Wood flooring and bedrooms go hand in hand. A wood floor can bring a sense of warmth to the space, as well as some natural color, providing plenty of dimension. Plus, the right shade of stain on that hardwood floor can make the room look larger than it really is.
This is a trick that many designers rely on to alter the perspective of a room. If you’re doing the design work yourself, however, you need to know which types of wood and stain colors will look best. Here are some useful tips.
Should You Use Different Types of Wood in Different Rooms?
Old fashioned decorating rules declared that all of the floors in a home should be the same, or at the very least, all of the flooring in the bedrooms of that home should coordinate. This used to be the most economical option since purchasing flooring could be done in bulk.
Things have changed, and now you can put different flooring in every room if you so choose—without breaking unspoken decorating rules. With that said, there are a few things to keep in mind when picking out your flooring, such as:
Staying in the Same Color Family
Color families are important. They help keep visual chaos (more on that next) from taking control. Many colors are either warm or cool and staying within that same palette will unify the entire home, including the bedrooms.
Wood flooring with a blue, green, or grayish undertone is cool, while red, yellow, and brown undertones are warm. Keep this in mind when you’re looking at flooring for your small bedroom.
Preventing “Visual Chaos”
What happens when you have multiple bold colors in a home? The words ‘visual chaos” come to mind. This occurs when you have so many different things going on that your eyes don’t quite know where to land. They end up traveling over the entire space in all of its brightly colored glory.
To keep this from happening, consider starting with a neutral color palette for your floors and trim, and bring in the color with the walls and textiles.
Follow the Rule of Three
Most designers adhere to the rule of three, which means that they use three different types of flooring in a home. This can be two different types of wood for various rooms and one type of tile (porcelain, for example) for the kitchen and bathroom. The colors vary, but the general types are the same. This keeps the home’s décor from becoming too overwhelming.
What does this mean? You’re free to put whatever kind of hardwood flooring that you want in your small bedroom, of course.
Light Colors Make the Room Look Bigger
On top of adhering to the general home design rules described above, you also need to rely on some visual tricks to make the space look bigger. Remember that darker colors can make a room look small, which is fine if you want a bedroom that feels like a cozy cave.
However, if you want to make the room look and feel as large as possible, go for light-colored wood.
Consider the Visual Balance
On top of ensuring that the space looks bigger, you also want it to feel balanced. This means that you shouldn’t pair a light wood floor with darker walls, as those dark walls will visually weigh down the room. Instead, choose a lighter paint color to go with those light floors. The results will be light and airy.
Cool or Warm Shades of Wood?
Next, you have a decision to make regarding the wood flooring itself: cool or warm shades of wood? This comes down to personal preference and the variety of the wood (the kind of tree that it came from) itself. Some woods have warm tones, some have cool tones, and you even have an option or two with neutral tones.
While you can change the overall color of your wood flooring with stain, many of these types of wood look perfectly lovely in their natural state. For example, hickory, cherry, teak, and mahogany have natural warm tones that complement other warm colors.
If you want a cool-toned floor, look for poplar or ash. If you prefer something neutral that can be stained to go either way (or just remain neutral, broadening your paint color options), choose whitewashed oak or walnut.
All of these wood tones will look great in a small bedroom, as long as they are kept light in color, to prevent the room from looking tinier than it really is. If the wood tone you prefer is too dark in its natural state, consider something lighter from the same color family. This will give you more options to consider.
You Can Get Away With Pricier Options
One of the advantages of a small room is that you won’t need a lot of hardwood flooring to complete the space. Since flooring is sold by the square foot, the lack of space in the room opens up plenty of possibilities, including the option to choose a pricier type of flooring.
For example, white oak, walnut, hickory, mahogany, or teak might be out of your price range when you’re looking at buying new flooring for a larger room. But, since you’ll need less of it in a small bedroom, you might be able to afford that maple flooring from Hardwood Bargains that you’ve been coveting.
This gives you the chance to have the hardwood floor of your dreams, only in a small enough space to make it affordable.
Look at the Grain, Too
Shopping for hardwood flooring can lead to someone picking out the color and type of wood they like the best, forgetting about one crucial part of the floor: the grain. Hardwood flooring consists of natural grain patterns, as it comes directly from the trees themselves.
When considering the grain, you have two main choices. You can go with a grain pattern that blends well with everything else in the room without overwhelming the space, or you can choose a bold grain that stands out. Since the room is small, you can choose a bold grain without it becoming overwhelming, opening up your options.
Other Things To Consider
As you can see, there are plenty of things to think about when choosing hardwood flooring for your small bedroom. In addition to keeping the grain, wood tones, overall color, visual balance, and other things in mind, you also need to think about which types of wood you prefer.
It’s easy to get caught up in the design rules and details while forgetting about what you ultimately like. Since hardwood flooring is an investment, choosing a flooring type for your small bedroom that you love is important.
Sources:
Can Bedrooms Have Different Flooring? | Home Décor Bliss
The Best Bedroom Flooring Options | The Spruce
What Goes with Wood Floors? | BHG
