One of the questions we get frequently at All American Painting Plus is “What Paint Colors Work Best With Hardwood Floors”. The short answer is both easy and uninformative: “Hardwood looks good with everything!”
That is mostly true, but it’s not all of the story. All American Painting Plus has executed many a paint job around beautiful hardwood floors, and we have learned a thing or two about the process. Scroll on, dear reader, as we impart our knowledge.
- Your Wood Gives You Clues. Unless it is deeply and thoroughly stained, hardwood floors are rarely composed of a single color. Instead, they are a blend of colors and shades. Wood grows through many different weather and nutritional conditions, some of which yield variations of color in the growing wood. When the wood is cut into floorboards, the variegated colors of bygone seasons are revealed. Your floor might have notes of red, gold, yellow, grey and black, all in the same board. A great way to choose paint colors is to draw inspiration directly from your existing floor, bringing out notes that already provide much of the color in your room.
- Go For Contrast. There are many ways to execute this idea, but it works best for floors that are very light or very dark. A floor that’s a consistent medium grey will look great in a room with colorful walls, or just plain white. If your floor is a light beachy brown, a deeper, richer color might provide the balance necessary to keep your room from looking too “Washed out”. The one thing you probably do not want to do is choose a wall color that is the same as or similar to that of the floor. This effect tends to make people feel a bit claustrophobic in your room, and that, in all likelihood, is not your intent.
- Go With How the Room is Used. Hardwood floors have a specific utility in the modern home. If you chose a hardwood floor for a room because it gets a lot of foot traffic and play, choose colors that will enhance and encourage that kind of activity. If you chose engineered hardwood for your bathroom because it is a natural surface that won’t warp or shrink when it comes into contact with water, choose colors that complement its natural appearance even if they don’t directly “play off of it” in terms of color. Not all color designs are created with a color palette in hand. Some are primarily functional, and that’s completely OK. All American Painting Plus will give you great results, no matter how you reach them.
All American Painting Plus thinks that hardwood floors are one of the most attractive options to go with residential painting or commercial painting. There are lots of options, but fortunately the flooring in your house is a great help in making those decisions. If you have any further questions about choosing wall colors for rooms with hardwood floors, All American Painting Plus would be happy to consult on your paint job.