How Do I Choose a Color for My Laminate Floor? 

Choosing your laminate floor can feel like a daunting task. After all, laminate floors are durable and can last a long time if maintained properly. So, choosing your laminate flooring material can feel like investing in your home with a feature that could affect the aesthetic of a room in your home for years to come. 

So how do you choose a color for your laminate floor? The color and finish you choose should depend on a number of factors, like the long-term versatility of the laminate floor, room style, spatial features and interior design. Consider these factors before committing to one style to decorate your home for years.  

Which Color Do I Choose for My Laminate Floors?

Ultimately, the choice will be yours (and anyone in your household who might want a say in the flooring you install). There’s no one right answer to this: everyone has varying preferences and aesthetics they’re trying to achieve, so what might look good for others might not exactly be your taste. 

It’s not only color you should consider. Finishes and how your floor will look once your room is fully furnished should be taken into consideration when browsing available laminate floors. 

Consider These When Choosing Your Laminate Flooring

If you want to avoid regretting your choice later on, there are a lot of factors to consider weighing. Some of these factors may not apply to you, but it can help you get an idea of the pros and cons of choosing certain types of flooring materials. 

1. Long-Term Versatility 

For the practical homeowner, it might not be a good idea to follow home improvement trends. Remember: trends come and go, but with the durability of laminate flooring, there’s a big chance your flooring will be there to stay for years. This can make it impractical to replace your boards every time you feel like redecorating your room.

Instead of choosing what’s popular now, consider versatile flooring finishes that are likely to never go out of style. Dark and light-stained wood, gray and white washes, and mid-tone wood finishes look good with most aesthetics. If you have floorings like these, your floors will never look out-of-place should you one day decide to go from a minimalist living room and then redecorate it into a modern rustic style years later. 

If you’re the type of person to go all-in and have the time and resources to replace your flooring every time you have the urge to renovate a room, versatility and timelessness might not matter to you. But if you’re the practical type looking to keep your flooring for as long as possible, you’ve got to consider how good the color will look in the long run.  

2. Room Style

Interior design gives a room its personality. So, when you, one of your household members, or a house guest enters your room, what’s the vibe that commands the room? Of course, the flooring is just one of the many ways that can affect the room’s style, but seeing that it covers the entire floor, it’s what will practically tie the room together.

• Casual: For a more casual look, lighter colors and whitewashed finishes are the way to go. Lighter floors give a lighter, less heavier feel than darker colors. It’s minimalist and functional, and it’s the excellent choice for a household that doesn’t want to feel restricted. 
• Traditional: If you’re going for the opposite of casual and want a more traditional room style, go for cherry or dark oak wood laminate floors. Dark floor colors are one of the popular choices featured in older homes, making it ideal for older styles like Victorian or Tudor styles, but with the option to blend old-time traditional style with modernity. Plus, darker laminate floors can be a more affordable alternative to dark hardwood floors. There’s also a certain richness to darker colors that emphasizes less of the floor and more of the furniture and accessories, highlighting the trinkets and décor around the room. 
• Modern: And for something in the middle that’s more modern, go for a medium gray or black floor. Black and gray laminate floors have a simple elegance to it that’s more consistent than light wood or dark wood finishes. It’s ideal for minimalist, Scandinavian, or more modern forms of interior design – especially if you’re going for a room with neutral tones.   

3. Furniture and Accessories in the Room

If you’re redecorating or renovating an existing room in your home, it’s likely that you already have the furniture and most of the accessories on hand. To avoid clashing or creating an eyesore, here’s a good rule of thumb to follow to find matching laminate flooring for your furniture. 

• Bold, bright furniture: If most of your furniture pieces consist of bold bright colors, choose laminate flooring that’s on the darker side, preferably with neutral colors. You’ll want to avoid overwhelming your eyes with colors and patterns, and the flooring is a good place to start. The darker colors contrast colors that pop, compared to lighter flooring that could wash out and clash with the rest of your room.
• Minimalist, simple furniture: On the opposite side, if most of your furniture and accessories are very minimalist and simple and you want to keep your room along those lines, get rustic flooring that contrasts the brightness of your furniture (if you have dominantly light furniture, get dark rustic flooring, and vice versa). You might be considering along the lines of uniform flooring, but rustic adds a bit of character to the room while uniform flooring can make your room look dull and whitewashed.
• Wooden furniture: Finally, if you have many wooden furniture pieces and wooden accessories, avoid getting flooring that matches the color of those pieces. This can make your room flat and boring, and if you want to make your wood furniture a focal point in the room, it can get lost by blending with the floor. If your furniture is a light brown, go for a contrasting darker color, and vice versa. Limit the wood in the room to up to three finishes to avoid overwhelming your view.  

4. Spatial Features 

Your flooring can have a visual effect on the room depending on the color you choose. Here’s what dark and light flooring can do to your room. 

• Light flooring: Light wood floors do not absorb light like darker floors do, which makes it more ideal for rooms with less natural light. Lighter flooring can also make smaller spaces feel bigger, so using light flooring on a small room can make it feel less restricting, good for small bedrooms or areas like the living room or dining room where it might be prone to crowding.However, avoid lighter colors in large rooms with lots of space. A large and spacious living room might be good for a large family, but lighter floors can highlight the room’s bareness if there isn’t much furniture to offset the appearance of a bigger room.

• Dark flooring: Darker laminate flooring, on the other hand, is best for rooms with lots of natural lighting. While good lighting is always a positive feature, lighter flooring in a bright setting and wash out the color of the room. This is also true with light-colored walls, so contrast it with darker colored floors. A dark wood floor is also best for rooms with much more space, especially if you’re on a budget and want to make a room feel less bare.
  If you have a smaller room that’s crowded with furniture and not much lighting, on the other hand, dark flooring can make it look darker and even smaller.

5. Interior Design 

Aside from the styles like urban modern, industrial, shabby chic, and classic luxury, what kind of interior are you hoping to achieve? This is the question you should ask yourself while browsing through your Pinterest board of interior design ideas.

After all, when your family steps you’re your living room, they’re not going to say, “Wow, this living room feels very French country!” Instead, they’re going to think, “Wow, this living room is so cozy!” and enjoy the feeling of closeness when the family sits together in the room. In other words: what kind of emotion or feeling are you trying to evoke with your interior design?

Dark Floor

As mentioned earlier, darker flooring complements a rich interior. Dark flooring is a staple in older homes, making it synonymous with rich, affluent, and traditional feels, though laminate flooring is a less expensive alternative to hardwood floors. These dark laminate planks take the focus off itself and onto the luxurious accessories and furniture around the room.

A dark wood floor is also the perfect contrast to a dramatic room. When there are so many colors, materials, and textures, lighter flooring can make it look like an eyesore. But darker floors tie the room together by providing a contrast. There’s nothing to see on darker floors, so the attention is strategically put on everything else in the room.

Finally, a dark floor can make for cozier rooms. It doesn’t make a room feel small or restricting, but larger rooms with lighter floors highlight the empty spaces of the room. Dark flooring limits what you see, and makes you feel like the room is perfectly furnished without seeing too much empty space.

Light Floor

Light-colored flooring offers a light and casual feel. It’s perfect for calming interiors that welcome your household. Unlike darker wood that gives a more polished, finished feel, light floors feel more natural and organic. If you’re an outdoor person who wants to feel the airy calmness indoors, light wood floors are the way to go.

Lighter floors are also the best choice for those who want a pastel interior. Although we advise against making a room look too whitewashed, there’s an intricate art to pastel interiors that make it bright and lively without looking too faded. How you achieve that is up to you and your tastes, but achieving a perfectly pastel room requires lighter floors to reduce the contrast with the paint color on the walls.  

Colorful Laminate Flooring

Colorful flooring – whether this means getting flooring with a variety of styles and wood finishes or flooring dyed a variety of colors outside of natural wood colors – can be difficult to pull off, but the homeowners who manage to do it end up with unique rooms that excite and inspire. It’s mostly used in rooms where the floor is the focal point, which means it’s paired with mostly minimalist, neutral-colored furniture plus a few pieces to tie it all together.

Colorful laminate flooring inspires energy and movement, making it ideal for active rooms like offices, children’s rooms, and kitchens. It’s also great for themed spaces: think game room, craft rooms, or a man-cave.  

Natural Wood Flooring

More specifically, the mid-toned rustic-grade wood flooring that looks like natural wood rather than planks that are finished to look identical with each other. These planks complement a natural and timeless interior. These types of flooring come with spots rather than a perfect consistency and uniformity; uniform planks may seem too perfect and identical, but natural wood can feel organic. Natural wood flooring is best for busy rooms and high-traffic areas, as it matches the energy of the rooms while also highlighting any striking furniture you have within the room that people might not notice as they pass by. 

Find the Right Laminate Flooring at Zothex Flooring

The color and type of flooring you get will ultimately come down to your preferences. But considering the durability and quality of laminate flooring, it’s best to be practical and choose which best suits the style and interior you’re going for while thinking long-term appeal. 

At Zothex Flooring, we offer a wide variety of laminate flooring types to match your vision. Everyone’s tastes and styles are different, and we cater to all homeowners within the Sacramento-Roseville, CA areas. Visit one of our showrooms today and let our team of flooring professionals help you choose the right flooring for your home.