One of the elements that drew me to my current apartment was the dark, stained hardwood flooring. It produces a level of elegance and contrasts very nicely with the light colored walls. I quickly learned that keeping dark floors in tip-top condition is a constant effort. In a way it's a good wake up call to see just how much dust and crumbs accumulate unnoticed on my floors. In addition to the dust, my light hair sheds onto the floor, and stands out in sharp contrast with the dark wood. I can only imagine what adding a fluffy, white dog to this equation would do.
White flooring can contribute to the Scandinavian aesthetic we love. It's crisp, pure and very fitting for an environment where cleanliness is crucial, like the kitchen. Lighter surfaces reflect more light, producing a better lit environment. However, in the same way dark surfaces highlight the lighter dust, dark stains can really stand out on a white floor.
Each extreme can be absolutely stunning, but each comes with its own challenges. What problems have you encountered with dark or light flooring? Which palette would you choose if you had your pick?
DARK FLOORS:
1. House & Home
2. House to Home
3. BHG
4. House & Home
5. Real Living via Poppytalk
LIGHT FLOORS:
6. Desire to Inspire
7. 79 Ideas
8. Nicety
9. Hus & Hum via Kitchenisms
10. Planete Deco
(Images: as linked above)
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If you put a white or lighter colored floor in your kitchen you have to be out of your f'ing mind. It shows every speak of dirt and hair! We recently moved and I have white tile in my kitchen and it's the bane of my existence. I have to sweep and mop everyday and it still looks disgusting even after steam cleaning. DON'T DO LIGHT FLOORS! You'll regret it even if it looks like a nice design choice
I have light floors throughout my current home and I love the look. Next time, I may choose dark floors but that's mainly because we like to adopt black rescue dogs. (They're the last to be adopted)
Mine are medium, I have vinyl tile that resembles a lovely green and brown slate. It's comfortable underfoot, and the pattern is great camouflage for crumbs -- not that I don't keep the floor clean, of course!
Well, if people want our Scandinavian floors may I suggest you adopt our Scandinavian habits and stop using shoes indoors - dragging in all of that dust and dirt?
Plus, unlike the pictures above, most people I know have a rug of some sort in the kitchen. Like this:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mxj-MT55imY/TisK_L5hM_I/AAAAAAAAA5g/5JjMJg8cYts/s640/tils.jpg
http://husohem.se/Images/HOH/Cache/708/0/20951_hus15.jpg
http://sverigesradio.se/diverse/appdata/isidor/images/news_images/4101/2393569_520_292.jpg
You can wash them in a normal washing machine and they stop eventual spills (breadcrumbs, herbs, flour or whatever) spreading through the room.
I think somewhere in the middle is best. Dark shows dust around the edges and hides spills...I'd rather see what dropped than step in it. We have dark brick colored in our rental and I hate it. Everywhere else we've lived has been some kind of light linoleum with pattern or speckled and it was always easy to manage. I can see flat out white being an issue but something with a pattern and a little darker would be my pick.
Though the first one looks great for the photo with the rugs(black rugs are a REAL nightmare), I would go with number 7 in this batch of floors to live with.
I have mostly white floors with blue diamonds, quite nice looking to be honest, but they DO show crumbs, and eventually dirt (like under my mid century cabinets that don't go all the way to the floor).
I have to literally get down on my hands and knees with the sponge and clean periodically or it gets grease, dust and general grime coating them and will look nasty, as is just about every other surface in your kitchen.
If anything, white will yellow as grease, dirt and dust adhere to the walls, just from cooking.
White, at least reminds me, I DO need to tackle the floor more periodically and should about once a week.
I once lived in a vintage studio with a very cute, but functional kitchen from the 20's, with no exhaust fan of any sort and my apartment faced a gravel parking lot below and had a window that I kept cracked year 'round pretty much, so my floors would turn gray after several days and bleach/watcher (or ammonia and water) were my friend when doing the floors as plain water would not always do the trick.
That said, use rugs to catch those items that fall will help.
I would probably do something in the middle of plain white, or black in my kitchen.
B from Stockholm, you don't have kids and pets there? We don't wear our shoes indoors and still get plenty of dust, dirt and all sorts of stuff (doll hair, glitter, crumbs) Rugs don't hide everything. Thankfully, it doesn't really bother me. I like both dark a flight, but have light in my house.
We put in a darker wood floor in our house when we moved in b/c like many we loved the tone of it against white walls. Never again. Next house gets a neutral wood. Maybe a real pine tone. We had that in plain old laminate in our old condo and it didn't show 75% of the dust and dirt that our dark wood floors do.
I have white parquet floors in my kitchen - bleached with "white lye" made by a Danish company and sealed with something called "master oil." When I bought my apartment, one of the first things I did was rip out the crappy old linoleum from the kitchen floor to reveal the original wood floor of the building (and don't even start with me about asbestos - I had cut out small samples and had them tested)), sanded the floor and refinished it.
I absolutely adore the result. The wood grain still shows through - in sorta grayish streaks - I personally think that adds to the beauty, and since the floor isn't a uniform shiny white, it's very forgiving to specks and spills.
@B from Stockholm: Funny that you should mention rugs - as it happens, I also have a small rug next to my stove and sink. (A sort of light graying one that I bought for just a few bucks at IKEA a few years back and couldn't find a place for... but it works beautifully in the new kitchen). And, yes, wearing shoes indoor is my pet peeve, just the thought of it makes me shudder.))
Have to say, though, that dark floors in some of the pictures look terrific, too.
Of course we have pets and kids here (though sadly my cat recently died). And naturally all homes need to be cleaned. Personally I vacuum and mop all floors once a week, and my kitchen isn't really any dirtier than the other rooms btw.
It still makes a huge difference from the people and places I've known abroad where they walk around in shoes and bring in things from outdoors - possibly cleaning less often just because the floors are seen as unclean anyway. I much prefer to be able to walk barefoot directly from bed to the kitchen when I make my tea in the mornings.
I had a black lab and now a chocolate. My floors are dark brown wood except in the kitchen where I haven't replaced the white vinyl. I will go dark because it hides the pet hair better and will create a more continuous look in my small house. I would never again have white in the kitchen. I sweep daily and run a damp sponge every few days and neither the dog nor I wear shoes in the house. It still always looks dirty to me.
That sounds lovely AnyaNYC - my big hallway mirror has a wooden frame that my mom bleached with lye and it looks just like your description.
I hear the same thing far more often about dark floors than light floors. Our white tiles don't show stuff that well- maybe because they're a matte finish? Dust doesn't show on the floor and I probably sweep and vacuum less than the average person. Our dark countertops however- everything shows on those.
Light all the way. I have checkered light yellow/white Marmoleum floors in my kitchen and while they do show dirt and crumbs, I'm in the school that would rather see them and clean frequently than not see them. I have 2 kids and a husband that are good about the no shoes rule, though.
In my loft, I had painted wooden floors (built in 1909, they were in no shape for refinishing) I had various colors over the years, and for a few of them I had everything in there white...including high gloss white floors. I used to repaint the white pretty much once a year to keep it looking fabulous. The white floors were the worst...not only did every spill and crumb and hair show, but the odd guest shoes would leave black streaks on the floor, I guess from rubber soles ? and I had to get down on hands and knees with Comet or Simple Green and a sponge to get it off. I finally painted a medium tone high gloss battleship grey, which was great with everything. But the best thing I ever did in the kitchen was track down old stock, in 3x4 foot sheets, of the kind of rubber flooring they used to install in hospitals and other industrial buildings...you know the kind, with off-white streaks in it. Mine was black. Not only did it look fabulous and both modern and old fashioned at the same time and hide all kinds of mess between easy clean-ups, but if I ever dropped anything it bounced instead of breaking.
That light colored wood and/or laminate you have shown looks like it would be ok, but I strongly advise anyone considering white tile with white grout. The former owners of our home put that combination in a powder room and one huuuge bathroom, and it is absolutely impossible to get clean. It always looks a bit grungy (or very grungy, depending on whether the dogs tracked mud in, etc.), and this is after trying to scrub it with a toothbrush until I wore all the bristles off, then giving up and hiring a professional to clean the grout, and it still looks grey/beige in places. One day I will rip it out. One day....
But my mom has had off-white birch-look laminate in her house for years (a bit like Pic #7), and it always looks nice, even with big dogs running around. No grout + a slight variation in the appearance due to a light pattern makes it relatively easy to keep clean looking.
Visually, I tend to prefer dark floors. I prefer all the top pics over all the bottom ones. In our house, we mostly have a mid-toned wood, and terracotta tiles in the kitchen, and both are almost disturbingly good at hiding dirt.
Artfemme11, I'd love to know where you got that, and what it's called.
Don't people find they trip over rugs in the kitchen? I always assumed I would, but maybe I'm just more clutzy than most.
My point exactly. Yes it helps, but des not in any way fix the problem. Floors get dirty, no matter your habits. Adopting a no shoes policy won't keep your floors clean. We have a no shoes policy and I still walk on crumbs and many other things when I get my tea, fix my children breakfast, bring in my dog from her morning soak in the sun. I disagree people clean less with more mess. Cleaning habits have more to do with personality than circumstance in my experience. I'm sorry about your cat.
I'm in the middle : my kitchen floor is grey lol !
I had my carpet replaced all through my home with light wood floors thanks to all the design shows and articles convincing me they were fabulous,and I HATE them!Not only did they cost a bloody fortune,and a week long job ended up being 3 weeks,but I now have dust bunnies floating around constantly and I could grow corn in the corners! I went from vacuming once every week to 10 days to having to swiffer EVERY day.And I heartily miss my black and white tile floors in my kitchen!
Love the look of the dark floors, but I love my golden retriever more, so all of our flooring matches him. Works well when his shepherd/lab cousin visits, too, as well as the little nieces and nephews.
I really like the dark floor/light cabinet and counter top combo. I'm over the dark granite look, and this is a good way to go for a fresh new style.
It's interesting that so many folks will clean when something *looks* dirty. The thing about having a white floor, I've found, is that it shows me just how untidy I've been in the past with my mid-tone kitchen floors. I now have a home that came with white tile in the kitchen / hall / bath, and I have a black rug in the kitchen. Still trying to commit to a hall/bath runner colour. Black's maybe not the best choice for 'hiding' dirt, but it's a kitchen and I would prefer to know when my floors are dirty. So I keep a vacuum nearby and I clean my floors when they're dirty.
My living room/dining/bedroom are in mid-tone hardwood (walnut) and I find I let them go a bit longer before I clean them. But I prefer to go about barefoot in my home, which really helps determine vacuuming needs.
What about light and dark together? Our neighbor's kitchen is dark Marmoleum with white streaks. Think the color is called "graffito". Seems like that would camouflage a lot. We have white vinyl w/ black squares, and it is constantly filthy. Between dirt tracked in from the dog and food spils, we can't keep it clean for more than a few days.
Years ago in my SF studio apartment I had a galley kitchen where the floor was about 3' x 6'. I laid down a seagrass mat from Cost Plus World Market over the 1920's linoleum, and it was fabulous! Cheap, didn't show dirt, was soft to walk on, and crumbs fell through. Every once in a while I'd lift and shake it, sweep the floor underneath, then replace.
Dark is me
I love the look of a dark floor and white cabinets. I personally hate carpets where I eat, crumbs and bits of food don't get on the floor but still end up on the carpet so what's the advantage? With no carpets I can unleash the roomba with minimum effort whenever I need to.
dark OR light = bad idea! (unless you like to clean A LOT!)
I guess I would choose dark if really had to--but I am a middle-of-the-road kinda gal. Right now I have red oak plank floor in a natural finish. The floor is original to my 1920s house...and it is AWESOME. The varied wood grain and color hides everything from flour to coffee grinds. Sure the wood is [chamingly] beat-down from decades of traffic--it is full of dings and scratches...but that character is really fun. I do have a fairly large kitchen rug (washable rag rug) and with the tractional pad underneath it isn't very menacing in terms of tripping...it is more of a color pop than a practical consideration.
Ha--I have a black-and-white checkerboard linoleum floor in my kitchen. I like the look but I have the worst of both worlds! It *never* appears clean.
Funny, I have very dark floors, and I would say the same thing about them! I have all the same issues, and the constant (pointless) sweeping/mopping just about drives me out of my mind! I love the look of my flooring, but no matter what I do, it really never looks quite clean. Maybe the key is to pick more of a medium shade, and not go with either extreme?
I agree. I much prefer wall to wall carpeting for the same reasons.
For me, dark stained floors "ground" the look of our rooms (mid 19th c. Italianate house). I had them a sort of honey color the first time around, which I found undistinguished and boring. And Oriental rugs look stunning against darker wood. I like a lighter floor with a more modern decor as everything seems to "float", but that's not my look.
As for "showing the dirt" that just means one doesn't mind dirt as long as it doesn't show!
I so totally agree.
I have travertine floors. I love them because they are so easy to keep clean, and even spilled coffee blends in to the motif! So if I'm terribly busy one week, my floors aren't screaming out to be cleaned. I also use a dyson which makes the upkeep even easier.
I badly want dark flooring throughout my house. I am not a fan of white flooring. However, I do plan to adopt a grey tabby Scottish Fold and a pair of Great Pyranees. Yikes. I suppose I'll have to give black cats/black dogs a second consideration.
So I'll be moving into a house with a kitchen that has black AND white checkerboard floors... here's a picture... anyone have any ideas on a better wall color? http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8204/8206474899_3796c2d4f1.jpg
Where do you purchase the small apartment sized pink refrigerator?
I would put a small island and a natural rug to break up the pattern of the floor...Remove the cornice to update the cabinets...and paint the walls a pale grey/w/a slightly green hue..I have added a website that has some great pics...Pic #3 has the paint color...Have fun redecorating!
http://somereallyneatstuff.blogspot.com/2010/09/checkered-floors-favorite-thing-2.html
More ideas :)
Also...I would remove the mini-blinds and put Roman Shades in either grass or Cloth...
Remove cabinet knobs (paint cabinets if you can) Go with something low-key subtle that doesn't draw attention...
http://www.countrycurtains.com/product/040248664+thermal+cordless+roman+shade.do.do?code=WG020248&kwid=
Use your accessories for your color...go neutral with everything...it will look fabulouis