The wide variety of hardwood floor colors
One of the most exciting – and most daunting – aspects of selecting a hardwood floor is considering the vast array of hardwood floor colors you can choose from. The color of the floor can dramatically change the ambience, energy and look of a room, which makes it a high priority to get the color exactly right.
When selecting hardwood floor colors, the first consideration is the type of hardwood from which to fashion your floor. Species like Ash, White Maple, Brown Maple and White Oak make beautiful light-colored hardwood floors, while Walnut, Cherry or reclaimed Chestnut timbers have a rich, dark appearance.
The consistency of color is different with each hardwood, too. White Maple, Cherry and Red Oak hardwood floor colors produce floorboards with more consistent hues, while Hickory, Brown Maple and Birch are among the species that feature considerably more color variation. This is due to the contrasting color between the darker heartwood at the center of the tree and the lighter sapwood in these species.
Of course, hardwood floor colors can also be achieved through the application of a stain, potentially making naturally lighter woods dark or applying a lighter color to darker timbers.
As you’re considering hardwood colors for your floor, the design consultants at Carlisle Wide Plank floors can provide expert assistance to walk you through every step and every option for creating a stunning wide plank floor.
Types of wood and stain for hardwood floor colors
Natural hardwood floor colors
Hardwood floor colors range from light and airy to dark and rich. At Carlisle, we offer nine different hardwood species as well as a variety of reclaimed floors made from timber salvaged from old buildings.
- Ash floors offer hues that range from cream to light blonde to rich nutty brown hues.
- Birch floors feature blonde outer edges and warm amber portions.
- Brown Maple floors have hues of rich gold, amber and brown.
- Cherry floors feature a burnished auburn color that will darken over time.
- Hickory offers hues from lighter blonde sapwood to cocoa brown and beige heartwood.
- Red Oak comes in deep, salmon tones.
- Walnut floors feature rich chocolate/mocha hues with surprising auburn undertones.
- White Maple offers clean and lighter hues for a more neutral finish.
- White Oak features hues that range from beige to brown.
- Reclaimed floors have a deep texture and rich color that only time and wear can create.
Stain colors
While some customers prefer to finish their Carlisle hardwood floors with clear or amber finish that preserves the natural color of the wood, others prefer to use specific hardwood floor colors to give a room a certain warmth, ambience or elegance, or to match the colors of other elements in the space.
While many manufacturers provide only a limited range of stains, the variety of color at Carlisle is limited only by your imagination. Our Carlisle Custom Color matching system enables us to produce stains in virtually any hue based on a paint swatch, a fabric sample, a piece of tile or any other item you submit for a match. Additionally, we offer a collection of traditional stain colors, from the light tones of our Whitewash Fence stain to the smoky look of our Blacksmith stain.
What are hardwood floor colors?
What are multi-colored floors?
Multi-colored hardwood floors are floors made with planks featuring two or more different-colored woods, or planks that are stained different colors. Multi-colored treatments are often used in parquet flooring to help create a more intricate pattern or design.
What do heartwood and sapwood have to do with hardwood floor colors?
Heartwood is the wood at the center of the tree, while the sapwood is the wood in the outer portion of the tree that is still receiving nutrients. In some hardwood species, there’s little difference in color between heartwood and sapwood, while in species like Hickory, Walnut, Ash, Birch and Brown Maple, the contrast can be quite pronounced, creating more variation in the color of wooden planks.
What are the advantages of dark hardwood floor colors?
Dark hardwood floors create a sense of drama and elegance in a room. While most people think of dark floors as part of a formal decor, dark hardwood floor colors can appear in rustic and more casual spaces as well, as antique floors or floors made with reclaimed timbers tend to be quite dark. When dark colors are used in a small room however, it can cause the room to seem even smaller, and dark hardwood floor colors won’t hide dust, dirt and debris nearly as well as light colors.
What are the pros and cons of light hardwood floor colors?
Light hardwood floors help to brighten up a dark room and help to make any room feel more spacious. Light hardwood floor colors are also able to hide dust, dirt and debris more effectively, and because they provide a neutral palette, they’re easy to match with almost any wall color, trim color or furniture color, making them an excellent choice for contemporary wood floors. The most significant drawback to light colored floors is that in a room where everything else is light, a light floor may seem to wash out the space.
Can hardwood floors be stained to any color?
Essentially, yes. While treating a naturally dark floor with a very light stain color may require multiple coats and finishes, it’s theoretically possible to stain any hardwood floor to any color.
What are hardwood floor colors?
Hardwood floor colors are the natural hues of hardwood floorboards or the stains used to create a specific color in a hardwood floor. Hardwood species such as Ash and White Maple are naturally light in color, while Walnut and Cherry have famously dark hues.
Why choose wide plank hardwood floors from Carlisle?
Carlisle has been producing the finest handcrafted wood floors in America for more than half a century. Every wide plank floor produced by our expert craftsman is a masterpiece, painstakingly crafted to be a defining feature of your home for years to come. Every detail of your Carlisle for is produced with unmatched pride, passion and purpose to ensure that your floor perfectly reflects your sense of style and beauty.
One of the most significant reasons to choose Carlisle wide plank floors is the ability to customize your floor to your vision. Working with an expert design guide, you’ll have a wide choice of hardwood, pine and reclaimed floors to choose from, as well as stains in a virtually unlimited number of hardwood floor colors. We’ll walk you through your options for texturing your floor to give it a sense of age and personality, and through the pros and cons of prefinished or engineered floors as well.
