Dark floors show EVERYTHING. I have dark hardwood and as beautiful as they look they are not worth the hassle. As soon as you clean they look dirty again. With little kids and pets dark flooring would be my last recommendation. I can not emphasise enough how much maintenance dark flooring will be for you. The dust, crumbs, hair, etc.

A medium dark natural stain hardwood will hide regular mess the best AND it's timeless style-wise in a way that black wood isn't.

Just like a black car... looks good when clean, but usually just looks dirty. I would never want dark floors. It does sound like LVT would be a good option for you though. Real wood would also be a good option.

I would be afraid of black sucking the light from the rooms too.

Black vinyl will also show all of the scratches that vinyl floors get, but that don’t show in the more medium to lighter tones.

Vinyl is a great option for kids and pets. Black is tough with floors because the dust and dirt will show just like with white floors. A medium tone is going to look cleanest, but I'd like to see photos of the space and lighting situation before suggesting colors. I assume your DH is saying black because it "goes with everything" so I wanna see what "everything" you're working with.

The Cook's Kitchen , is very right. Unless that color is all the way through you may have multicolored scratches all over the floors.

Having black floors with dogs and kids would be a NIGHTMARE!

I had very dark wood floors in my condo. NEVER AGAIN! Looked great right after the floors were cleaned but every piece of dirt, dust and even footprints from the dog showed.

Tell hubby unless he's willing to clean the floors 24/7 you need to pick a color more user friendly which would be something in a medium tone. And yes to LVP.

Here is our kitchen

Our front entry/Dining room

You need to stick with a warm wood tone. Black will just not work in your space. Maybe you can get him on board with something like this...

I would not think a black floor would go well with black appliances.

Do not do a floor that dark, it will show every speck of dust and look outdated in a few years. I personally think LVF is an oxymoron. If you want to have easy clean and scratch free, I understand the appeal though. Look for a medium brown stain, not reddish. we just had hickory hardwood with duraseal medium brown put in, and it looks amazing and spills wipe up easily. Dog claws leave marks in the poly finish. I still love it though.

Here is a pic. It is character grade, so lots of natural movement that will mask the scratches in the right light!

Mark_Rachel I guess I believed the marketing! I love your hickory! I almost felt bad staining ours because it is so beautiful on its own too, but it wasn’t the look I ultimately wanted. Glad I went for the medium brown, I love it. It’s Been the best thing about our remodel so far!

FWIW, I installed a very dark grey carpet in my living room. I was worried about it, because people said it would turn the room into a dark cave. But actually the dark color kind of grounds the room, and makes the light furniture look lighter. If I had it to do over I would have gone with an even darker grey or full-on black.

It does show dirt, so I have a roomba that I run almost every day. I have dogs, too, so in my kitchen I have a floor scrubbing roomba that I use every couple of days. You do have to keep a black floor clean.

The dark charcoal vinyl in the inspiration photo is shown using white on white on white. Everything is white, with MASSIVE amounts of natural lighting and a very well lit studio (photo studio lighting is roughly 10 times as bright as home lighting). Oh, yah...and NO window coverings. Looks stunning but unless you have ALL the same features (white on white on white with 3 windows per every 100sf of floor space + studio grade lighting) the dark charcoal will look black most of the time.

In your current photo of your home, the amount of natural light is limited with plenty of nooks and crannies without windows. The depth of the floor you already have is about as dark as I would want to go in your home.

If you have a fantastic open floor plan condo with 12ft ceilings and floor to ceiling windows on 3 of 4 walls, then I would say you could have the darkest floor imaginable - because it wouldn't matter. The amount of light coming in would eradicate the "darkness" of the floor.

If you go super dark, I suggest getting all white or very light (silver wood toned) furniture. It would REALLY help set the super modern tone. And lots of white area rugs. And a bit more lighting. Oh...and you will want to get SS or white appliances because the black appliances will simply disappear with an almost black floor.

Whew. Lots to think about when making a dramatic colour change isn't there?

I absolutely LOVE how it came out. Gorgeous. Stunning. Cleaning is a breeze!!!

I had my dark charcoal slate hallway floors by recently replaced with a lighter porcelain wood look tile. The dark charcoal flooring was hard to keep clean. I suggest you choose a light to medium colored flooring as it will look alit cleaner than a darker flooring.