7 Colours and Stains of Hardwood Flooring Preferred in Canadian Homes

7 Colours and Stains of Hardwood Flooring Preferred in Canadian Homes

The popularity of hardwood flooring has been consistent, owing to the many advantages it offers such as durability and timeless elegance. Most importantly, hardwood can be refinished over the years, and you can use a different stain or colour to alter its look.

Here we have compiled a list of stains and colours preferred in Canadian homes for hardwood flooring. Toronto has some of the top flooring stores where you can find the trendiest shades of hardwood.

Tips to Choosing the Right Flooring Colour:

Let’s say you visit the local flooring store and come across an array of varied hardwood finishes and textures that are trending but are entirely different from what you had in mind. What will you do? Here are some tips to find the most suitable colours and stains out of so many products:

• The wood’s hue should complement your home’s overall colour scheme.
• Opt for a style that you find pleasing to your eyes, even if it is not the latest trend.
• Consider the stain, texture and finish together to visualize the result.
• Your home’s architecture plays an important role too. For example, natural, and light warm tones of wood are more associated with a traditional home, while dark and cool toned flooring are considered for modern style homes.
• Maintenance and cleaning requirements vary depending on the colour, and texture of your floor. If you are hard-pressed for time and cannot frequently give time to cleaning and maintenance, choose a colour variant that will camouflage the dirt, scratches and debris easily.

Popular Colours for Hardwood:

The following are some of the trending colours that you will come across.

1. Dark stained

As the name suggests, the wood planks are stained using darker colours to impart a rich and luxurious feel to your home. Look for options like espresso, Jacobean and dark walnut to give your floor a rich dark brown, or greyish black hue. Oak hardwood flooring is an ideal choice if you want to stain the wood since this species absorbs darker stains easily. While dark floors are very stylish, there are some pitfalls of this trend and unless you are willing to take some extra caution to avoid them, this is not the right option for your home.

• True black and dark tones tend to make dust and debris more prominent and hence one must regularly sweep and dust the floor.
• It can make your room look smaller so it is not the best choice for small homes.

2. Grey blends

Grey is a growing trend in home décor, including flooring. Homeowners seeking the best hardwood flooring often ask for gray-based stains for adding the final touch to their floor. These days, it is blending browns with grey to get a greige look. Certain darker hardwood with a tinge of grey indicates a mixture of this colour with shades of ebony, espresso and dark browns.

The prime advantage of grey and greyish tones is they are versatile and neutral, making them perfect for creating a backdrop to almost any colour scheme you can think of.

3. Blonde/natural

Homeowners trying to create a fresh and airy ambience in their home, prefer light warm tones. The blonde wood colour is a versatile choice and goes well with contemporary as well as traditional and rustic-style homes. It also makes the room appear large and open, making it a good choice for smaller homes. The availability of different light-coloured hardwood species in Canada give you ample choices such as oak, maple and ash.

4. Whitewashed/bleached

Like true black which is an extreme shade of dark hardwood, whitewashed or bleached wood is the extreme version of light-coloured wood. It is an 80’s trend that has been revived and modernized. The whitewashed flooring available today are matte and more subtle. It is an excellent choice for farmhouses. Whitewashed or bleached wood has the beach-vibes and ideal for homeowners who are in love with the coasts.

Modern whitewashed wood shows signs of wear and tear artistically, imparting a worn-out look to the floor which is a popular trend. Bleached wood is ideal for creating a casual interior and works well when you use white oaks and red oaks for bleaching or whitewashing. The mineral streaks in the white oak gets accentuated creating a contemporary look, while the prominent graining of red oak creates a more traditional whitewashed style.

5. Caramel

Caramel is a richer and warmer version of blonde wood, ideal for homeowners seeking an option that is easy to maintain and universally complement any décor. It gives you the advantages of extremely light-coloured wood and blondes, but at the same time is warm enough to add some colour to your household. Another advantage of caramel -or honey tones is that it’s the natural tone of many hardwood species and is easily available. Hence, it will not need to undergo any additional staining and finishing process to achieve this tone. In short, it is a classic tone that has a timeless appeal.

6. High variation

As the name suggests, high variation floors are achieved by using wood planks of varied colours, generally belonging to the same colour family. Hence, there is an overall synchronized appearance once the hardwood flooring installation is complete. Since, no two pieces of wood look alike in nature, the idea is to make your floor look more natural and closer to its original state. The overall result is a very bold look. With such a specific aesthetic, if you have reselling the home in mind, it may or may not work out.

7. Griege

Greige refers to a combination of grey and beige which yields a much different shade than flat gray. In flooring, a tinge of grey with brown or beige stains create a perfect griege tone that can be used in any room. This colour has a rustic charm but can also work for modern and contemporary households as well. Homeowners who find grey too flat for their home can easily choose greige which is equally versatile but contrasts better with bold colours.

Hardwood flooring stains and textures have evolved a lot over the years. If you are in the GTA, you will find the latest trending stain options at local stores in Toronto. Flooring solutions to find the best colour of hardwood largely depends on your personal preferences. Keeping the above-mentioned colours in mind, you will be able to better search for what you want.