How Do I Coordinate Floor Colors with My Trim and Molding?

Question

My home has dark walnut trim, molding and base boards. What type and shade of wood flooring would you suggest to coordinate with the dark walnut, yet not make the rooms seem too dark? (from Kathy, Greenville, NC)

Answer

Kathy, many thanks for your Design2Share question. Ideally, you should try to get as close as possible to the baseboard color for your flooring color. If you feel that shade or color is too dark, try a lighter tone of wood stain like the Minwax wood stain called Provincial or look at floor finishing sample chips to find a good math or comptible tone (look at the different wood shades together, like on the Victorian Floor Finishing site).

Feel free to use any wood stain you like, but avoid any stain that shades towards RED or GOLD in color. This would not make for a good match to the dark walut in the rest of the room.

For wood flooring, we always recommend a good quality white oak.

For all of the above, we're talking about a custom-stained floor, however you may want to go with a pre-finished floor. The rule of thumb is to go with the best quality wood flooring you can find and a four-inch plank minimum width. And as above, you don't want a pre-finished floor that shades towards the RED or GOLD spectrum.

Look how a rug can lighten up a room with dark floors.Don't be too concerned about dark floors making your room appear too dark, Kathy. Lighter wall colors and rugs can lighten the appearance of any room with darker floors. Good luck with your flooring project!