Tips for Selecting the Best Flooring Colour for Your Home

Light or dark

With home renovations, flooring choices are some of the toughest choices to make for a couple of reasons. First, there’s the matter of cost; quality flooring can be some of the most expensive components of a renovation. And secondly, your floors – with the exception of vinyl coverings – are meant to be a long-term placement in the home.

Thus, you are definitely going to want to make a decision that fits the budget and ‘helps’ the home, in terms of visually enhancing a small space or grounding a décor style. To help, here’s a guide on how to choose the right floor colours that harmonize with your room’s size, layout, design style, and lighting.

1. Based on the room’s size

When it comes to the size of your home, colour truly matters. The right hues can significantly impact how spacious or compact your home appears, enhancing its overall visual appeal.

Small space - Light-coloured floors such as cream, light browns, and beige can create an airy, uncluttered look. Pairing these floors with light-toned walls enhances the effect, creating a seamless and cohesive look that gives the illusion of a larger space. Case in point: this 940 sqft condominium.

Glossy, large-format tiles, such as square light ceramics and porcelain measuring over 12 inches by 12 inches in light tones are also a great choice for small living rooms and other areas in the home as it reflects light and helps to brighten the space.

Big space - Even with large spaces, it’s not necessary to take on an ‘extremely dark’ perspective on flooring such as black tiles or wooden flooring. Instead, consider richer and deeper natural hues like mahogany or deep walnut for wooden floors. Alternatively, opt for muted neutrals like charcoal or stony greys that can add warmth and create a cosy atmosphere while maintaining a sense of sophistication.

You can also opt for the timeless beauty of deep-hued terracotta floors, as shown in this kitchen.

2. Coordinate with the room’s layout

Open layouts - In open layouts, creating distinct zones and defining separate areas is essential for adding structure and organization to the home. Using contrasting flooring materials or colours is an effective way to achieve this, delineating spaces while maintaining the flow of the design.

Take a cue from this open-concept living room where the designer used different tile flooring to clearly define the dining area, living room, and dry kitchen. A contrasting black border further enhances the separation between zones, creating a sense of structure without the need for walls.

Or take a cue from this terrace where the designer distinguishes the staircase with patterned tiles, while a beige terrazzo floor creates a clear pathway leading to the staircase.

Meanwhile, off-white terrazzo floor sets the dining area apart from the rest of the room.

Closed layout - On the contrary, enclosed layouts work best with a unified colour palette of soft greys, griege (grey-beige), or muted tones. It creates visual continuity, making the area feel more cohesive. To spruce things up, consider using different floor materials (also in light, neutral or muted shades) to create a distinction between one room to another.

3. Consider your home’s interior design style

Your home’s interior design style should certainly play a part when choosing your flooring. However, even with the style narrowing your options, there are still plenty of choices to suit your needs.

Scandinavian or Japandi - Light wood tones such as ash wood, pale maple and neutral tones like white, beige or off white blend seamlessly with minimalist, Japandi or Scandinavian interiors. These tones can add warmth and lend a laid back feel to a space.

Retro or eclectic design - Consider unique colours and intricate patterns (e.g. Moroccan or Perakan tiles) to achieve the artsy look. You may even want to paint your floors in light, glossy block colours (apt for wood panelled floors) or apply geometric or striped stencils to spruce the overall appearance.

Modern and contemporary homes - Opt for neutral tones like light cream, grey, beige, or whitewashed finishes for a clean, sleek look.

Industrial design - Try concrete grey, charcoal or black for a bold look. These colours can work well in open spaces with plenty of natural light or in smaller rooms where you want to make a dramatic statement.

4. Match the room’s lighting

When choosing the best flooring colour, test flooring samples under your home’s actual lighting conditions to ensure the best match. Flooring can look noticeably different in natural daylight compared to spaces that primarily make use of artificial lighting so evaluating it in both settings ensures the perfect match for your space.

Natural lighting - For rooms with plenty of natural light, you have more flexibility in your choice of flooring colour. Medium tones like honey oak, warm walnut, soft chestnut can balance the brightness of natural light, adding warmth and character without overpowering the room.

Dark tones such as ebony, dark walnut, charcoal grey, espresso brown can add drama and sophistication, grounding the space. But do note that it would require more maintenance to keep clean, as dust and scratches are more visible.

If you have minimal natural light, consider using light tones such as white, off-white, beige, light grey, pale maple, ash wood to create a brighter, more open feel. Reflective surfaces, such as high-gloss tiles, can also help to make the room seem larger.

Artificial lighting - Artificial lighting should also complement your flooring choice. If your room has plenty of warm artificial lighting, you can consider golden brown, warm taupe, soft beige, caramel or sandy colours. These tones naturally complement warm lighting, amplifying the cosy and harmonious feel of the space.

Meanwhile, cool-toned flooring like light grey, slate grey or blue-grey, complements the bluish undertones of cool lighting, enhancing the modern and clean aesthetic.

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