Oak is a beautiful wood often used for interior trim, so you may want to know what color flooring works best with it. For your convenience, we created a guide on beautiful floors that work with oak trim and why they work so well.
Consider the following gorgeous flooring colors to go with oak trim:
- Natural oak floors with similar colored trim
- Vary the colors of your wood stains between flooring and trim
- Cream-colored carpet with oak trim
- Sand-colored tile with oak trim
- Add a blue area rug
- Add neutral textured carpet or rugs
If you can't visualize these combinations, then you're in luck because we have examples to show you what we've found. We'll also discuss whether or not oak is considered a dark or a light wood, if your baseboards should match your flooring or your trim, and what flooring goes well with hardwood trims. Let's get into it, shall we?
Great Colors For Your Floors When You Have Oak Trim
Wood is such a warm material, it's no wonder so many people love the look and feel of it. If your home has oak trim that you don't want to paint, we've found some floor color options for you. From the warmth of natural hardwood to the sumptuousness of wall-to-wall carpeting, you're sure to find an option that suits your home.
Go With A Similar Color Oak For The Floor
For a really smooth transition between your flooring and your trim, consider installing or staining hardwood floors to match your existing trim. Here, a light yellow-toned oak floor has nice variation and graining to add interest while still going really well with the oak trim.
Vary The Colors Of Your Oak Trim And Flooring
Another approach to take if you love the look of wood is to vary the stain colors between the floor and the trim. In this elegant home, the trim is stained a deeper richer color, while the floors are left light. Though if you notice, the flooring has some natural variation in the wood tones that do pick up the deeper tones of the trim.
Cream-Colored Carpets With Natural Oak Trim
Carpets are a great way to get color on your floor if you have wood trim. Here, a really light neutral cream color is beautiful with this wood trim. Light-filled windows and accent colors of blue along with blue wall color round out the room.
Sand-Colored Tile With Oak Trim
Tile is another popular choice for flooring. This light sand-stoned tile with some inlay of darker russet-colored tiles is a really nice flooring with this reddish oak trim.
Soft Grey Carpet With Darker Grey Walls And Oak Trim
This great basement space is cozy and homey. They've kept the nice oak trim but updated it with medium gray paint on the wall and a soft grey wall-to-wall carpeting. It's the perfect combination for this gaming and play space.
Add A Blue Area Rug For Color With Oak Floors And Trim
Because hardwood trim is so often laid in conjunction with hardwood flooring, what should you do if you want color but not wall-to-wall carpeting? Area rugs are a great way to go. Here we see a lovely textured medium blue rug as a nice counterbalance to the lovely oak flooring and trim in this vintage home.
A textured rug like this and the one in the photo above give a nice detail to break up a bunch of wood tones. It will be comfortable on your feet but also easy to change if you want a new look. This one in deep navy is shown here in a 5' x 8' size, but is available in other sizes, too.
Click here for this rug on Amazon.
Textured Seagrass Flooring With Light Oak Trim
For the ultimate in a natural look, we've got this gorgeous interior. Textured seagrass flooring in a calming beige looks phenomenal with light oak trim and doors. Here it's run as wall-to-wall carpeting, but you could easily substitute a large sisal, jute, or raffia area rug instead. Using an area rug adds a bit more flexibility to the space.
Here's a lovely 5' x 8' area rug out of woven seagrass. It has a casual feel and a coastal cool vibe. The edges are nicely hemmed and the texture will feel great on your feet.
Click here for this rug on Amazon.
Is Oak A Light Or Dark Wood?
Oak is one of the most used hardwoods in furniture and flooring. As far as tone, it falls somewhere right in the middle of hardwoods. Ash, beech, and birch are very light in tone. Cedars and cypress fall more toward the middle, whereas walnut is one of the darker tones of wood.
With oak, you typically have white oak and red oak when it comes to flooring and trim. Then each of these two species can be stained a whole variety of colors. White oak is usually lighter and has a soft yellow or grey undertone. Red oak falls more toward the medium end of the spectrum and has reddish-orange undertones.
Should Baseboards Match Flooring Or Trim?
Baseboards technically are trim, but some people may choose to paint their door and window trims a different color. Overall, the standard with oak is to either paint the baseboard and the door trim but perhaps leave the windows and doors natural wood. You can also paint it all or leave it all natural.
Because the baseboard often meets the door trim at the floor level, if they are not cohesive, you will have a line of color delineation that, depending upon the room, might look odd. Do keep in mind that once you paint over hardwood trim, it's a whole lot of work to undo it.
What Flooring Goes Well With Hardwood Trim?
Deciding on flooring for hardwood trim is really no different than deciding on flooring for painted trim. You can choose hardwoods, stone, vinyl plank flooring, tile, or carpet. All of them work well with hardwood trim so it's truly a matter of aesthetics. What's going to work right for your home?
Hardwood floors are certainly the most expensive proposition, though some stone and tile may be equally costly. Carpet is inexpensive but is a relatively big deal to change out if you get tired of the color. Vinyl plank flooring has really come into its own in recent years and is both attractive and cost-effective.
However, the contrast between real wood and synthetic wood might be too glaring. You'll just have to put them side by side to see if it works for you. Be sure and check out the photos in the post to see if something resonates with your style.
In Closing
Now that we've explored the best ways to match your oak trim, we hope you're inspired about your own home. Area rugs are by far the most versatile flooring choice, while hardwood floors are perhaps the most traditional. Either way, keeping your trim in its natural oak state will create a home with rich, old-world charm.
If you enjoyed this post, please check out a few others we think you may enjoy below:
What Color Rug Goes With Wood Floors?
What Color To Paint An Oak Staircase?