Q: I wanted really dark floors. Dark walnut. He said I wouldn’t like it and didn’t want to go that dark. I’ve always had light, natural floors, and wanted a complete change this time.
A: I am certainly the last person you would want to pick the color of your floors. However, I can tell you that while really dark colors require daily vacuuming because they do reveal house dust, a decorator involved in one of my jobs picked a dark color for a lady along with dark paint. I gasped! He was annoyed. The decorator said not to worry. Dark colours never go out of style. He was right. I was wrong. It looked great. I like light colours, but the darker ones are much richer and elegant to look at. Lighter stains are easier to apply, and perhaps that was the real issue with your contractor. Bottom line. I may give advice, but it is you, the customer who must finally pick the colour and live with your choice. If there was no finish on this stain, you may be able to use 80 grit screens on a polisher and 80 grit abrasives on an orbital sander (for the perimeter of the room) and remove as much of the stain as possible. After that has been accomplished, wet the floor to help open the grain and stain it again, this time with a darker stain. Once the finish has been applied, you have to start over from scratch to change the colour.
Similar Q: My wife and I currently have carpet in the house and are looking to install wood floors. We are trying to decide whether to go w/a light or dark(er) colored wood (engineered). Any tips on choosing light or dark stained floors? The lighter color seems to make the room brighter, but our furniture is dark colored. Also, we know the light color will not show as much dirt. Any suggestions on which way to go in terms of light or dark?
A: I dug up an article that may help: http://www.ehow.com/how_7170222_match-wood-floors-furniture.html.
This was the Wood Flooring Guy’s answer:
I’m not a decorator but I would go light given that you have dark furniture.