I am so glad you posted this question! My daughter chose "Sambuca" bamboo floors (from the Ty Pennington Collection) and they are *almost* black, but not quite. There is also a wee bit of shading in the planks. Her room is painted a deep red. We have still not purchased furniture...I am stumped as to what will look GOOD in there! Black? But isn't that too dark? I dunno...I will await answers on your thread!!!

(Glad to know I am not the only one with this question!)

I have walnut stained solid oak hardwood floors in my home as well as walnut trim throughout. I have a mix of ebony (2 pianos) and cherry furniture. I agree with sameboat that dark wood floors go with anything and everything. Of coarse there's the odd white washed piece or light oak piece; a complete mix of stuff. All my pictures are framed throughout the house in a similar manner.

I agree with sameboat and sandra, treat the floor as a seperate thing of beauty, don't try to match it, in fact don't even think about it. It should stand on it's own.

I love the dark wood floors also and was thinking on placing them in my dining room and study. It has dark furniture, wouldn't that be just too too dark. Don't want rugs anymore.
Also, don't dark wood floor show all the dust and cat hair?

yes, dark floors do show everything, I will admit it. Especially if you have shedding dogs. When we had our hardwoods done I wanted as dark as possible but we kept it the shade lighter than ebony called 'spiced something' lol from a company called Duraseal. They look great but are a maintainance headache, I have very pale walls and lighter colors which compliment the dark floors I think. My kitchen is white and black with these hardwoods as well. My theme is black, whites cremes and grays, burgundy and pink and the dark looks wonderful.

Dark floors do show more dust and dirt. But it's like anything else of beauty--it's a tradeoff. And while our medium dark floors show more dust, I still get by with a weekly cleaning. And I prefer the dark floor. A polyester blouse may be more easy care than one that is mostly cotton, but I prefer the natural fiber and am willing to spend just a little more care for a nicer looking finish.

Most of my furniture is dark. It look great with my floors.

Red

We have walnut stained maple floors and most of our furntiure is dark. We have lighter area rugs under the dark furniture. I love dark floors, mid tone wall colors, really makes the white mouldings pop.

Our floors are pretty dark (Minwax "Provincial" stain) and our furniture finishes are all over the place.
Maple Kitchen Cabinets
Black Kitchen Island
Cherry Dining Room
Mission Oak recliners and kitchen table/chairs

I like wood. All kinds. I don't worry too much about it.

I have Oak finished in Mocha with dark furniture. I didn't have an updated pic but you get the jest of dark on dark..

I am glad to get some input! I guess when we find furniture that we all like and agree on, we will just know that it will look fine in her room.

Oh, and YES, the dark floors are awful maintenance wise! Thank goodness they are ONLY in DD's room. We did put a big, bold patterned area rug in her room to help. We have a white, long haired chihuahua and there is always hair showing on the dark floor. Oh well, wouldn't trade the floors OR the chihuahua! :)

Thanks!

Thanks everyone! I love sameboat's analogy of dark floors being like great jeans!

I guess I need to figure out if I'm able to do the upkeep of dark floors.

Thanks again!

So glad to hear these posts. I have been going nuts trying to figure out what color floors to get, because I have dark walnut pieces in my living/dining room (small NYC apartment with dark walnut coffee table, dining table and chairs, and TV stand), but my couch is light gray leather and the two living room chairs are pale yellow leather with a burnt orange and white area rug between them. Sounds like I can get away with dark floors.

Well hope I'm not too late but....we installed Brazillian Walnut in our kitchen and dining room and we've been really happy with it. I don't have the problem of everything showing on this floor any more than on the oak we have in some other areas. The planks have some variation in color so maybe that's why. This is a very solid hard (like teak) wood. We got it at Lumber Liquidators (Bella wood) and installed it ourselves, but they have installers they can recommend too (if you don't have one already).

The first is a more recent pic, the floor is 10 years old. One huge plus with this particular floor is that it is not stained, it's this color all the way through so it will always look like this. When the time comes all we have to do is lightly sand it and revarnish. No staining involved.

Furniture wise, our house insn't real large, so we just have pieces we love, an old farm table I've refurbished and an old cabinet both painted white. I don't think a floor type necessarily limits you, especially if it's wood.

Thanks a million. I love the pictures of your floors. You've been very helpful. I was going to go with bamboo or eucalyptus, but I will check out the floors at Lumber Liquidators before I do anything.

Glad it helped, with what you've described, I think it might work!. I stained the table in a walnut and the seats of the chairs are in a walnut color too, so it or something like it, might be a good option.

I am so confused... I have a 2 story and I am putting wood on steps and all upstairs. Kind of sick of brown... Want a little grey in the floors too. Do i go dark or light. I have light wood furniture in one room and cherry wood in another.

I think the gray floors can be very pretty, but I also see them as a trend that will eventually become passe'. If you're tired of all the brown, you might consider going blonde with the floors and incorporating the gray through paint, accessories and/or even furniture pieces. IE all those are all items that can be changed a lot easier than changing a floor.