fdl

I'm getting close to making a final decision on hardwood.

Any opinions on hardwood color and how to chose it with respects to overall decor? (i.e. matching furniture). I'm trying to decide whether to go light, medium or dark in my stain color. I have seen all three, and all three CAN work really well but i'm wondering if one is more flexible than the others.

Also, if you have photos you can post of your rooms with hardwood (or pictures you think look good) that would be helpful.

Thanks.

soopa

i just went natural... it seems most flexible to me... and really brightens the room.

but like you said, mediums and darks can look amazing too.

it also depends largely on what time of wood you have.

Street Spirit

Not a big fan of light. Pics of possibilities would help.

fdl

It will most likely be red oak.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

We had a light floor in our last house... Natural Maple. Worked well since the cabinets were Natural Maple, and the countertop was dark, so it broke it up nicely. We also had kind of a country look in that place. The downside was that the Maple was soft... so it didn't scratch as much as have indents. Below is a shot to give you an idea of what that looked like..... since it wasn't only the kitchen that was maple.. but the whole first floor....

Kitchen:



Foyer (so you can see tiles against the Maple):



Dining Room (shows that dark funiture works well too):




When we moved to the new place we swore off Maple... and went with Oak with a Cherry kind of stain. No real good pics yet... but below is a pic of our great room where you can see the floors with some darker furniture... should give you an idea (oh and don't mind the boxes in the corner or the tags... all pretty new stuff )....

eve

I went with cherry.

I might not be able to take pictures today but will post a couple as soon as I do.

ric

I'm not personally a fan of light, as dark furniture and upholstry "floats" on light wood floors and looks a bit wierd. Medium and dark can work, but dark is not a s"fashionable" as it used to be. Personally, I think a rich dark floor connotes a great tone, makes furniture placement and color easy, and allows you to offset the floor with rugs and carpets that can properly become the main focus.

It is a common misconception that darker colors shrink space and lighter colors expand. Technically, the opposite is true, as dark colors obscure shadow lines. A dark floor with medium-tone walls will feel much larger than the same space with light walls and a light floor......

fdl

what do you mean by a "dark floor" with a "medium tone"? Like a brown/orangy floor?

soopa

Then go light, IMO.

My floors are Red Oak, and as much as I like dark floors... the original dark stain on them did just not look good.

Now they are natural with poly, they look awesome... clean, bright, and beautiful red tones throughout.

soopa

I think this is subjective and depends largely on the setting, etc.

In my case, having what were dark floors a very light color definately makes the space look larger.

On the flipside, some rooms that were light in color and are now painted dark look larger...

So i'm not sure if theres much science too it at all, it really just depends on the setting and its variables.

Scribesoft

I personally think any oak variation is overused everywhere you look.

In our last home, we put Beechwood (looks like maple) through the entire first floor and part of the 2nd. It looked beautiful. We did the 3 1/4 wide strips as opposed to the more normal 2 1/2(at least I think it's normally 2 1/2)

I'm a huge fan of Maple with a medium finish on it. Of course, everyone likes something different when it comes to wood.

I made my son's "big boy" bed out of Maple last year and put a medium gel stain on it. The end result was beautiful and it's a smooth as glass!

When we did the Beechwood, I bought 'pre-finished' and installed that. If I do more in the new home, I'm going to buy unfinished and put the extra time into sanding and finishing it myself. That way you don't have the small bevels between each piece. The surface of a wood floor which has been stained and sealed in place is much smoother that the pre-finished.

Pre-finished has it's benefits though.... The finish techniques they use will generally provide a more durable surface that what you can do yourself.. Just a few things to think about.

soopa

I'd agree oak is overused. If building new it certainly wouldn't be my choice, but neither would maple. Beechwood or some other unique/exotic species would be more to my liking.

Don't get me wrong, I love maple. It's my favorite of the everyday woods... but since you're talking in a perfect world and all.

Alot of us choose to live in and renovate older homes versus new, it's rare to find anything but oak or pine in older homes. I'd definately prefer red oak over pine... a true hardwood floor (not veneer like most new floors) in red oak is quite beautiful.

Not my favorite, but beautiful nonetheless.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

That's pretty much why we went with Oak.... reminded us of the homes we grew up in . Oh, and our builder used true hardwoods... not veneers. Thankfully

fdl

well, theres probably good reason why oak is so popular.

soopa

probably because its one of the strongest for the price.

maple/pine (the other two popular floor choices) are more expensive. maple is soft. pine is hard, but not everyone likes the knotty/country look.

oak can fit in a modern environment where you typically see maple, or a traditional/country environment where you might find pine.

its simply the most versatile and the most inexpensive.

Scribesoft

Oh, don't get me wrong. Oak is one of the strongest, most stable hardwoods you can get (and I've used it in many rojects). It will outlast many other species as far as as wear & tear go and is less likely to warp over time.

I personally just like other types of wood myself (like maple).. Maple is still a great hardwood and is more aesthetically pleasing to me. But as I said above, everyone has a different opinion of what is beautiful when wood is concerned. And I'm willing to put up with any downfall maple may have when compared to oak as it's pleasing to my eye.

I have an old copy of WOOD magazine around here somewhere where they show a chart of popular hardwood species, pro's/con's, stability ratings, and general price ranges. If I can find it, and you're interested, I'll scan it in and post..

I'll also try to dig up the photos of the Beechwood flooring I put in the old house. I had tons of pics of that install b/c I was so damn proud of myself.

odessa

Are you still considering choices from this thread?

ric

mahogany, walnut, dark cherry, even a darkened teak tone. I personally would favor a dark cherry, and then find some decent Oriental rugs to cast around, but that isn't everyone's taste.

for the walls, a "medium tone' would be a couple of chromaranges down from the lightest color on the color strip that most paint maufacturers supply. (Most manufacturers make five or six hues of the same color. The lightest is an off-white, and they get progressively more saturated as one moves down the color strip. I prefer to work with the second or third down. Most people, in my opinion, select too white a tone for walls, which shows any imperfections in wall construction and also highlights glare and shadow from windows, light fixtures, ect. I personally favor what is sometimes called a "french grey", which is a grey that is "warmed" by a bit of reddish hue. hard to describe, but it is a warm grey. It is kind to flesh tones, always a nice touch in one's home, and works with a wide array of woods and upholstry colors and will be a decent background for most art.

The easiest way to test wall color is to buy a quart of paint and apply it to a chunk of the wall. Believe it or not, it is really the only foolproof way - making a decision about several hundred square feet of wall on the basis of one and one half square inches of a paint chip doesn't fly.... and in some of my professional work, we specify final paint selection based on field applications of several choices.

ric

The latest trend in wood flooring, for whatever its worth, is bamboo, now becoming trendy because it grows fast and is a "renewable" resource. It has a decent grain, is naturally light but takes stains well, and comes in rather thin widths. I've seen some bamboo flooring stained with a cherry tone, and it was quite handsome.

As Soopa notes, Oak is a classic, because it is easily available. Cut correctly, it can have a decent appearance, but cut in a way that exposes the grain, the soft portion of the grain will erode and the floor will become uneven. I find the natural color of oak to be not that pleasant, but it stains well, particularly with walnut tones that work with the natural yellow hue of the wood.

Scribesoft

Maple is actually harder than oak

Hardness ratings (the higher the number, the harder the wood):

Red Oak = 1260
White Oak = 1360
Maple = 1450

Yellow pine is only 690 !

Other popular choices:

Cherry = 950
Walnut = 1010
Brazilian Cherry = 2820

Hardness counts for a lot, but there are other factors to consider when looking at a good candidate for flooring.. such as the stability of the wood. I want to say that even though Maple is harder than Oak, the oak may actually be more stable (meaning it's less likely to twist over time).. I'll look that up and see what I can find.

GINge!

I got ash upstairs (this is a room above the garage). It has a nice variety of grain and tone. Not quite as stark as maple:



And got cherry downstairs. We really liked the colour & grain of the cherry, but, it is a very soft wood - almost like pine. It scratches really easily. Were I to do it again, I'd try getting an oak stained the same colour. In fact, next house, we are going ceramic tile throughout and just throwing down rugs in certain spots

GINge!

^ to add, if you can, lay your hardwood parallel to the primary window/light source in the room. In the pic above, it is laid perpendicular, and doesn't look as good when the sun is shining in the front windows.

soopa

Scribe, who knew. Opposite of what I've always been told.

Ginge, that ash is GORGEOUS. Cherry, always. Both I imagine are quite expensive?

soopa

Wenge is also a popular trend, as well as Zebrawood. There's pretty much countless applications of exotic woods that are really popular in high-end homes right now.

Rosewood, etc... it goes on and on.

Speaking of Rosewood, the nicest cabinets I've ever seen were Rosewood. I can't imagine the bill though

soopa

... anyway... were off-topic.

fiddle, you chose oak it sounds.

if you've got oak, i really think the only way to have it is light. IMO it does not look good.

unlike something like cherry, it will not have highlights. oak accepts color easily (unlike maple) and will have a very even tone. with darker stains you will not even see the grain.

i find it to be quite boring in a dark stain.

maybe something medium, if you don't mind having rather red toned floors.

that said, if you have the nerve to go DARK DARK, like beyond mahogany stains and more towards ebony... oak is a great wood for it... because you DON'T want highlights with an ebony floor.

but it takes a special setting to pull off a floor that dark, usually a single room like a kitchen... in a more modern or industrial environment.

iTimmy

God I love cherry almost as I like burl wood!

To me cherry has such a warm and inviting feeling - the medium color you have is EXACTLY what I like.

Both rooms are nice, but the first room is to "busy" for my taste. That being said I can see why some folks would love it!

Scribesoft

You picked 2 great woods for your floors. I think they're both gorgeous in their respective environments.

GINge!

The ash was actually selected on account of its cheapness! $4.50/sqft. Only pine was less expensive.

Cherry, yes, around $8/sqft. But those prices could just be my neck of the woods?

Actually, the cherry is not that bad for durability. We have a Lab who spent his first 7 years learing to run around a carpeted house (ie claws = traction), so he marred the wood pretty bad when we first moved in. Our friends' lab grew up on h/w floors and has never left a scratch.

soopa

Looks like natural cherry too me. Just a poly I think.

Cherry is sweet, and a great color indeed.

GINge!

yep, its natural cherry with a clear poly coat. Another thing, cherry gets a fair bit darker when exposed to sun light, so if you lay a rug down, and decide to move it in a year, you'll have a large lighter rectangle on your floor! I thought sun would lighten/fade wood, but its the opposite.

iTimmy

I had a pair of speakers that were the same color cherry and it was called "quilted cherry" and the salesman told me it was a medium cherry - I foolishly assumed it was lightly stained.

Here's the color they were

soopa

is it really that drastic? what about under your sectionals? that'd suck if you couldn't move furniture around.

i've heard the same about most woods though, they'll darken in sunlight, but never actually seen it on the floor.

Scottman111

Ginge that ash floor looks great. I've never seen anyone do a floor with ash but that looks good

fdl

What do you guys think of this? Its brazilian cherry but I can get a similar tone out of oak. Perhaps slightly darker and grainier.



The hardwood vendor i am going with is Mirage, which is supposedly one of the best. Suprisingly, I can get maple for the same price or cheaper through them (there is tons of maple availale in Quebec, their homebase). I am shying away from maple because my stairs are oak.

soopa

That pretty much looks like oak with a light stain to me. Go fer it.

Dfreder2

And I used to moonlight working for him on weekends. Nothing that really required any skills like sanding or staining. Just tearing out old flooring, installing hardwood, etc.

We did a dining room floor for a doctor in Barrington, Il, which is a very affluent community. The walls were painted snow white. When it came time to stain, I was rather horrified to see that the doctor had specified JET BLACK stain.

But after the stain had dried, and we applied two coats of "Glitza" (not a polyurethane), the black dining room table and hutch reinstalled, it was the most beautiful room I ever saw.

You should check out Glitza, but be forwarned, it is very toxic. And you can't go back into the house for 24 hours. If you use this stuff, make sure to get the pets out also, but fish in an aquarium are ok. I've seen 25 year old floors finished with Glitza that look like they were done yesterday. Glitza ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES the use of a proper respirator!

fdl

I wish I had found this earlier, but the manufactorer of my hardwood has a tool on their website to mix and match hardwods with different rooms and decors. Might be a useful tool for others even if you are not using Mirage hardwood.

http://www.miragefloors.com/simulate....htm?langue=En

I think I am leaning towards to Red Oak - "Nevada" right now. Its a light stain, but still has alot of warmth to it (IMO). I also like the Cognac, but am afraid I might get tired of such a dark color. It does look stunning though, and would draw alot of attention to the floors.

soopa

fdl, that (nevada) is pretty much what my red oak looks like natural. it's definately not as light as the natural on that site.

maybe the diff between old wood and new wood.

fdl

ya, oak will darken alot over time. My parents house is 30 years old and their "natural" oak looks quite a bit darker and redish/orangish than the natural oak I've seen in the stores. And this is even after sanding once.

soopa

that red oak in cognac is awfully nice... maybe i should change my mind before the floor guy comes to do the downstairs on monday!