There are several trends in hardwood flooring that have grown over the years. One of the most interesting and dynamic trends has been the trend towards dark, bold colors of hardwood flooring. By any measure, the darkest and boldest color for a hardwood floor is black. Black floors for a very long time were considered to be untouchable. Marble might be black but never wood. However, that’s changed. If you want to get on the black hardwood flooring trend, you need to know a few things. There are some considerations.
Gloss or Matte?
There are a couple of ways to end up with a black hardwood floor. There are black hardwoods but they’re fairly expensive and hard to come by. You could also paint the floor black but that’s not common either. The most common method is to stain the floor black with stain. Then, you need to have the floor sealed with a polyurethane finish. When you finish the floor, you’ll be able to decide between gloss, semi-gloss, and other sheen levels all the way to matte finish. Which is best for black hardwood floor?
In general, the higher gloss finishes tend to look better on black hardwood floors. However, there’s major caveat. High gloss finishes show off dust, dirt, and scratches much more quickly. So, unless you’re cleaning your floor every other day and choosing a very hard wood that won’t scratch, you might want to stay away from the glossiest finishes. A satin finish is a good compromise. Matte finishes tend to look a little dull with dark hardwood flooring.
Pure Black or Just Dark?
There’s also some debate about how black you want to go with your flooring. When natural woods such as ebony are said to be black, they’re usually a very dark brown. They have black tones but they’re not as black as car tires, for example. However, you can stain your floors that dark. They’ll look unnatural but very sleek and modern. In contrast, a more natural black will be a very dark brown with black notes. It won’t be as dark as a pure black stain but it will be more subtle. It will also stand up to dirt a little bit better. Since dust is not going to be pure black, it’s going to contrast against the color of the floor. The darker the floor, the more noticeable the dust.
These are two major considerations, and they’re basically just style preferences.
