Hardwood Flooring Trends

Hardwood flooring trends tend to go in a circle, what was in will be out of style but will be back in style completing the style circle. A couple of current trends I'm seeing are

• wide plank floors
• dark stained hardwood
• penetrating oil finish

Wide Plank Hardwood Floors

what is considered a plank? Any hardwood strip that is wider than 3in is considered a plank. People love the look of wide planks because the grain pattern really shows up in certain species of wood like Ash, Oak, Hickory.

It's great in large rooms because there are less board lines breaking up the sight line giving it a much nicer flow . It also just looks really cool to have a very wide piece of wood down and just marvel and all the interesting characteristics of the wood.

Dark Stained Floors

Dark stained floors have been gaining a lot of popularity over the last couple of years. One Pearson told me that floor colors follow the way people feel about the economy, when it's not doing so well they want there floors to be dark and when it's doing great they want it lighter, not sure how much stock I put into that but I just found it interesting.Lately I've stained Hickory, Red Oak, White Oak and a lot of Maple. Dark floors tend to look great when there is a contrast between the floor and the trim. One floor I did was an old Maple floor that got finished with black Magic Oil 2k and the trim was white, which really gave it a stunning contrast.

Penetrating oil

It has been popular over in Europe for 20+ years. Where just a little slow on catching up with trends. Some of the benefits as to why people like penetrating oil are

-low VOC(volatile organic compound)

-color and finish all in one

-hand rubbed oil look

-fast turnaround

Low VOC

Most penetrating oils are made from natural oils which make them very low odor(voc) less harmful to people with allergies because there is no harmful smell.

Hand Rubbed Oil Look

Hand rubbed oil look looks like an older floor that has been rubbed with oil which soaks down into the grain of the wood giving it this beautiful natural matte finish

Fast Turn Around

Most penetrating oils have a very quick turn around, un-like a lot of the typical film finishes(meaning it creates a film on top of the wood and not soaking in) that require you wait 2-3 days before you can move stuff back into the area that's been refinished. Most penetrating oils cure very fast and you can move furniture back in anywhere from 12-24hrs after the hardwood floor has been completed, making it great for people who want a fast turn around.

If you need more flooring ideas for your next project a couple of places I'd go for ideas is Pintrest or Houzz. You can find some great flooring ideas on either of those sites.