It depends on the color of your local soil as to what the floors will show from dirt. Dark will always show dust though, as dust is mainly dead skin cells floating around.

We have red clay.

I'm worried about the light dirt, does anyone know how dark you can go to not see the light dirt foot prints...like they just walked through drywall dust.

"Housekeeping rule #37: there are two kinds of dirt...light dirt which is attracted to dark things, and dark dirthich is attracted to light things."

LOL, love this. So true.

Go as dark as you want to, and then just buy a Roomba.

If you are worried primarily about Dust, you can't go much darker than a light maple.

My last place had ebonized oak, and we Swiffered it every single day.

We put in dark espresso floors in one of our houses. It looks great clean but shows dust, dog hair, foot prints, moisture, etc. easily. I'd keep it fairly middle of the road with some variation if you are concerned with this. The sheen probably factors into this too.

A matte natural maple won't really show dust. Other than that, all will show dust, quickly. So, dust them.

I have natural white oak right now and it's good for hiding dust unless I forget to vacuum under the TV console for several days and then I can see it building up under there.

However my habits are to vacuum every day. We just had a bunch of walnut laid down which is obviously much darker but with my every day vacuuming i'm not to worried about it.

If you're gauging it on what's going on now, and you're having your floor installed, I will tell you it gets better. I had wood floors in the house I remodeled last and I kept saying, I'm never having wood floor ever again! (Well, that and no stainless steel appliances. UGH!) But once I finally finished any drywall work and painted, no more dust. I say stain it a dark cherry or mahogany color to go with that red dirt.

LOL at Annie's rule!!!! I say that about my cats. I have one with light fur for my dark clothes and a dark one for the light clothes.

This post was edited by rob333 on Thu, Jun 26, 14 at 9:15

Currently we have oak floors that were refinished last year. They definately show more than they did when they were finished natural but I have two cats, two kids and a messy dh and can go a few days in between cleaning without going crazy seeing dirt. Mostly notice dust and cat fur, not dirt. I actually find our light kitchen tile looks much dirtier sooner. We are also a family that takes shoes off when entering the house so i am sure that helps. The stain was 75% dark walnut and 25% Jacobean. Nice medium brown without any red/yellow undertones with the grain picking up the dark chocolate tone. Hope that helps

Cool, super helpful comments....We are thinking about dark walnut, so your comment happyvalleyhome is very helpful. I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to sweep floors several times a day to keep them from looking horrible. :)