm tones consist of red and orange undertones. Cool tones have more grey or blue appearance. Neutral on the other hand can have a bit of both and come off with more yellow tones.
As far as light vs. dark wood, that comes down to preference. Dark woods can be luxurious and look great with open layouts or large rooms. Yet, light woods are a popular choice and help make rooms look larger.
All the above woods can be found in our new online gallery. Going from left to right and up to down, here are the wood floors in the image above. The warm tones include Vino Pinot Grigio, Vino Chianti, Lafamiglia Elisa, and Dolce Vita Longobardi. The cool tones include Lafamiglia Pippinella, Vino Gavi, Vino Nebbiolo, and Dolce Vita Venna. Last but not least, the neutral tones include Lafamiglia Luigi, Lafamiglia Luisa, Vino Prosecco, and EuropeanElegance Lisburn.
What Else to Consider
When choosing the correct tone, there are other elements to consider. If you are renovating your floors, you must also take into account the wall color and furniture in the room. These factors can impact the look of the room and compliment or clash with the hardwood floors. While ultimately you can change the color of the walls and swap out furniture to match the floor you love, here are some ways to incorporate these design aspects.
Wall Color
First, picking a wall color can already be overwhelming with choices. Then, when considering flooring, it can seem even more so. Luckily, you don’t have to be an interior decorator to pick a color that matches up with your flooring. If you have light, neutral hardwood floors, go with light and neutral walls. White is always a great go-to, but you can tone it with off-white shades. If white is too stark, consider neutral greys. (Yes greys can have warm and cool tones too!) Neutral wall colors typically go well with all wood types, but do make sure you stick with an undertone closer to your wood tones.
That isn’t to say you have to stay neutral with your walls though. If you have a warm tone, go bold with green. Yes, green! It can make for rich contrast. Even a cool blue has become a popular choice to match with red undertones in wood flooring. If you wish to keep the warm undertones throughout the space though, think of burgundy or terra cotta colors. Still, make sure to consider the size of the space. Deep colors can make a room feel smaller. If you do have darker woods, you may want to stick with light or pale colors for the walls.
Wood Furniture
There is a misconception that you can’t mix wood types in a home. That simply is not true. You can definitely have different types of wood and looks. The main rule to follow is to keep with the same undertones. Exactly why we keep referencing warm, cool, and neutral tones. If you stick with the same family of undertones, it won’t look so jumbled. Our recommendation is to pick a dominant tone, which typically comes from your wood floors. Nonetheless, if you already have furniture you want in that space, figure out the wood tones of the furniture.
View Our Gallery
If you still aren’t sure what to pick, come see our showroom at Elite Hardwood Flooring. We specialize in helping pick out the perfect wood flooring for your space. There you can see all of our flooring options where you can choose from different products, sizes, and finishes. Our team can also help you wherever you are in the process. Let us take a look together and decide what application best suits your particular situation. Also, check out our resource blog for more hardwood flooring tips and inspiration!
