Color doesn't matter when it comes time to clean.

It's a matter of how much dirt you want to keep on your floors...

Medusa is so right. Very light and very dark floors are horrible to maintain. Medium wood floors or speckly, earth colored tiles are great...or you can do what my brother did, and take a sample of your pet's fur with you and match it to some carpeting.

After spending one week in a white floored vacation rental, I can say with confidence that white floors show dirt very quickly...more quickly...'I don't want them in my home because I would have to clean them constantly' quickly.

white floors are a pain.

I had white TILED floors, which seemed easier to take care of than pure white - the gray grout in the middle seemed to help ease the white expanse. I wouldn't have picked them, but they weren't bad.

Now we have brown speckled linoleum in our kitchen and bathrooms. We call it "orange river rock." It's the ugliest thing I've ever laid eyes on, but I think that apart from the stickiness, you'd never even know if you didn't mop it for a year. We do mop it more often than that, just for the record.

brave little toaster - that's awesome - the sample of pet fur. I'm laughing so hard.

The white epoxy floor in my loft is great. Its easy to clean up and difficult to damage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liquidstereo/634684280/in/set-72157619104070876/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liquidstereo/3380367193/in/set-72157619104070876/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liquidstereo/4173471088/in/set-72157619104070876/

Having worked in a retail environment with glossy black and glossy white, the glossy black was worse. The black shows EVERYTHING from finger prints, dust and smear marks. House keeping had to constantly dust and wipe. White does show dust bunnies and darker colored debris, but at least you didn't see finger prints and the swirly marks.

Think of it this way. What's easier to keep clean a white car or black car.

OMG!! The sample of pet fur!!! I think I might need to do that next time I buy floor covering... and couches... and bedding... and chairs... and clothing... What an ingenious idea!! I love it!!!

My dark floors kill me dead. I feel like I could spend a lifetime sweeping and mopping and they'd still look dusty and hairbally.

Pet fur and dust would be big decision makers. Living in Arizona, when I sweep it's mostly dust. Add a white cat in the mix and dark floors are a pain. Maybe if I lived in the South without a cat they would be easier...

I think dirt shows more on highly relective surfaces.

Having lived in a 900sq ft studio with black white checkered tiles (former retail space)...the white showed scuffs from shoes / black rubber often, while black showed every little speck. I'd go with black, easy enough to clean dust, scuff marks much harder, and I'd end up scrubbing off the wax, making it worse.

i have a dark slate floor in my kitchen, and it is sooo difficult to keep clean. even though i love the look of the floor when it is clean, i doubt i would willingly go with dark floors again.

I don't know about floors, but I recently had grey/black countertops installed in my kitchen and that was a GIANT mistake. It shows everything. And I mean everything. I almost with I was back with my old 50s pink laminate.

SeanG- love your place.

Both black and white are more of a reason to not wear shoes in the house, black shows more scratches and white shows more scuff marks. Even with regular hardwood floors there are the same issues and need to be kept clean.

You see a lot of white floors in commercial high traffic spaces in Japan that are spotless, that is because they are constantly cleaning. The average American wants a flooring material that hides dirt.

I am thought about painting my old beat up and patched hardwood floors white [for a swedish look], but now I think i maybe won't. By the way, i bought my sofa to match my solid grey cat, so only the cat hair from the other one shows, which is good since the grey cat thinks of the sofa as his.

I would go with black, easier to sweep specks of dust, litter etc than removing scuff marks

I've never had white, but I have very dark, shiny wood floors in our house now. Everyone who sees them for the first time oohs and ahhs, but I don't like them. Maybe if they weren't shiny, it would be better. A drop of water catches dust as it dries and shows up as dirt. If I could do the floors over, I'd go w/ something in between very light and very dark.

I once lived in an apartment with a black and white checked vinyl tile floor in the kitchen. Compared to the white tiles which showed drips, cat hair, etc., the black tiles always looked spotless. Without a doubt, I'd take black over white. But hardwood (which is what I have now) is the best.

I had ebony hardwood and it was nightmare to keep clean. you could see every dust bunny. now I have walnut stained hardwood and I love it, the color hides EVERYTHING!

Heee, @brave little toaster, I love the matching the carpeting to the pet! That cracked me right up.

I wish this was an actual poll, so that even though of course mid-tones and patterns win, which one is more difficult to keep clean could be determined.
Although I did notice that the color and quality of dust can differ so greatly I guess the answer is always it is more complicated.
1. metal framed black paned windows that open onto an urban street =BLACK dust
2. quiet road, all wood interior, radiated heat = skin colored dust
3. next time I am getting a single color cat, no more of this shedding dark and light hairs! :)

brave little toaster's brother is genius

I've had white (painted) floors in my kitchen for about 3 years. So easy! Every other week I mop them with Windex. Boom. Clean.Fab.

I dunno... I've seen some white-painted floors that were pretty scuffed and worn yet still looked good, just more rustic/funky than shiny/pristine. If one stayed on top of dust bunnies, spills, etc., couldn't white wood floors be relatively -- note I say relatively -- easy to maintain? Someone give me some hope here. I beg you!

I love the pained wood floors in the fifth photos with the bed. Dreamy.

My black floors show dust and footprints (from bare feet; too hot for socks in the summer) horribly. However, they were barn red and covered in white splatter from the walls when we moved in, so I guess they're an improvement... I feel like white would actually be better, so long as you stick to a no shoes inside rule. In either case, get a Swiffer!

Love my ebony floors. They're shiny and they do show dust pretty soon - but mainly because our place is pretty dusty to begin with. My white tub shows the dust on the rim too. My carrara tiles, on the other hand, never look dirty even when there's a pile of hair on them...

I have a Bona fluffy mop in my kitchen and it takes about 10 minutes to run through the whole house with it. Small price to have fabulous floors that I love with a passion and constantly get compliments.

Just cover your entire floor with either sawdust or hay and you are done. And I mean done. You might have to replace some of it if you bleed a lot but otherwise, you're done. No more maintenance

I appreciate being able to see that my floors are clean... I actually like the reminder of being able to see the dirt on the floor.

So, works great with my very dark wengle-like floors, but the rubber floor in our kitchen is black with 2 shades of grey and off-white speckles -- it hides the dirt a little too well for my liking.

test

I am renovating my loft in the Village and installing dark ebony floors. This will be the beginning of my shoes off when you come in policy.

http://noholoft.blogspot.com/

it's all taste, but a friend had very deep, dark floors, and it showed every speck of dust. At least white wouldn't show that.

I would assume either would be a nightmare to keep clean, but if I had to choose, I'd go with white. We used to have white appliances and now we have black, and I feel like I can see everything on them, it drives me nuts. I like our medium wood toned bamboo floors.

Anything with a high gloss finish is harder to keep clean than a matte finish, whether it's black, white or somewhere in between.

Who doesn't love the Womb Chair? Never seen it in gray before but it looks great.

Mike
http://www.sexyfurnishings.com

I used to have shiny black flooring with pretty white speckles in the kitchen. It NEVER EVER looked dirty, no matter what! The only problem was that when I swept the floor, I couldn't see where the crumbs and dirt were!

loved this house very much would not change a thing in it except maybe the two plastic chairs in the living room though they give a spot of colour to the place they are not the same quality as the rest of the furniture and it bothers me a little . The kitchens both are marvelous . love the white flooring and the black flooring may not be so practical but when kept clean it is beautiful .

I have dark brown tile and white tile in my house. The dark tile hides quite a bit, the white tile, nothing. Always looks dirty, even five minutes after mopping it.

As a child, I fell in love with the ebony floors in John Wayne's character's house in "Donavan's Reef." In all these years since, I've never had a chance to have them. Maybe I didn't miss too much.

White at least will hide dust, so I say black is worse. My parents had an entryway with beautiful dark slate that was horrible for always looking dirty, so even a matte, dark grey can show dirt pretty horribly. Any sort of variation or pattern helps the eye not see - stripes, flecks, grain, etc.

@Kim924, I agree, I think some people confuse the shine or gloss and the color. Anything glossy will show a lot more dirt and marks, mate finishes will be more forgiving.

That said, I do like the look of both black or white floor and not to be snobbish, but if I could afford it, I'd have someone clean that floor for me! Problem solved!

we have darker laminate flooring (a dark brown) and it shows everything. dog paw prints, my birds pellets. i vacuum every single day and they always end up looking dirty by the end of the day. they are nice looking though when they are freshly mopped and the dogs haven't gotten to them yet. though it is worse in the spring when everything is more wet.

I think a lot depends on how much of your life (or budget, if you hire help ;^) ) you want to spend on cleaning. I am willing to clean floors once a week, every other week for bedrooms, max. We have hardwood in the living area, and we don't wear shoes in the house, but we do have pets, and that's about as long as it takes for the dust bunnies to become life sized, and action must be taken.

With pure white or pure black floors, especially shiny ones, I probably couldn't stand it and would never have down time from maintaining my house. Not worth it to me. (Although I do love the look if somebody else is maintaining it!) Seems to me the really hard flooring like stone tiles stays cleaner longer -- texture (painted wood) holds more dust.

I have Ebony Bamboo in the bedrooms ad I regret it fairly often. While dust no doubt will be around regardless of floor color, my floors always seem to look streaky and dusty, even after JUST cleaning them. Very frustrating!

Thanks for the kind comments. I find that white epoxy is quite resilient and therefore easy to care for. One thing that makes it easy is the no shoes indoors policy.

Dirt/dust does not show up on the white floors.

I moved from an apartment with horrid white marble tiles with light grey veining - it never showed up dirt, but you could FEEL the grit under your bare feet. So gross.

I currently now live in a studio with wide planked hard wood floors stained a very dark dark brown. It shows every strand of my dog's fawn-coloured fur and every speck of dust, but for some reason, when I walk on it, it doesn't feel dirty.

I guess for me, if it looks dusty, but it doesn't feel gritty under bare feet, it's the lesser of two evils.

We have white laminate - it looks beautiful but shows up all dust and hair (I have long brown hair...) - would prefer a light brown.

I have had a white kitchen floor, and now I have dark mahogany genuine imitation hard wood floors, and the dark is far worse.

With a white floor, you Wet Swiffer, and you've got a clean floor. With my dark floors, I have to dry Swiffer, and then Wet Swiffer, but with a slight mist of water on the pad because the floors can't get wet, and then they need to be polished with a towel to make sure they are dry and to make them shine, and it's a constant problem. It has to be done every single day. I live in a high rise. By the time I get to my apartment, I have walked on plenty of deep carpet to clean my shoes. I don't know where all this dust is coming from. And if you touch the floors with pretty much anything, they scratch. That used to torment me, but I have found an old fashioned brown magic market covers the marks.

I wish I had my red and white oak floors back. They are so forgiving. I had them throughout my townhouse two dwellings ago, even into the kitchen, and I was spoiled rotten. They showed nothing.

We have black granite tile in the bathroom, and it's amazing how much TP dust gets shed on the floor below the roll...

I wouldn't have a white or black floor. I prefer taupe (which is what I have throughout my home). Still looks good even when it's filthy.

At least a white floor wouldn't make the house look like a cave. Floors and ceilings shouldn't be black...too stark.

Sean G, where do you go for epoxy floors? I love the way they look, but don't even know where I would start!

Begging for advice!
We have put in our carrara bianco marble floor. Everything looked fine, but unfortunately, one tile cracked and had to be replaced. I had the contractor put in a new tile, but it appeared very grey once it was installed. Since then, I keep tile shopping to find matching marble, but everytime it is installed, it appears dark grey. But not before installing!
What is going on??? (we've now changed it 4 times)

Roomba is a wonderful solution for these situations. I love mine and it does a better job than any of us in the house ever could. Sweeping doesn't take care of all the dust, and swiffing everyday isn't energy efficient. Just set the Roomba free! :)

Your brother's idea is fantastic. Wish I could do that but I have black and white pets.