Are Dark Hardwood Floors Out of Style? | Engineered or Solid?

The look of dark hardwood floors is unquestionably elegant, but are they in style?

While dark hardwood flooring has a special beauty of all of its own and it has been fashionable for a while now, it’s likely to fade out in favourability. Trend is going towards lighter woods such as natural oak.

At the same time if you have them, they will add to the value of your home a and increase durability. Your home will have overall more distinctive appearance. 

You might be interested how to protect them first thing is to buy quality door mat to prevent dirt from breaking in to your house. Here is list of 10 best doormats for hardwood floors.

Are Hardwood Floors in Style? 

As we mentioned before, “dark hardwood floor trend” is slowly fading out and lighter shades are replacing it. In fact, some extremely light varieties of wood are growing in popularity as well . Examples include blonde and whitewash. 

One reason why light shades of hardwood floor are in favor right now, is because they tend to make a space look larger and more cheerful.

Still, If you have your heart set on the classic beauty of dark shades, though, there are many reasons why you’re sure to enjoy them. 

Benefits of Dark Hardwood Floors

Regardless of current fashion trends , dark hardwood floors will always have a classic timeless appeal. Excellent choice for those homebuyers, who prefer very rich and elegant look. You know how they say: Trends come and go 😉

Possible benefits of dark hardwood floors are: 

• The hues of many dark hardwood floor varieties can beautifully complement the appearance of certain kinds of furniture with colored fronts. Shades such as pink, rose, and light blue are perfect match
• It can work very well with traditional and vintage looks, including ones meant to resemble Victorian decorating styles. 
• Dark hardwood floors can make a room look cozier and more contained.

Other Shades available

As light shades are becoming more prevalent in the world of design, perhaps you’d like to take a look at options such as blonde wood, white-washed wood, honey wood, gray wood, greige wood, and high variation wood floors. 

Gray wood floors: Gray is a hugely popular color in home decoration at the moment, and we’re seeing this when it comes to wood floors, too. If your home has a very on-trend decorating vibe, perhaps you will like to consider this option. 

Whitewashed wood floors: If you’d like to add a beachy and laidback look to your room, you could consider this type of floors. This look is especially popular on the west coast of the United States. It can also be a good look for farmhouse decorating style. Because of its light shade, your room will look bigger. 

Blonde wood floors: As can easily be guessed by its name, the blonde wood floor has very light color. With this type of choice, your home will look airy and cheerful. Some types of wood that are used for blonde wood floors are white oak, ash, maple, and bamboo. Especially popular choice is European white oak. 

Honey wood floors: a little bit darker and warmer than blonde and whitewashed woods are honey wood floors. They provide a very classic and timeless look. It is a safe choice for homeowners with a variety of different decorating and design approaches. 

Greige wood floors: Greige is a combination of gray and beige. It includes beige, brown, and a bit of gray. 

High variation wood floors: High variation wood floors will create more casual and unique look in your home. If you choose high variation wood floors, the variations should be in the same color family. 

You can Choose between different Finishes available

There are a variety of different finishes that are available in dark wood floors.

• Floors with Texture – is expected to become more popular this year. Example would be wire-brushed and hand-scraped floors,
• Shiny and polished finishes – used to be prevalent
• Matte and satin finishes are growing in popularity in home design. 

For more check out my hardwood flooring guide!

Prefinished vs Unfinished Hardwood Floors

If you’re looking for ease and convenience, a prefinished floor is probably the right choice for you. With a prefinished floor, it will be ready to be a part of your everyday life as soon as it is installed. If you don’t mind devoting a bit of extra time to the process, you could go with unfinished flooring that will be custom finished by an expert on site with installation.

Prefinished hardwood floors

• Flooring is already sanded and stained
• It is already coated with polyurethane
• Proces is quicker and easier
• They have a groove or micro-bevel between each individual board. I took picture in my shop. Note – this is so small that from distance you hardly notice it.
• This type of floors is mostly found when you are buying engineered hardwood option. They can be sanded and refinished up to 3 times to long life of you floors is guaranteed.
• Lot of different textures and colors available to choose from.

Unfinished Hardwood floors

• Floors are bought in raw condition
• It Shold be installed first and than sanded and refinished on the site.
• They don’t have any micro-bevel between each individual board because they are refinished on the site. End result can be much smoother and even outlook compared to prefinished option.
• With unfinished floors, you will be able to choose from many different species of wood and a wide variety of stain colors and types of finishes. Some of the newest types of finishes involve hardwax oils like this on Amazon . They are very durable and resistant to soils such as water, coca cola, etc…
• Advantage of unfinished floors is that you’ll be able to more precisely match your new floors to potential hardwood flooring who maybe already exists in your home.

Decoration Tips: What Goes Best with Dark Wood? 

Dark shades of hardwood floors tend to create a very traditional and cozy atmosphere. This is why it often does well in accompanying traditional (such as Victorian or Edwardian) and vintage looks.

Some shades in your soft furnishings and other decorating accents that would work well with dark hardwood include: rose, soft pink, pale and soft blue, periwinkle, and cream, as well as certain warm shades such as amber and green. Brown leather sofa with accent pillows is a great match!

For the walls use light and airy shades of paint. White or ivory might be excellent options. This will help to open up the room and create a greater sense of space.

You could also consider adding some wallpaper, perhaps just on one wall as an accent. A traditional floral pattern might be nice. 

How to Clean Dark Hardwood Floors?

One of the best organic ways to clean your hardwood floors is to use white vinegar. White vinegar is free of toxins, making it safe for you and your family. It is a an entirely natural product, and it has an extremely long shelf-life. Make sure to choose white vinegar as opposed to other types, as it will not stain your floor. 

When cleaning your floors, consider using a polisher or buffer. There are many excellent ones available on the market. Among the best is the Rollibot M6 2 in 1 Floor Scrubber.

Using a polisher or buffer will make cleaning your floors much easier and make the process of creating the shine or clean finish you want an effortless process. 

When using a floor polisher/buffer, make sure to read all the instructions and use it in the way it is designed. 

Benefits of Engineered hardwood Wood Flooring? 

Engineered hardwood flooring is comprised of many layers of different woods (these are referred to as ply layers) that are topped by a hardwood in a thin layer. This thin layer allows you to send them up to 3 times which means at least 50 year of life is guaranteed when treated well. Below picture from my shop.

They are manufactured and finished while at the factory. You cac find many different wood species, colors, and textures to suit your needs.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that engineered hardwood flooring is just laminate flooring or another type of cheap alternative. It isn’t.

Engineered hardwood flooring is an excellent choice for most people. It tends to be very resilient and practical. It is better than solid hardwood at holding up to moisture and humidity. 

With this type of wooden flooring you can choose longer and wider planks than would be possible with solid hardwood. Engineered wood flooring is much easier to install than solid option. It comes mostly pre-finished.

You can choose oil or lacquer type of engineered hardwood floors. Do you know which suits you better?

Oil engineered floors looks more natural but require waxing or oiling once per year after installation is done. Spillage and stains needs to be removed quickly. Possibilitiy to fix scratches is big advantage compared to lacquer so it is ideal choice when you have pets. If you have this type of floors you can fix only certain damaged spots , compared to lacquer version where you need to sand and refinish whole floor after bigger damages happen.

Lacquer engineered floors are much more durable option. They are protected with water resistant coat and can better handle spillage and stains. Less running around with cloth for sure. I would choose this one if you have kids / love to walk inside with shoes on, etc…

We basically know two types of installation methods. One is floating and other gluing. If you have floor heating in your house, you should glue your floors even if you decide to buy floating type.

TIP: Read: Pros & Cons of Engineered Wood Floors

Basic Care cleaning products you Shoud have at your home

Let’s try to keep it simple. There are some basic things you should have if you own hardwood floors at home.

First on the list would be quality mop with spray attached. It should be made and adopted for cleaning Hardwood floors!

You should find cleaner gentle with no Residue but, at the same time, strong enough to clean stains on your hardwood floors. If you like the smell of Lemon, the bottom one is great for you.

If you own high gloss hardwood floors and scratches started to appear, you can bring extra life and repair those scratches with below Bona polisher.

Read next

• Do I Need a Rug Pad for Hardwood Floors?
• how to clean mold from wood floors .
• Will dark floors make a room smaller?
• Can you lighten dark wood floors?