Dark Flooring Ideas & Style Guide

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Dark Oak Basketweave Parquet Wood Flooring
Dark Oak flooring

Why choose dark wood for your floors?

Dark wood will provide warmth to a room, make it feel cosy and add a touch of drama to the room. With careful design choices, a dark tone can make a spectacular finish. The key to making it work is contrast and lighting. Some of our most successful projects have been with deep browns, blacks and charcoal colour floors

Dark Pitcairn Oak Chevron Wood Flooring
Pitcairn Oak Chevron

When should you not choose a dark wood?

Dark colour floors need to have contrast to their surroundings, so if you have dark kitchen units or walls then the space will start to feel enclosed and cause difficulties for the visually impaired. Lighting is essential, a room that is poorly lit whether naturally or not will not make a comfortable environment.colour

Does dark wood show scratches easily?

It depends on the finish. The higher quality products will tend to have many layers to achieve the dark effect, thus making a durable finish. Avoid very flat colours or those with no texture as dust, scratches and scuff marks can show. Texture such as a brushed surface will help light reflect off your floors at different angles and this minimises how much scratches show up.

Antiqua Oak Dark Oak Flooring
Antiqua Oak

Do dark wood make a room feel small?

To a certain degree dark wood will make a room feel smaller. However, sometimes a room can feel too sparse and cold if everything is left to a light colour. Don’t rule out dark wood for your floors in smaller rooms, opting for a white walls can offset the illusion.

Dark Val D'Isere Oak Flooring in Hallway
Val D'Isere Oak
American Walnut Planks Wood Flooring
American Walnut Planks

What are the dos and don’ts with dark floors?

Do consider the colours for the entire room, they all need to work together

Don’t opt for dark floors if you have poor lighting

Don’t skimp on price, to get good depth of colour requires either numerous layers of colour or timbers that are naturally dark like Walnut Flooring or Wenge

Do contrast walls and kitchen units to the floor with a light colour, white works very well.

Do add colour with soft furnishing or floral displays

Dark Thermo Brushed and Oiled in Living Room
Dark Thermo Oak Brushed

What products are available to buy?

Surprisingly there are many dark wood floors available.

Dark smoked oak and American walnut will provide milk chocolate tones, while dark thermo oak will provide near black with slightly reddish undertones. On the grey side you will find mid greys through to dark charcoal colours and then there is jet black, usually achieved through a painted finish.