Wood floors can be expensive to install, but they’re also a gorgeous highlight of the home.
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Although it can limit your options, we have carefully researched 11 great furniture colors to pair with wood floors.
Because different stains can make wood floors so versatile, you’ll need to use furniture that creates consistency with the style and temperature of the wood. You can do this through nature themes, contrast, or neighboring shades of color.
Our top furniture colors for wood flooring include:
- White
- Gray
- Black
- Brown
- Copper
- Green
- Blue
- Purple
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
It’s essential to plan for wooden floors before investing in pricey furniture. Keep reading to learn about the strong relationships that different colors will have with your wood floors, if the furniture should be darker than the floor, and how to match the wood floors throughout your home!
Furniture Colors For Wood Floors
White
White furniture is the most effective and popular choice for almost anything in a room because it’s very bright and opens up the area. Furthermore, white furniture is also a very flexible neutral.
You can use it to balance out the floors’ nature hue, giving you more freedom for the rest of the interior design.
On the other hand, white is so common that it might feel a little boring to some. If your wood floors are ornate with grain or knots, you may not want to smother them with plain furniture.
Gray
Gray is another neutral option, meaning it has no actual color and will work with nearly any design. However, it also has a cooler temperature, which can be necessary for darker wood floors. Also, many types of wood already have naturally gray undertones.
Undertones can often be easier to match with than the surface color. Still, many rustic interior designs include lighter grays and wood, such as cottage or beach house scenes.
Black
This neutral is highly potent, so it is mainly reserved for contrast. If your wood floors are lighter, the furniture will pop. But it can also help bridge the room with darker wood like Walnut.
Using black furniture can even modernize your room because black is generally used to create smooth and tidy lines. It absorbs light and recedes, which is perfect for modern styles that lean towards the simplicity of a minimalist design.
Ultimately, black furniture will soften the effects of a wooden floor. This is useful if you don’t want to be limited by the natural appearance of streaks and knots.
Brown
Generally, wood is almost guaranteed to have a brown appearance or undertone. As such, brown furniture will match any wood stain, despite its range.
Brown furniture reinforces and agrees with the nature imagery of a wooden floor. For example, you can combine these elements to create a homemade cabin look.
It’s also important to consider that this can become overwhelming. Fortunately, there are many shades of brown to play with. Even though it is “near neutral,” brown is often considered similar to the color orange.
You can use its flexible shades and warmth to change the interior design into something exotic or sandy rather than a traditional forest scene. This opens up your home to many other types of inspirations such as Southwest, Mexican, Tuscan, or beach house décor.
Copper
While similar to the near-neutral brown, this option includes shades of red and generally involves some level of gloss. You can pair this with wooden floors to create a more niche room.
You need to be careful that the furniture doesn’t create something too industrial, as that would conflict with the natural wooden floors.
However, you can still use it for unique interior designs like ‘Arts and Crafts,’ intended to feel improvised and creative. Or, you can aim for more direct influences like an Amish or Colonial style.
If you don’t want to make something too loud, farmhouse and country home designs can also welcome copper fixtures or furniture. If the copper furniture is custom, it can pull together that weathered look of a cozy, homemade room.
Green
Green is synonymous with nature imagery and tends to limit your options as much as the wooden floors would.
Still, it can be a great way to introduce color to such a neutral floor and is commonly found in styles that celebrate nature like tropical, lake house, or Asian homes.
But green retains its warmth no matter what shade you use, making it unusually flexible. If you’re worried about the furniture popping too much, you can soften its effects with subdued shades like sage.
Blue
This kind of furniture should be treated like green because both colors share many characteristics.
Blue is also closely associated with nature, such as the sky and the sea. This will strongly agree with wooden floors, and deeper shades like navy won’t be so distracting.
It’s important to note that blue is always a cool temperature, even in brighter shades. You can use this to balance out darker wood floors without creating an overwhelming contrast.
Purple
This is a combination of blue and red, making a regal and loud statement. It is generally cool in temperature, which allows it to blend in with darker wood. It can feel more offbeat and intriguing rather than overwhelming.
Like blue, one could use this for ambitious ‘Arts and Crafts’ interior designs. But you can also find it in Tuscan or Bohemian styles. It often represents dusk or royalty, which can agree or contrast with wood floors.
Red
Many types of wood have natural red tones and undertones, such as Cherry or Mahogany. So, you can use wooden furniture that introduces more color without losing your celebration of nature.
Using pure red paint might be considered too bright, but occasionally works in Southwest, Italian, or Mexican interior designs.
Orange
This is the signature color of a home from the seventies, which may sometimes be considered psychedelic or inventive. However, since the wood will always have some hint of brown, orange furniture could blend in with many types of wooden floors.
Also, the color orange is often associated with a warm sunrise. So, you could use décor to create this natural context instead of anything too bold.
Yellow
This is one of the brightest colors available, and its pale look isn’t for everyone. However, it is also very flowery and can represent the sun.
You can use these attributes to create a garden look for homes with wood floors. This is great for contrast if you need to liven up darker wood.
Do Wood Floors Have To Match In Every Room?
Experts like Rhodium Floors agree that it isn’t necessary for all the floors in your home to be identical. After all, each room will likely serve a unique purpose, which may need a different look. But the floors should always “match” because they are consistent in style.
Matching them from room to room can give you a feeling that the home is more open, but it can sometimes feel a little boring. Then again, you don’t want more than two to three different types of wood flooring. Otherwise, your home can begin to look too cluttered.
Should Furniture Be Darker Or Lighter Than The Floor?
It is usually considered best for your room to use brighter colors as you move upwards. This means that your furniture should usually be brighter than your floor. This makes the foundation feel more stable.
But sometimes, you will want to showcase your furniture more than the flooring. That may be the case if the wood is too knotty or damaged, if you’re going to move away from natural imagery, or if the furniture was a significant investment.
So technically, you can make the furniture darker or lighter as you see fit. Just make sure the colors remain about two to three shades apart to avoid visual redundancy.
What Flooring Goes With Oak Furniture?
Oak is one of the more expensive types of wood because of its durability. So, you may want this to be the highlight of your room instead of the flooring.
If both are wood, you’ll need to work with the naturally warm temperature of the common types of oak, white oak, or red oak. You can use wood stains to brighten up a wooden floor that is too dark for these purposes.
View this wood stain on Amazon here.
To Finish
Although a wooden floor can be tough to install and maintain, it’s a beautiful addition to any home. Now that it’s clear what type of designs each color will produce with wooden flooring, you can freely coordinate your furniture to create the perfect house for you.