Wooden floors are beautiful, hardwearing, and versatile. That’s why many homeowners love installing timber floors for their new homes or while renovating old floorings. However, choosing timber floors is an overwhelming task, especially choosing between dark and natural timber floors.
Both dark and natural timber floors look stunning and have unique appearances and characteristics. If you can’t decide between the two, we are here to help you.
Dark Timber Floors
These are stunning timber floors that are generally achieved by staining. Staining helps enhance the appearance of timber floors and can also completely change the look of your wooden flooring. It is the easiest way to add contrast and more drama to your home. It also helps you achieve a particular look effortlessly. In fact, staining is the perfect and most affordable option if you like to keep up with the latest design trends in timber flooring.
If you don’t like dark stains, you can also go for limewashing for a milky white or greyish appearance. So, with staining, you can easily pull a traditional or modern look.
Dark timber floors are more flexible and are available as prefinished floorboards in a variety of styles, colours, designs, sizes, and patterns. You can also choose to stain natural timber floors to achieve a more personalised style that matches your interior. Stains are applied after sanding and polishing and then finished with a protective coating. Dark timber floors are also highly durable and looks in good shape for many years.
Dark timber floors are excellent choices if:
- The rooms are bigger
- You like a vibrant and dramatic look
- You want to imitate the look of an expensive wooden floor species
- Your house has good natural lighting
- You want to match the wooden floor colour to the walls and furniture
- You want to change the appearance of your existing flooring
Natural Timber Floors
Natural timber floors are timeless timber flooring options. They are highly desirable if you love the natural look and warmth of raw timber flooring. They look absolutely gorgeous and suit all kinds of home and interior designs. Their main beauty is their raw appearance— their natural grains, marks, veins, and knots. Natural timber floors require just a protective coating such as water-based or oil-based polyurethane to protect the top layer of wood from scratches, wear and tear and water damage. You can also enhance the look by adding a matte, gloss or satin finish depending upon the level of sheen you would like on your floorings.
If you have exotic wooden species, leaving them in their original form is the best way to showcase their beauty. It provides a beautiful depth and unique charm to your rooms. In Australia, there are tons of beautiful and exotic wooden species, that includes Jarrah, Tasmanian Oak, Blackbutt, Rose gum, Bluegum, Cypress Pine, Brushbox, Grey Ironbark and Spotted Gum.
Natural timber floors are also easy to clean and require low maintenance. You can maintain and protect the look of your natural timber floors for many years by sanding and polishing them whenever needed. We recommend only professional timber floor sanding and polishing to prevent any permanent damage to your floorboards.
Natural timber floors are excellent choices if:
- You have smaller rooms
- You love the rustic and bold appearance of raw timber
- Your house has dark walls and dark interior detailing and furniture
- Your house has no natural lighting
- The rest of your house has natural timber flooring
- Your timber species is not suitable for staining
No matter what you choose, make sure they fit your budget and style. If you need our help, contact our team at Stanton Flooring to help you get started.