Trends in Flooring: Light Hardwood
Thinking about adding light hardwood flooring into your home? Go for it! Light hardwood floors give your home a more modern feel.
Here in the Midwest, many homes built prior to 1990 featured few windows, lots of small boxy rooms, and dark floors. While energy-efficient, this dated design style makes everything seem small and close.
Today’s homeowners want open floor plans, plenty of natural light, and natural materials to brighten their living space. Walls are coming down to create great big rooms, skylights and bay windows are being added, and replacing dark and medium-toned hardwoods with lighter woods gives rooms an airy, open look.
Replacing busy wallpaper with softer, lighter, and neutral wall colors help reflect natural light. White painted brick and sheer window coverings matched with lighter furniture complete the look.
Light in the Kitchen
Ask any chef and they will tell you food looks more appetizing on white plates. The light background makes the textures and colors of the food stand out. We are seeing this trend extended to everything in the kitchen.
Light-colored floors are paired with traditional white or more modern, stainless steel appliances. Even smaller rooms look more expansive and bright with lighter woods and laminate. The neutral floors work with almost any color cabinets, but especially with this year’s hot kitchen color, grey!
Use Neutral Colors as a Foundation
Sometimes people interpret light color schemes with sterile and impersonal, but that’s not the case with these elegant light hues. The neutral tones allow the furnishings and accents to take center stage giving you the flexibility to complement the floors and express your personal style.
Not all light-colored rooms are the same. Neutral rooms create a terrific canvas for your design style. Here are just a few ways you can use these light tones.
Calm and Contemporary
This muted contemporary pallet transforms your living room into a relaxed space that doesn’t overwhelm the senses. Black adds definition and depth to designs while white and the different shades of blue bring a sense of calm which mellows out the space.
Simple accents of pale wood and gold tie the room together, and live plants bring a fresh feel and a pop of color to the space. Some people find the contemporary pallet a little cold. If your tastes run toward a casual, more lived-in style, you can add warmth to your light-colored rooms with earthy colors and elements.
Modern Rustic
Light, raw wood colors create the homey feel of the modern rustic style. These match with muted greens and grays that serve as a supporting cast to the richness of lighter plank flooring. Dark metal and heavier wood accessories pair with overstuffed furniture and comfortable blankets made of natural fibers and in colors more likely to be found in nature.
Modern, rustic rooms tend to contain more accessories, giving the room a “lived-in” look. And, as with the contemporary rooms, live plants complete the room.
Looking for more inspiration? Invite Tish Flooring to bring the best of our warehouse to your home. In the meantime, be sure to check out our inspiration gallery online.
