Which hardwood floor?

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

I am completely renovating my main floor and having trouble deciding on a flooring as well as a paint color. I have spent many days looking through hundreds of vinyl, laminate, engineered hardwood and solid hardwood samples and think I've narrowed it down to the following two hardwood floors, both by Brand Coverings: Adaptive Shade or Keystone Grey. Both are grey-toned but one is darker than the other. I'm drawn toward the darker one but my husband likes the lighter one. We don't get a lot of natural light in our house. Our other dilemma is paint color, which may depend on the flooring we pick. We cannot decide if we want to go blue-grey or greige. And then even within those categories there are hundreds of shades to choose from! How do we decide? Any recommendations? (The current color we hate (a brown with yellow/red understones), so we dont want to go too beige and have it look similar). Some pictures attached for reference.

Featured Answer

K R

5 years ago

They’re both really pretty, but I’d pick the lighter one for 2 reasons, one because you said you don’t get a lot of natural light (which will in turn, make the flooring look darker) and two, I think it has a lot more interest with it’s different colors throughout.

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Comments (16)

Ashley Hancock-Riggs
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago

This last photo is our current dining
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Howmuchlonger, You're welcome and thank you for the compliment. I'm sorry but I do not have an actual name for the stain on our cabinets. See, we have pine, mahogany and knotty alder doors, the cabinets are select alder and then the natural unstained oak floor. So I went to a small local paint store with a flooring plank and asked them to match the darker streaks in the plank to each of these different woods. They did a little blending here and there and come up with what you see in the pictures. And the best news was they didn't charge me any extra for doing all that. I know I wouldn't have gotten the same service had I gone to a mega-box-store like HD or Lowes.
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I don't know what's going on--whether you're doing the color changes or the manufacturer has a sucky emulator. But I wouldn't buy any of those floors if that's a representation of the wood itself (not the colors). The boards are too wide and too stubby and too varied to look good. It's a low-grade floor with lots of short pieces and it's not graded to blend together. Boards that wide needs to be longer (all the boards) and it can't have such a contrast of color and grain from board to board.
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Jennifer Svensson
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
And I prefer the darker one because it’s more solid and calm. All about preferences. :)

Have you looked at some off whites for paint? i like SW Zurich White for example. ever so slightly gray..
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked Jennifer Svensson
grapefruit1_ar
5 years ago
When we built our house the architect strongly urged us to use light flooring since our home is in a wooded setting. We took his advice and used natural ( no stain) white ash. He was absolutely correct. It has kept our house from feeling dark. We still love our floors 32 years later. In addition, the color is classic and works with everything.

The colors that you have chosen seem too dark and too trendy. I would go with something much lighter and classic. You also mentioned that your home is dark. This would cause me to steer clear of blues and grays.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked grapefruit1_ar
User
5 years ago
Lighter
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked User
PRO
Oak & Broad
5 years ago
Go lighter, thats the trend right now. Gray is really fading in terms of popularity.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked Oak & Broad
K Laurence
5 years ago
Lighter ... definitely the trend now ( not that it matters ) & easier to live with.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked K Laurence
PRO
Oak & Broad
5 years ago
Ashley Hancock-Riggs , as an example this is one of our most popular picture/floors right now. Its just a very light whitewash over White Oak.
Wide Plank White Oak Wood Floor in Nashville TN · More Info
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked Oak & Broad
cat_ky
5 years ago
Lighter. I actually like the color that Oak & Broad just posted better than the two you have picked.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked cat_ky
SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
If you must have gray, go as light as possible. The lack of natural light in your home will darken the floor by several steps. The lighter floor will turn darker than the darker floor simply because you don't have a lot of light.

And do yourself a favour and PRIME your walls with white primer. Do that before you install the flooring. This way you will have a true sense of the colour of EVERYTHING. Right now you are seeing greige in the flooring because you have a yellow based wall colour. Before you pick a paint colour, you need to rid yourself of the existing colour.

Once the existing colour is gone and the floors have been installed, you can then make paint swatches (on artists' board using tester sized tins of paint). You then MOVE the artists boards (with the paint colour on them) around your home. You leave them in each room to view the 5 times of day (early morning, mid-morning, afternoon, evening, night).

You will quickly find out which sample board 'fails' because of the colours it will turn in different lighting situations. And if you are thinking of changing your lighting, please do it BEFORE you install the wood and before you paint the walls.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked SJ McCarthy
PRO
Imperial Flooring Inc.
5 years ago
The darker you go will show more on the floor such as dust,dirt scratches etc. but it does give it a "warmer look" in the room.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked Imperial Flooring Inc.
PRO
Oak & Broad
5 years ago
I agree! There is another thread on Houzz right now with somebody asking about refinishing their entire floor due to it being too dark and showing every bit of dirt. The homeowner is getting some pretty brutal responses.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked Oak & Broad
K Laurence
5 years ago
Lol .... due to water damage we had to have our previously light toned hardwood replaced. we chose a medium toned walnut ... they’re beautiful but I have to admit they require more maintenance, they show every little thing that the lighter floors didn’t.
Ashley Hancock-Riggs thanked K Laurence
Shane Lear
5 years ago
I prefer the darker because it's more of a solid color and not so stripper. I redid my floors in a similar darker look last summer. I used Coretec LVP (Luxury Vinyl Planks) that are 100% waterproof and scratch- redid tent and I love the look.

Most of the rooms in my house are a very off-white/ cream color and it looks fantastic with the floors. Also I was surprised that my darker floors don't show dust like I was afraid. I sweep it twice a week with a cordless Dyson vacuum and it always looks clean, plus dirt and footprints don't show up much on the darker color.

Good luck!
PRO
Oak & Broad
5 years ago
K Laurence , can you post some of the Walnut pictures?
Shane Lear
5 years ago
Here are more. The kitchen has dark cabinets, so I went with a lighter floor in there and am pleased with it. I think the dark floors and cabinets together would have been too dark.