Wooden flooring is highly sought after or its longevity, easy maintenance, and benefits for those with allergies. But most of all, people love timber flooring because it looks great. Make the most of your timber floors’ good looks with our guide to designing your home interior in way that complements floorboards.
Define Your Space with Carpets and Rugs
Though wood is much easier on the feet than tiles, it is not nearly as comfortable underfoot as carpet. For areas that see a lot of foot traffic, carpets or rugs are a great way to mitigate this – as well as prevent damage to the floor from scuffing and scraping. But apart from these practical considerations there are good design reasons for incorporating rugs too. Carpets and area rugs help you divide and define your rooms.
For example, rather than having the chairs and sofas that make up your lounge suite dotted like lonely islands in a sea of oak flooring, well-placed carpets can create a little continent for them. This will create a more inviting and coherent feel for your home and can be used to enhance everything from walkways, to sitting areas, to your dining room.
Balancing and Softening Wooden Flooring
Oak lends a visual weight to any room with its solidity and firmness. Balance this with softer fabrics and area rugs made from sheepskin, lamb’s wool or something similar. This will not only add a great visual contract, but it will change the tactile experience of your home as well. Especially when walking barefoot, the change from cool, firm floorboards to softness and warmth is quite delightful.
Pairing Furniture and Décor
Oak flooring is often associated with very traditional, even archaic, home interiors – think oak furniture with burgundy cushioning, an open fire, hunting rifle over the mantelpiece, and the smell of a roast from the kitchen. But wooden flooring actually creates a pleasing juxtaposition when paired with sleek modern elements. Expand your notion of what matches wooden flooring to include sleek steel furniture, contemporary cabinets, modern art and sculpture, and modern-industrial design features.
If you do decide to match wood with wood, forget the idea that wood tones should match. That will actually make your home look to uniform – you don’t want feature elements blending into the floor! Instead, blends the rough and rustic with the stained and polished in varied stains and grains for a collected-over-time look. A slat stump end table is perfectly at home against raw wood accents or polished oak floors.
Getting Colour Right
The colour profile of wooden flooring can range from light and delicate to dark and heavy, and everything in between. Understanding how to complement these colours is essential to decorating around floorboards. In a home with dark floorboards, dark walls, furniture, and décor will create an oppressive, gloomy feel.
Instead, lighten the room with light-coloured walls, carpets, cabinets, and so on. But don’t feel locked in by lightness – a dramatic effect can be created by dark flooring, light walls, and pitch black leather sofas; it just depend what works for your room. For lighter wooden flooring, the opposite rule applies. Pair light wooden flooring with darker walls and light, with minimalist furniture.
