Dark Wood Flooring

The beauty of dark wood flooring. There’s nothing quite as stunning as walking into a room with rich, dark wood flooring. Whether it’s an old plantation style home in the South or a newly constructed penthouse in the city, dark wood flooring can serve as a central design feature of virtually any space. While dark wood flooring is often associated with a more formal look, it can be equally complementary to a more casual setting. Here are a few FAQs and tips from Carlisle Wide Plank Floors that you’ll want to keep in mind when considering dark wood flooring for your home or business.

What wood is best for dark wood flooring?

Almost any species of wood can be used to create a dark wood floor. At Carlisle, we prefer Ash, Hickory, White Oak or Walnut, which is a naturally darker wood. Unfinished Birch flooring or Maple floors which don’t accept stains as easily are likely not the best candidates for dark wood flooring.

Can you achieve dark wood flooring using stains?

The easiest way to get the dark wood color you want is through the use of stains. There are some woods like American black Walnut or imported woods like Wenge that are naturally very dark, but these are rare and costly. Staining is a much more affordable way of creating dark wood flooring.

What are the benefits of dark wood flooring?

Dark floors absorb sunlight rather than reflecting it, so they won’t fade as easily as lighter hardwood floors. Dark floors can add a dramatic contrast to other lighter architectural features bringing focus to things like lighter cabinets are stone fireplaces. And dark flooring can add value to a home – properties with dark hardwood floors tend to sell for more money than comparable properties with light hardwood floors.

Are there any drawbacks to dark wood flooring?

While dark wood flooring will hide some dirt, a room with a lot of natural light may show dust, pet hair and other elements more easily when the floors are dark. Scratches and dents may also be more visible and more difficult to conceal. Dark floors in a very small room can make the space look even smaller. And installing dark flooring in rooms with a lot of dark woodwork like cabinets may start to feel oppressive.

How does dark wood flooring affect the light in a room?

Dark wood flooring will inevitably create a darker feeling in a room, which is why it’s best to consider rooms where there is ample natural light present. Alternately, you can create an interior design that uses lighter paint colors on the walls as well as mirrors and accent lighting to brighten up the space.

Why choose wide plank dark wood flooring?

Wide plank floors, like those from Carlisle which feature floorboards that are up to 20” wide, create far fewer seams in a room and help to balance out the darker color of the floor. A wide plank floor also adds to the elegance and beauty of dark wood flooring by allowing the grain and personality of the wood to be seen and appreciated in each floorboard.

How to customize dark wood flooring.

Once you’ve made the decision to opt for dark wood flooring, your next step is deciding how to customize your hardwood floor. At Carlisle, we offer a number of ways to make your dark wood flooring uniquely your own. • Choice of color. You have a wide choice of stain colors at Carlisle – a nice change from manufacturers that offer only a limited palette of colors. When choosing a stain, it’s important to keep in mind how well the finish will accent the personality of the wood rather than obscure the grain. • Structure of the floor. Dark wood flooring at Carlisle is available both as solid and engineered hardwood flooring. Engineered floors are made with boards that have multiple layers of material glued to a hardwood veneer. This construction enables the floorboards to be more resistant to changes in temperature and humidity, making them ideal for installation in basements, over concrete slabs and on radiant heating systems. • Unfinished or prefinished. Carlisle offers both unfinished and prefinished hardwood flooring. A prefinished floor arrives at your site already sanded, stained and sealed, eliminating the need for messy and inconvenient finishing processes on site. Prefinishing is ideal for dark wood flooring, where the quality and evenness of the staining process is critical. • Texture of the wood. Carlisle craftsmen can apply a number of distressing techniques to your dark wood flooring to give it a sense of age, heritage and character. From adding saw swirls or hand-scraped edges to methods for giving floorboards a timeworn and foot worn appearance, texturing helps to create a warm, historic and lived-in feel for your new floor. • Pattern of the floorboards. Installing dark wood flooring with a Chevron, Herringbone, Versailles or custom parquet pattern can add additional visual interest and elegance to your space.

Selecting the right hardwood for your dark wood flooring.

Carlisle offers a variety of hardwood species that can easily be stained four dark wood flooring. • Walnut floors have naturally dark and rich chocolate hues with complex grain patterns and undertones that range purple to yellow. • Cherry floors have rich, deep red tones and subtle but distinctive flowing grain patterns. • Hickory is one of the most durable hardwood floors and comes in rich cocoa brown and beige hues. As a less expensive alternative to walnut, Hickory is an excellent choice for dark wood flooring. • White Oak floors have dramatic grain patterns and nutty brown hues that are the ideal backdrop for almost any stain color. • Red Oak hardwood flooring has a tight, consistent grain pattern and a salmon-red hue in the heartwood. • Ash hardwood flooring offers a meandering grain pattern and warm color tones and can be easily stained in a variety of colors, thanks to its lack of tannins.

Carlisle: your #1 source for dark wood flooring.

For more than 50 years, Carlisle has led the world in producing exceptional wide plank wood floors for museums, trendy boutiques, upscale restaurants and beautiful homes around the globe. Every Carlisle floor is a handcrafted masterpiece – a one-of-a-kind design feature that will grace and elevate the aesthetic of any space. Our floors are fashioned by New England craftsman with a love and feel for fine wood and a passion for perfection. No detail is too small to warrant their attention; they painstakingly inspect, sand, stain and work each board to produce a floor that lives up to our high expectations – and yours. At Carlisle, the quality of our floors is matched only by the quality of our customer service. You’ll find your journey from exploring all your choices in hardwoods to selecting colors, wood grades, textures and patterns will be as pleasurable and exciting as actually living on your new Carlisle floor.