Why we love dark wood floors (and how to decorate with them)
"The rich intensity of dark wood never fails to stir the soul," says Rob Weems, of Solid Floor, one of the UK's most popular flooring companies. Dark wood fell rather out of fashion when favour moved away from Victorian grandeur and towards fresh, light Scandinavian design. Oak and pine floorboards across the world were stripped, scrubbed, washed with a white coat or bleached in the hopes of bringing in light and creating a natural, bright and organic feel. This is sometimes done to great effect, like the wonderfully earthy freshness of Rose Uniacke's serene bedroom, which used reclaimed eighteenth-and nineteenth-century finds from Belgium. The popular predilection for neutrals, however, led to an unfortunate mass movement towards pale grey-painted panelling, light wood floors and white-washed walls, which come together to create a mulch of mundanity that won't stand the test of time (neither in style nor sturdiness).
Rich and rugged, dark wood floors and panelling are the ultimate antidote to this. “Akin to walking through a leaf-strewn forest with crisp blue skies overhead, pairing dark wood underfoot with lighter walls brings the reassuring comfort of nature into the home,” says Rob. Whether it's skinny strips of Twiglet-like oak or neatly laid parquet floors that weave across the floor like tightly packed chocolates, dark wood flooring is a wonderful addition to houses big and small. “Dark brown wood floors are definitely back on the radar,” explains Rob. “Our clients are loving their rich, warm, deep, earthy tones, and not only for the more classic schemes. We see interior designers specifying rich, dark engineered oak flooring in combination with bare concrete and other thoroughly contemporary materials.”
Darker wooden floors are particularly suited to tall urban townhouses; the long brown strips crawl across the floors and up the stairs as they would have in 19th-century Spitalfields or Clerkenwell. Grander houses, or those houses that yearn for a little more refined elegance or 1920s glamour, might try reclaimed parquet, which was thought to originate from the Palace of Versailles' grand ballrooms. Victorian houses would have featured oak, mahogany or walnut hardwoods on the floor, so reinstating this (or better yet, discovering it under layers of carpet and restoring it to its former joy) is always going to look appropriate. “Ideally you want to have old boards that are original to the building,” advises designer Rachel Allen, who used reclaimed wooden floorboards in her own glorious wide beam canal boat and in her Spitalfields townhouse project. “For me there’s nothing better than old quarter sawn oak. I would also leave them untreated, which horrifies the contractors I work with but old timber has its own natural oils and is very forgiving.”
New builds can borrow some nutty earthiness and avoid feeling clinical by adding in dark wood flooring, whether they're new from somewhere like Solid Floor or reclaimed from somewhere like Retrouvius. “Keep the look sophisticated by opting for black flooring with a smooth, glossy finish, or dial into the natural and rustic trend with brushed out grains and aged surfaces,” suggests Rob. “The rich intensity of dark wood never fails to stir the soul. Dark flooring is a bold move, but you’ll be rewarded with a distinctive interior that energises and lifts the spirit.”
It's a myth that dark colours - whether that's dark wood or dark-painted walls - make a room feel claustrophobic or small. In fact, your eye is actually drawn to the lightest part of the room, so if you have a very light floor or a bright, white ceiling your eye will be dragged from the main room and onto the peripheries. Dark colours actually reduce the shadows in a room, meaning there's less contrast. They also have the benefit of hiding stains and spills, which a white-painted floor certainly cannot. On a practical note, Rachel recommends putting a drop of linseed oil in the mop bucket when cleaning a dark oak floor.
Dark wooden panelling, whilst it won't shrink a room, can create a cosy, cocooning feel when carried across the floor and up the walls, as Edward Bulmer did to make the TV room in his Queen Anne country house feel more intimate. If your house doesn't have panelling, it can added, though achieving a dark wood effect could be tricky and expensive, so you might try painting it a glossy, chocolate brown colour instead.
We've taken a look at some of our favourite stretches of dark wood, from fumed oak to ebonised cherrywood.
Paul Massey1/13In an effort to retain the character of this Queen's Park cottage, Lonika Chande stripped out everything except the floors, which have a charming patina to them. In the bathroom, she proves how well wooden flooring works with bold colour choices, as a bath from Aston Matthews painted in Little Greene’s ‘Ashes of Roses’ contrasts with tongue and groove in ‘Gravel’ eggshell by Dulux.
Lucas Allen2/13In this Rose Uniacke-designed hallway, the dark floorboards are complemented by bright white walls and dark wooden furniture. They have been laid across the hallway, rather than running down its length, helping to widen the space. Elsewhere in the house, a palette of duck egg blue and pastel pink softens the choice of darker oak.
Richard Powers3/13The bathroom of this divine Provençal house by Andrzej Zarzycki is clad in woods in various warm tones, including fumed oak on the floors. People shy away from using different types of wood in one room, but the distinct contrast between the orange-based pine and the smokey oak is done confidently and with great success. The black tones in the floor are picked up in moments throughout the room, like in the large hand-shaped chair which was sourced from Marchés aux Puces.
Romain Ricard4/13In this Victorian house in London, designer Maria Speake cleverly reorganised the layout and made inventive use of the salvaged materials for which her company Retrouvius is known, including a reclaimed parquet floor. This adds a kind of 1920s glamour to the room, and evokes old ballrooms.
Francesco Lagnese5/13Veere Grenney's Tangier house features deep, dark floorboards throughout the ground floor, which beautifully reflects the light outside which streams in through the large windows. “Throughout the house I created ebonised floors which we wash regularly with rosewater. Traditionally houses in Southeast Asia or Brazil used ebony for floors because it was so hard and resistant to termites. But here I used local wood and added a black stain. There is nothing lovelier than the feeling of walking onto a shiny black floor in a hot climate.”
Christopher Horwood6/13This Grade-II listed townhouse by Rachel Allen was built by Huguenot silk weavers in 1721 and retains many original features, including the floorboards, wonderfully creaky staircase that snakes up its five floors and panelling, which has been painted in Farrow & Ball's ‘Charleston Grey’. The oak silky oak floor helps to transport the house back to its roots, and complements the biscuit, brown and red tones throughout the house.
Alexander James7/13Seamless as it all looks now, the renovation of this weavers' cottage in Spitalfields took over a year and included replacing all the modern floorboards, laid in the Eighties, with reclaimed early-nineteenth-century boards, originally from a Welsh chapel. The staircase throughout is original but was stained and waxed to match the floor.
Paul Massey8/13This 18th-century weavers' cottage in Wiltshire was brought back to life by the owners, who set about restoring original features and filling it with salvaged objects. This included the vintage floorboards and old windows, both of which were sourced online. The dark wood eludes to the original style of the cottage, while the gloss elevates the looks, giving a more refined atmosphere. The contrast between the dark floor and light walls feels very classically English.
Haris Kenjar9/13Wood panelling works to beautiful effect in this 1920s house in Berkeley by Heidi Caillier. ‘Working with the dark wood tones of a Craftsman can be tricky. I find the contrast between the deep stain and white paint to be too stark. To make it a little less severe, we covered the frieze area above the panelling in linen. The ceiling in the dining room, between the beams, is painted blush pink for the same reason.’
Ruth Ribeaucourt10/13In their 18th-century coastal house in France, Jean-Baptiste Martin and Vincent Farelly were focused on restoring many of the changes that were carried out by a previous owner in the 1950s. This included restoring the floorboards and panelling. The wood is earthy and natural, a divergence from the more refined, polished look that dark wood can often have. This not only adds to the casual, vintage feel (fitting for a coastal home) but also provides a neutral backdrop for some of the more intricate, decorative textile choices in the house.
Rachel Whiting11/13Rather than using parquet for the floor, designer Maria Speake of Retrouvius decided to clad a sliding door with it in this Barbican flat. It gives the door an almost sculptural quality and the polished wooden blocks each refract the light slightly differently.
Lucas Allen12/13The oak-panelled walls in Edward Bulmer's painstakingly restored Queen Anne house are hung with pictures by family and friends. The oak-panelled walls are traditional of the Victorian period, and adds texture and warmth to the vast, high-ceilinged space which is used as a cosy TV room. The floor is also oak, providing an immersive feel, punctured by lively colours and textures in the form of the artwork, the Austrian blinds or the vintage chrome lamp.
Christopher Horwood13/13Slim dark wood flooring is perfectly suited to a London townhouse, as seen here in this project by Rachael Gowdridge. Wooden flooring makes a bathroom feel less clinical and more warm, which is enhanced here by the red, oaky tones in the wood. The shiny finish is not only attractive but practical in a bathroom, meaning it's easier to clean and less absorbent. The taupe-coloured shearling chair from Twenty Twenty One creates a link between the white walls and the rich flooring.
