If you’re planning on re-flooring your dining room, you’re going to be spoilt for choice. The reality today is that carpet won’t be on your short-list, but wood flooring is highly likely to be right there at the top of your list. So what are the best wood flooring options for dining rooms?
If you have under floor heating in your dining room, then your wooden floor choice will be restricted to engineered wood flooring. This is because solid wood flooring simply won’t stand up to the rises and falls in temperature caused by the direct heat coming from your under floor heating. When solid wood is subject to such severe changes, it tends to warp and bow because of the expansion and contraction it undergoes. It’s for this reason that engineered wood flooring is the only real option for installation over under floor heating. All of that said, there is no need to think of having to choose engineered over solid wood as a restriction, because nowadays, the choice of engineered flooring is so broad.
If there exists or there is likely to exist any humidity in your room, the same rule applies: choose engineered wood flooring. However, it’s well worth investing in reducing the humidity or risk of humidity to a minimum before laying any new floor. And finally, if your dining room gets a lot of direct sunlight, then you really owe it to yourself to at least consider investing in a flooring option that includes a UV filter in its finish, or applying a UV filter after you’ve fitted your floor. By doing this, you will reduce the chances of your floor fading with the light.
Once you’ve got these fundamentals out of the way, you can get down to the fun part of choosing your new dining room floor. You need to consider whether you will choose solid or engineered wood flooring (assuming your dining room doesn’t fit into any of the two categories outlined above).
Thereafter, the colour you’re hoping to achieve will more than likely drive the species of wood you choose. If you’re looking for a specific and natural colour of wood, this will define which species will be best. For example, if you’re looking for beige or honey tones, then your choice is more than likely going to favour oak. However, if you’re looking for a naturally dark wood then the likes of wenge or walnut will come out tops. Having said that, there are some excellent dark wood options now available that have been treated to look darker than they are naturally. It would be foolhardy to let these slip your net because they really are convincingly natural looking and make a real style statement in a dining room.
Most dining rooms don’t have to suffer too much traffic, which is good news when it comes to your choice of finish. By all means you can still opt for a tough and hardwearing lacquer finish for your dining room, but you won’t be obliged to do so. Depending on the furnishings you’re putting in your dining room, it might be a good idea to opt for a nice, aged looking floor to give a bit of historical charm and drama to your space, alternatively, a light and airy white washed floor will bring a dark room to life and will enhance pretty much any modern or bohemian dining furniture.
The size of your dining room will drive to some extent the size of the furnishings you put in it. That said, it may well be that you have a reasonably small dining room but have decided to dedicate the whole space to your table and chairs, leaving little or no space for anything else. When it comes to flooring, you may be tempted when choosing the width of board to stick with tradition. Tradition states that in small rooms, narrow boards are the order of the day and it’s only in big rooms that you can get away with wide boards.
If you’re brave enough, then throw tradition to the wind in your dining room and choose the width of board that you think will look best. Really wide boards can look stunning in a small dining room, particularly with oversized or chunky furnishings. That said, if your furnishings are all antique or period pieces, then it might be best to stick with the likes of a chevron board or a narrow to medium width board to enhance the classic styling.
Parquet flooring is enjoying a significant resurgence in popularity in recent years. At Wood and…