will changing hardwood flooring colors in different rooms look ok?

4 years ago

We installed red oak floors in our open concept living-room-kitchen-hallway about 6 years ago, keeping the bedrooms carpeted. Now I'd like to replace the bedroom carpets with hardwood. The red oak has a Provincial stain color with a Swedish finish. We'd like to do engineered hardwoods, as opposed to solid oak, in the bedrooms. I have learned that color matching is hard but have found it impossible to match when switching to engineered. I'd like to put a medium brown engineered that has a slight warm gray undertone, which is totally different than the neutral Provincial color. I'm wondering if the transition to a bedroom is enough to make the change look alright.

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SJ McCarthy

4 years ago

Go with warm tones. The two floors will be different enough with bevelled edges in the bedroom (and different width planks I'm assuming) and the flat (square edge) floors in the rest of the space. By adding a colour that clashes it will scream out "couldn't afford to do it right."

As harsh as that sounds, it will be what people will think should you ever leave the door open. If I HAD to add FACTORY finished hardwood in the same home as site finished, I would make it MATCH the SPECIES and make it solid hardwood.

At that point I would try my best to get the same width of plank (if possible) and a colour that was complimentary and not a colour clash like warm brown vs. gray/green brown.

Of course the ideal solution is a site finished hardwood in the same wood in the same stain and finish. But it sounds like you don't want to do that.

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Comments (7)

PRO
User
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Do you have photos of the two floorings you could post? I would be cautious in switching up the tones of the stains. Grey undertone suggests cool and existing stain sounds warm.
Dawn
Original Author
4 years ago
Sorry for the delay in my response...

I'm still in the color choosing stages of the BR flooring. Here are some photos of the hardwoods in different light (the first being where the BR door is), I was hoping to go with a medium brown engineered hardwood with a slight warm gray undertone in the bedrooms.
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From what I have been reading, if you have a door to the room and it has different flooring that is okay. It would be just like it you had carpet instead of the Koa. I'm going to through the same thing now except I am dealing with currently 8 different flooring types all on the same floor - one of them being tigerwood which I love. Am hoping to get down to 6 or 7. Uggh. The other thing you can do if you are concerned is to perhaps border the master in koa and then put the mahogany inside. If your tigerwood is like mine, it will have a lot of dark areas that will go with the mahogany.
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I will take a photo of my office which has LVP against hardwood and post. But it may be a while, when I get a chance. Maybe some others here have better examples. I wondered about cork too. Not sure about in a kitchen. My brother laid it himself in his apt. it was a lot of work and not too easy. It has to be sealed. I've never seen it but I did work in a place that had real linoleum. That was fabulous. Soft, quiet, colorful and durable. It's pricey but for just the kitchen, would probably not break the bank. I'm not sure how easy it is to come by though. This place where I worked was a big office in a big city so their ability to find it and get it installed might be different than someone living out in the boondocks. Here's a photo of my faux marble tiles. They are a plastic resin of some sort. It's not a good photo, I didn't take it to show how the wood and marble-look stuff went together, but it does show some of the many options that are out there. They had this marble-look stuff in many color variations. Ignore the hideous blue carpet, it is on its way out. I'm going through the same dilemma as you about replacing it, which is why I clicked on your post. I really like the tile, we have it in our kitchen and entry way. It has a similar feel to real linoleum.
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Prefinished natural hickory is pretty easy to find. Try to match the cut or grade of wood as best as possible. If you can match the width of the plank...great. If not don't worry too much about it. In the bedrooms you can always change the direction of the planks in the bedrooms so that the slight variation in plank width will not be noticeable. The grade of hickory is important. You want to see as much of the same mix as possible. Other than that, it should pretty easy to put this in AND have it look good.
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Dawn
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you for your comments. I can use all of the advice I can get. My husband is insisting that he install the floors himself in the bedrooms, otherwise I'd just call the same company that did the rest of the house.
SJ McCarthy
4 years ago
Ask your husband if he's happy with replacing the bedroom hardwood (engineered) in 7-10 years. Ask him if he wants to change the EXISTING wood colour (full sand and refinish) in 5-7 years (well before they 'need' it).

Because a poorly thought out install (as suggested in your original post) is going to cause ONE of them to 'go'.

For that reason my #1 preference = same site finished wood as elsewhere. The cost difference will be a few hundred dollars (cost of materials + labour) for a small rooms like a bedrooms.

My SECOND preference is SOLID hardwood in a factory finish that is CLOSE to the original floor's colour. That way you have TWO solid wood floors that CAN BE site finished in the future.

If your husband INSISTS on the installation part, then push for my #2 option. Solid Red Oak in a factory finish that is close to the same colour (or natural). That way you can deal with BOTH floors at a later date.

And BTW: carpets hide the WORST subfloors possible. Let hubby know he may have to do some SERIOUS work on those subfloors before throwing down a hardwood floor.

Rarely are you able to rip out carpet and lay hardwood the same day. The amount of work that is needed to get carpeted subfloors up to snuff can be $2-$4/sf for labour alone (if you hired out the job).

And that's when you ask hubby AGAIN how much he will like a floor he laid if it is bouncy and squeaky and has no one to call but the guy looking back at him in the mirror.

Remember: it is CHEAPER to get a professional to do it right the FIRST time than it is to call the professional to fix the mess you made. But then again, flooring professionals make a TON of money dealing with DIY oopsas. If you like your professional and want to send him MORE WORK, you can always let hubby deal with this first and then call your professional SECOND. S/He might be happy for the extra work (ahem....extra money).
btydrvn
4 years ago
This has a technical and expert element for sure..however in the real world there are always lots of other elements to consider on this site ...actual pictures of the home...doorway locations...room styles...age and style of the home..in other words a further understanding of the home...may offer creative solutions that may work in your particular situation...i always find the “experts” only know “the right way”...the rest of us are free to get more creative ...if possible....
Dawn
Original Author
4 years ago
there's definitely lots of things to think about. thanks to you both for your advice

will changing hardwood flooring colors in different rooms look ok?

SJ McCarthy

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will changing hardwood flooring colors in different rooms look ok?

SJ McCarthy

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