As with any natural product, wood flooring colours vary enormously from wood type to wood type and from species to species as well as within each species. To put this into context, planks taken from the centre of an oak tree will naturally take on a different colour than planks taken from the outside of the tree. What’s more, the older the tree, the denser the grain of the wood and the darker the colour.
Wood is graded according to its quality and appearance and one of the considerations when grading wood is the colour and consistency of the grain. As a rule of thumb, higher grades of wood are higher priced, but at the same time offer more uniformity of colour. Prime grade wood for example offers a highly consistent wood flooring colour, whereas select grade, natural grade and rustic grade each have colour variations as part of their inherent characteristics. If you choose a rustic (or country style) grade of wood, you should expect a varied range of wood colour, which, for the right look isn’t necessarily a negative characteristic, but may not suit everyone’s taste.
The result of these natural differences in wood, means that it’s rare to find two floors which look the same in their natural state. Just to confuse matters, there are now techniques to alter wood colours so you can choose from pretty much every colour you can imagine. Wood flooring colours range from pale blondes to black in the natural hues and from reds, to greens, to blues and to yellows if you’re prepared to choose from artificially coloured options.
Natural wood flooring colours range from light maple and beech tones to walnut and ipe which are almost black in their natural state. Ironically, modern interiors might call for the lightest of woods or the darkest, whereas a country style or rustic interior design would normally involve a more golden, reddish colouration to complete the look. Irrespective of your choice, you can be sure there will be a wood flooring colour to meet your needs.
Colouring existing floors as well as choosing pre-coloured wood flooring is now a really popular choice when it comes to interior design and styling. This is where wood flooring way out performs most other flooring options. With a wooden floor, you can start with one colour and change the colour to your heart’s content to match your furnishings or to follow fashion.