We love a pale, serene bedroom. White linens, neutral walls, filmy curtains: the whole bit. Somehow it’s just easier to open our eyes in the morning onto a pale landscape. But the bedroom in our new home has dark wood floors, and at first the contrast felt a little jarring. Area rugs in the bedroom aren’t great for the allergy-prone, so we’ve been looking for other ways to make the marriage of dark flooring and pale décor work. Here’s what we found trolling the web in search of inspiration and tips…
This living room works beautifully—in part, we think, because of the brief gestures of black and brown in the artwork and throw pillows. And is it just us, or are the walls tinted slightly blue or gray, echoing the mahogany floor? (The cute dog helps too.)
Here again, subtle dark accents... seems to us that those little zebra pillows on the chairs are working wonders.
The black-framed artwork here makes an interesting geometric backdrop, which plays nicely off the relaxed, country vibe of the white furnishings.
Gray walls are a mid-tone between the dark floors and the pale ceiling. We love all the playful textures in here too—they soften the severity of the dark floor’s effect.
The pops of color in these two spare bedrooms distract from the stark contrast between dark and white.
More inspiration, please! How do you manage to harmonize dark flooring with pale décor in your homes?
Top Photos: Domino
Black accents always do the trick - every room should have them.
view sunan's profile
Wow you are lucky I will trade you my honey colored wood floors for our dark ones! I think everything looks better on dark wood floors.
I like layering shades of whites, with some taupe/grey, cream colors using different textures more organic looking and less sterile. Then some dark dark wood pieces here and there like a small interesting table, sculpture, wood screen. Then from time to time you can bring in a color- purple, pink, red.
Wait are we suppose to make suggestions or marvel at the pictures? Soory just got confused.
I love the grey interior off Design*Sponge
Another good source of inspiration for this look-
http://www.tinekhome.dk/www/inspirationsgallery.htm
view LoriSF's profile
Beautiful. The accents keep the white from being too stark. I think this would work with honey-medium floors too, which is what we have. The nice thing about this floor color is that it hides dirt. I especially love the zebra print pillows. Nice touch.
view housefulloffur's profile
I've always, always loved dark wood floors, especially with pale decor. it sets it off so beautifully and gives a bit of contrast. it make the whites look brighter, gives some depth, and keeps the room from looking beige and bland. on occasion I'll see photos that I like of a room where everything is pale, floors included, but I would never choose it for my house.
view foodefafa's profile
Hmm. I would recommend not using a completely white bedspread, unless it has an interesting texture. Also, using bedside lamps with coloured bases and/or shades also help to balance dark wood floors.
view ahickman's profile
This is a great question as I'm considering painting my floors darker.Why not to add just a few touches of color? a pillow or two and some nice flowers can do the work. Anyway, i looked at houzz and found a few ideas for you:
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/793/list/Dark-floors-with-light-furniture
or if you need more inspiration look here:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/bedroom
Good luck!
view kimmiller's profile
I think you already know -- use some dark decorative accents, even if they are picture frames or baskets. You don't need a lot, but just a few will definitely tie things together.
view SherryBinNH's profile
Beautiful rooms. As cute as that dog is, I think he'd be the reason why dark floors are not a good choice in that room. They look *fabulous*, but I chose light bamboo largely because I didn't want to be constantly sweeping the dog fur. The things we do for the furkids!
view farmhousemoderne's profile
It's the dark floors that makes these rooms work - You couldn't successfully get away with this decor in an apartment with Builder-Beige carpets...
view bepsf's profile
Side track for a minute __ Where can I find that fantastic sputnik light fixture in the top right photo?
view theory_27's profile
those rooms are lovely. for some reason i really prefer a dark bedroom, even in the day time, but i like the look of these
view tabithacat's profile
Oh my... dark hardwood floors with pale decor is my absolute favorite (at the moment). I think the key to making any room or decor scheme comfortable is in creating a balance. Dark with pale, heavy with light, solid with airy, opaque with transparent, smooth with textured, busy with sparse, bold with fragile, etc. The key is also in the measurement of usage from either ends of such spectra. Dark objects have more visual weight than pale ones, so usually a few dark or mid toned accents can balance the visual weight between a primarily pale environment with such a striking contrast as dark hardwood floors. But think outside of just one spectrum. You can also balance color with material, texture, shape, or number. Heavy materials such as stone, ceramic, hardwood, and metal can also add to the balance between light and dark, because like dark color heavy materials have more visual weight (usually). Anyway, good luck, you have a lot of incredible inspiration already it seems.
P.S. As also mentioned before me, small amounts of tint can help break up the monotony of the pale decor as well. Careful not to use overly saturated colors as the contrast with the pale decor can become jarring and create an agitated feeling within the room. Even just using varying shades of white can keep monotony at bay.
view Jesse Lu's profile