Wood floor stain - Light or Dark?
 

In my quest to finish a house I’m building, I’m looking for opinion on wood floor stain. The wood is just standard white oak. At this point I’m indifferent. I like the look of both the light and darker stains. My cabinets are dark (shaker style). Everything except the bathrooms will have wood floors.

If the room is light, I would go darker. If the room isn't very bright, lighter.

assuming dark cabinets then most use light granite or counters so I would go for the Dark. The two dark just look classier and the light seems like it would be dated sooner for me. The only hick up for me would be potentially finishing the whole house in the same color. I guess you could always get throw rugs to lighten it up or darken it up but six to one half a dozen to the other.

+1 dark

dark

beautiful kitchen BTW

Adam :I have dark floors at the Lake House and Light Floors (bamboo) at the other house. Dark floors look great But they show every single crumb or speck of dust. If you can get away with light floors I would say go for it but If it's going to change the look of the house to much I guess keep the dark.

BTW The new Dyson Digital slim has been a Awesome tool for keeping the floors clean

^^^ Agree. The darker the floors the more the dirt/dust shows. I just re-did mine with a darker flooring and I am amazed at how much everything shows on it.

I’ve had some of the same concerns about dark…showing dirt. I have two dogs ( boxers) and pet hair is a concern. If I had lighter cabinets, the dark floors would be an easy choice to me...despite the extra cleaning. I’m leaning towards dark right now.

The main counter space is a lighter polished granite, while the island is a darker honed quartz. My original thought was that if I go dark and it feels to dark, I’ll have the island painted a lighter color.

My builder has this weird thing about lighting…he likes to minimize shadows in the house, so he adds lots of lighting ( artificial). This house doesn’t have a lot of windows, and the biggest windows face north/south. The entire west side of the house has no windows. It’s a three story house right outside of downtown (very small lot)

If you have pets I would go light for sure. Pet hair and dark don't mix

A mix is also possible as the color contrast really makes the hole room pop!Here are a couple of pics of our floor while we were redoing our kitchen area.We ended up going with a lighter stain on the cabinets[light mustard]and earth tone granite countertops.

Yhea I would go something in the middle. Something warm and/or combination. Dark will show everything like the above says and can drive you crazy.

We have dark (Pecan) cabinets with light (hickory) floors and lighter (cement) counters and we are happy with it. Our last house we had dark floors, white cabinets and black granite and we prefer the new look. the new floors are much easier to keep cleaning looking.

I don't have any full pics from when it was finished but you can see the floors in the bathroom and how it goes with the kitchen.