Living Room Colors For Dark Wood Floors

How to Style a Home with Dark Wood Floors

Posted on June 23, 2017 July 29, 2021

Dark wood floors can look incredibly chic in a home and can create a stunning backdrop to your furniture and walls. They do run the risk, however, of making a space feel too dark or heavy when paired with the wrong colours or furnishings. How do you get the balance right? Here are our tips on making the most of your dark wood floors and how to make every piece you choose work beautifully to create a sophisticated home.

Combine with White Furniture

dark floors with white furniture

In my own home, we have dark stained floorboards throughout and so I keep the look high-contrast with white furniture and light coloured rugs. The white rug and pale grey walls lift the dining room and keep it from looking too dark.

Combine with Bright White Walls

Use the same dark wood colour for your furnishings but keep your walls brilliant white as shown in this bedroom photographed by Emily Beetleshack for The Beetle Shack. The low platform bed blurs the line between furniture and floor and creates what almost appears to be a floating structure. The walls are kept crisp and bright for a minimalist boho style.

Go A Few Shades Lighter

mantis light living room

For our living room above, the Mantis furniture range is styled on dark wood flooring, showing that it's easy to mix wood colours when styling around darker floors. The mango furniture matches the warmth of the wood floors but creates harmony by going a few shades lighter. So, if your flooring tends more towards black or grey, pale and weathered wood furniture may work best but for darker, warmer floors as above, consider medium and light tone warm wood furniture.

Choose a Bold Rug

Make a feature of your flooring as a dark backdrop to a bold rug choice. Here a stylish kilim rug draws the eye and turns this entryway photographed by Lena Corwin for Cup of Jo into a stylish first impression. The gallery wall uses varying shades of wood frames pick up the warmer colours in the rug, creating a welcoming view in a small space.

Consider a Transition Shade

In the same home as seen above, the medium grey kitchen cabinets act as a soft transition colour between dark wood floors and crisp white tiles and walls. This look can be replicated by choosing a paint colour in a neutral that is a few shades lighter and matching the undertones in your dark flooring under the chair rail and then using a paint colour a few shades lighter again above the chair rail.

Contrast with Pale and Interesting

original rustic living room

If you are afraid your dark flooring is too heavy and crave a light, bright space, consider combining furniture in medium wood stain like our Original Rustic range above with pale colours and soft pastel accents. Choose a light coloured rug and paint in a soft greige and contrast with soft textural accents in your cushions and accessories.

Embrace the Dark

And finally, one of the biggest trends this year is dark cocooning interiors as seen on Eclectic Trends for Dulux's colour trend report. If you have dark flooring, consider creating a cosy effect with a dark wall colour. Choose shades from deep indigo, emerald, slate grey or black and choose light or medium wood accents, warm metallics and neutral textures for an intimate room, perfect for relaxing in the evening.

How will you be styling your dark wood floors? We'd love to hear from you on our Instagram, Facebook or Twitter!

Kimberly Duran

A Social Media and Content Marketing Editor, Kimberly Duran is an Interior Design-obsessed American ex-pat, who chronicles her decorating journey in her personal blog, Swoon Worthy. When she's not helplessly drooling over blogs, design sites and adding things to the imaginary 'shopping basket' in her head, she likes to get messy tackling DIY projects with her partner in crime, Wayne, stalk eBay for bargains, take Instagram pictures of her cats and invest time in her on-going love affair with gold spray paint.