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chihuahua6

Wood floors how dark can I go?

chihuahua6
13 years ago

I am going to redo the kitchen on my new house. I want to put in prefinished wood floors in a medium/dark walnut color in a satin finish. I know very dark floors show dust and footprints but I'm not sure at what depth of color this becomes the case.

Does anyone have medium to dark wood floors in their kitchen that are not a hassle to maintain?

Comments (22)

  • User
    13 years ago

    We have Brazilian walnut in a satin finish. I don't find it difficult to keep clean but it's only my DH & I.

  • rhome410
    13 years ago

    We have Brazilian Cherry and I hate them. Not only dust and pet hair shows up like crazy, but any, even the finest, scratches show up as white on the darker surface. Ours are less varied than Lukkiirish's, and I think that makes a difference. Those shown in the photo are also look much lighter than what I'd usually expect for walnut or Braz Walnut.

  • User
    13 years ago

    Well, I used a lot of lighting to show the variations in color but our floors are actually a little darker than what's shown. You can see another picture of them on the Lumber Liquidators website because that's where we bought it. It's identical to what's shown in the photos.

    The thing about this flooring is it's not stained, the coloring you see on the surface is what you see all the way through the plank. When or if we ever need to finish them, we'll just have to sand and varnish. When finished, they'll look exactly the same as they do now. Scratches, dents and imperfections don't show for this reason. Brazilian Walnut is very dense, not a soft wood at all. They were difficult to install, but overall, we've been very happy with them.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Lumber Liquidators

  • transitional
    13 years ago

    We've got brazilian walnut from LL as well but we have slate in the kitchen. You can get an idea of how dark they are and how dirty thy can look in these pics. I love them. I have a lot of windows and dirt and pet hair does show up easily but i use microfiber cleaning 'mop' and I'm planning on getting the steam mop.

  • rhome410
    13 years ago

    It's not the wood that shows light in the scratches, as our Braz Cherry is solid, too, and the scratches aren't that heavy. It's the finish on top of the wood...Because the wood is dark, the scratches look light in contrast. Dents and things don't actually show, except at a certain angle and if a finicky dh is in search. ;-)

  • chihuahua6
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Wow both of those floors are gorgeous! I really like the satin finish on yours Lukkiirish. I was thinking of going even darker than that to contrast with the cool beigh (or warm gray) walls. Someting like this maybe which is a great price at $2.99/ ft. It has a satin finish and the handscraped might help hide dust?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Virginia Mills Sable Birch

  • User
    13 years ago

    rhome410 - got it. We don't have a lot of scratches, but haven't seemed to experience that problem with our floor. Could be the lighting I guess, maybe we just don't seem them in our lighting. Sadly, we don't have a lot of windows and lighting in the kitchen and the dining room has been updated. (yet ha!)

    chiluahua6, that is a very pretty floor and the hand scraped seems to be popular. I personally didn't care for it, but that's just me. One question you should probably asked, is if it can it be refinished without ruining the look?

  • chihuahua6
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I actually prefer it not to be handscraped but price is a huge factor here. I don't want to go over $3.00 a sq ft so I can't be overly choosy. I am hoping to get something that will not need refinishing (or replacing) for a least ten years. I'm not worried about refinishing at this price point. Beggars can't be choosers I guess.

    Here's another more affordable option which also has a 30 year warranty. I thought the Virginia Mills product was better though as it is thicker and has a thicker wear layer. I also know their finish is very durable. Either way I will be testing out samples for durability before I buy.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Schon Creme Brulee

  • User
    13 years ago

    If cost is a huge factor, have you considered buying unfinished oak and finishing it in the stain you want?

  • chihuahua6
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Yes I have considered finishing the floors ourselves but we are moving from another state with four kids and seven dogs (6 Chihuahuas hence my username ; ) and trying to redo the kitchen, install flooring and paint some rooms hopefully by the end if the summer. So between the chaos of moving and time constraints I figured it would be much easier to go with the pre-finished floors. They hold up better with our family too based on past experience.

  • melindy
    13 years ago

    We have a medium dark(gunstock is the color, I think) handscraped pre-finished hardwoods throughout the house and I absolutely LOVE them. It's probably the best decision of the remodel. It's only slightly wavy, so not rustic looking. The aluminium oxide finish is tough. While there are scratches on the floor, they are not really visible unless you look for them. We have 5 dogs and live in a dusty area. In a previous house I had oak hardwoods that were refinished. You could see new scratches almost immediately. I think the satin finish and slight surface wave makes these floors look great all the time.

  • User
    13 years ago

    If you're looking for durability, prefinished Home Depot has some Oak in a stain close to gunstock in the price you're looking at but the varnish is higher gloss. I have this floor throughout the rest of our home's first level and it's a great floor. Hides, dirt, difficult to scratch and is wearing very well. My friend put it in her house as well, 7 kids, 1 dog, very active, also very happy with it. You might be happier with the color of it too since it does show dirt less easily than the darker floors.

    Plano Marsh by Bruce, 2.99 pf.

  • redroze
    13 years ago

    Our red oak floors are stained a medium/dark brown...definitely more dark in the nighttime and more medium coloured when it's daytime, although they come across as super dark in most of my photos. Minor dust and footprints have never been a problem with our floors, I think because we did the satin finish rather than a glossy one. Dust bunnies on the other hand do show, but that's after a long period of not vaccuuming...and they show on our blond coloured birch floors in our master bedroom as well. We had golden hardwood floors for a couple of years and I honestly find that the pleasure we get from our rich, dark hardwood floors now overrides any worries about cleaning, so you need to decide what look you want and whether cleanliness or look is an overriding factor.

    This photo gives a good sense of the darkness of our floors.

  • xc60
    13 years ago

    We have medium dark handscraped maple and the color is in between the first link the OP posted and the the photo redroze attached. I do see the floors get dirty quickly by dust and foot prints. They are also in a satin finish but the floors need to be washed almost daily to look good :(.

    We almost went a very dark espresso color in the home we are building but after 3 years of our medium dark floors we know better with a house with kids and pets. We are going lighter this time, I do so wish the darker floors stayed clean longer as I love the look but not the maintenance.

    I would choose the wood in the OP's second link. :)

  • berryfarm
    13 years ago

    Another vote for oak. We are getting solid, 3 and 1/4" width, pre-finished oak. The stain is saddle oak, just a bit lighter than gunstock. It is not hand-scraped, but has a rustic finish, think "factory hand-scraped". The finish is not glossy at all, has the aluminum oxide finish. If--and when--it scratches (due to 2 boys, their friends and a dog), it will blend in to the rustic finish. Dirt will prob not show much, which is a bad thing b/c I will procrastinate with sweeping it. The brand is Kraus and the collection is Madeira.

    Melindy--it sounds like we are getting almost the same floor, except yours is a little bit darker!

  • melindy
    13 years ago

    Berryfarm, it does! I hope you will love it. This pic was early in the remodel. Most likely I hadn't cleaned the floors at all. These are the 2 little dogs, but I have 3 bigger dogs, and one is a very sheddy yellow lab mix. I also like that these are 5" wide. We also have a very good amount of natural light. The satin finish and slight wave keeps the floors looking cleaner than they are!

    Initially we had looked at a smooth espresso engineered wood as it looked so elegant. Then an acquaintance mentioned that she had ripped out all of her dark wood floors as it showed every dog hair and piece of lint. She went with decorative concrete. We have that in the kitchen, entry and both baths.

  • mdmc
    13 years ago

    We chose Mannington in their Herritage collection. The color is Clove. The planks are 5' and they are slightly distressed. I love them. Yes you can see the dust but I think that will happen with most hardwoods. That being said I love my floors. I was more concerned with scratches, but with the distressing is really does not matter. Here is a pix:

  • bmorepanic
    13 years ago

    I would suggest going to an actual floor supply place to buy your wood. I just got unfinished yellow birch - just about as hard as oak for the new enclosed porch for $1.35/sqft.

    I really second NOT using a hand-scraped floor in the kitchen. And particularly advise against a dark floor that is prefinished. All of the beveled edges will accumulate food crumbs and dirt that will seal down with each fluid spill. All of the hand-scrapiness will make it difficult to clean because of the narrow twisty surfaces. A regular mop can't even clean it. There are some lovely vinyls that look like dark wood, but you can clean them.

    As Rhome said, the finish scratches will be white and nearly impossible to refinish. In your case, if the scratch is deep enough, the wood under the stain will show through and its nearly white.

    And, in the end, it will look just as manufactured as any other wood floor. Been there, done that, never again.

  • chihuahua6
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for all the pics and opinions. Please keep them coming. Lukkiirish I saw those floors yesterday on sale at Home Depot for $2.69/ft! The color is similar, maybe the same. I am definitely considering using that even if it is a bit lighter than what I had in mind, it's a great value for solid floors and they can be refinished at a later date.

    Beautiful floors Melindy and mdmc. Thanks for the pics, makes deciding even more difficult.

    Redroze I have seen your kitchen before and absolutely love it. Your floors are the color I had in mind.

    bmorepanic those are some good points you bring up. I rarely let crumbs accmulate on my floor though. I'm actually pretty fanatical about having clean floors which is why I don't want a floor that shows every speck of dust or footprints because cleaning them every day is not something I want to do.

    As far as scratches go don't they sell touch up kits to fill in the color? From my past experience with both site finished and prefinished wood, prefinished is the best option until my kids get older. I can keep them relatively scratch free whereas the site finished floors get scratched too easily in my household.

  • rhome410
    13 years ago

    Our Brazilian Cherry floors do have the aluminum oxide pre-finish in a Satin, and scratching, and the scratching showing as white, is still an issue. I would describe the cleaning the same as Xc60 did. We vacuum and steam them everyday, and they still look bad half the day. (Most of us are home all day and have pets) The scratches are so fine, I'm not sure anything could fill them, although I don't know of any kit to try and should check. Ours don't have a beveled edge, thank goodness. I made sure to avoid that.

    I wish we'd had time to do site-finished with Waterlox. We Waterloxed all our interior woodwork, doors, and cabinets, and you can repair small places at a time, so wouldn't have to sand down and redo a whole floor for one problem. If I ever am in the position to make this decision again, it'll be site-finished oak (hopefully quartersawn and rift, but I'd go with plain-sawn if I had to) with tinted Waterlox (a medium brown stain), to enhance the grain, because as I said before, I think the variation in color would really help hide things.

  • redroze
    13 years ago

    Chihuahua6 - Here's something you may not know about my floors. They are actually prefinished hardwood that has been sanded down 3 times - once when we got conned into refinishing them with no stain (flooring guy said they would darken after the poly went on them), then at the start of our kitchen reno when the stain was the wrong colour, then the third time when they became the right colour. So all of the bevels between boards are sanded out (love this look), and if you get nicks and scratches they won't be white because the stain would have somewhat penetrated deeper than prefinished flooring. Yes, you can always use one of those wax crayon-y things to fill in nicks and scratches. What we do due to my dear DH, is if we get any signifcant gashes due to moving furniture, we kept some extra stain and he just sands it down and adds stain and poly to blend it in.

    When I get home later, I'll post some close-ups of our floors so you get a sense of what kind of dirt/dust and nicks&scratches to expect.

    I agree that if you buy prefinished flooring and intend not to get them refinished, you will have noticeable nicks and scratches. So I'd recommend getting either unfinished hardwood that you can stained, or like me, get finished flooring (make sure it's thick enough to allow at least a couple of refinishes down the line) and get it resanded and stained.

    The only thing to consider is you really need to air out your house since the smell is so strong. Plan to air it at least a few days.

    Good luck!

  • cruisedirector
    13 years ago

    I have dark walnut engineered wood floors. Shown for color, which I LOVE. Wouldn't get the same next time because they are too soft and scratch/dent easily. Didn't know enough to check that before falling in love with the color.

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