How to Match Wall Color with Wood Floors

If you’re fitting new wood flooring as part of an interior project, you may feel daunted at the decisions ahead of you. Knowing how to match your beautiful new wood floor with your walls is one such consideration. And with so many options available for both wall colors and flooring, it’s easy to feel lost in the sheer volume of choices.

It pays to plan ahead so that the combined effect works in harmony and creates a stunning end result. So in this article, we’re going to show you how to match wall color with your wood floor. We’ll reveal which wall color and floor combinations work the best so that the result is a stunning interior space that compliments your style and feels just like home.

We’ll also take you through some on-trend combinations and offer some more ways to find inspiration if you’re starting out on a large renovation project.

This article is packed with tips and tricks, so by the time you’ve read it, you’ll be confident about choosing the right floor and wall combination for your project with the end result of a beautiful, uniquely designed interior.

Wall Color and Floor Combinations

Our first tip is to start with your choice of floor and work your way up. Because there are literally thousands of paint shades you can choose from, it makes sense to select your floor first. This enables you to match your wall color with the tones in your flooring for a harmonized end result.

Let’s talk about those tones. Your wood flooring will have its own cool or warm undertone. For example, you’ll find warm golden undertones in red oak flooring and cool silvery tones in lighter woods like white oak.

Some of the most popular trends in hardwood floor and wall color combinations capture these tones perfectly. Think of the beautiful, clean and calming space you get when you match light hardwood floors with an off-white wall.

Or, if you prefer darker floors, tap into the dark hardwood and subtle green walls trend. Lighter shades of sage and olive pair perfectly with dark oak flooring, creating a cozy, rustic feel that makes you just want to curl up and relax.

Or perhaps you want a versatile look that’s somewhere in between these two trends? Try a mid-toned flooring choice based on wood like European white oak. This creates a neutral base that allows you to experiment with wall color, matching it to your exact taste.

Wall Colors for Light Wood Floors

If you opt for a light wood floor, you’ve made a practical yet beautiful choice. Light flooring won’t show every single speck of dust or dirt like a darker color may. It will also open up your interior and create a feeling of space and brightness.

Choose wall colors for light wood floors from the neutral palette to continue this effect. White is a good place to start. It’s bright and makes the perfect backdrop to any other colors you wish to introduce into the room.

If you find white a little stark for your taste, pick out an off-white shade that will instill a feeling of airiness with a slightly warmer feel. You can find shades of white with a hint of another color like yellow or pink to give it a soft and feminine edge if that’s your vibe.

Or go grey for a timeless neutral that’s fast becoming the latest modern classic. For a calming effect, choose a grey with green or blue undertones or go for a shade with yellow undertones to introduce warmth.

Dark Hardwood Floors with Grey Walls

Dark hardwood floors lend a feeling of drama to your interior, making a statement as soon as you step inside. You can match them with rich-colored soft furnishing and a spectrum of wall colors, depending on your taste. Dark hardwoods from Southern Luxe are also a good choice as they don’t fade easily in sunlight, retaining their good looks year after year.

One of the most attractive combinations you’ll find is dark hardwood floors with grey walls. Grey will build on the sophisticated feel of your dark floor, adding an extra layer of chic to your interior. Have fun selecting the right tone of grey to match your dark hardwood floor. If the wood has cool undertones, you can pair it with a grey with blue or silvery tones. This offers a sleek and modern effect and works well with minimalist interior styles.

You may find warm undertones on your dark hardwood floor. In this case, find grey paint with mauve or pink tones. This will add warmth to your room and provide the perfect base for your soft furnishing and accent choices. You can keep the look sophisticated by opting for the palest pink accessories. Or if you love a pop of color, choose vibrant pink and purple items.

Wall Color Considerations: Matching Wall Colors to Existing Flooring or New Flooring

If you’re just going for a partial makeover of a room, you’ll want to know about matching wall colors to either existing flooring or finding new wall colors to complement your new flooring.

If your starting point is the wall color you already have and you’re looking at choices of new wood flooring, you’ll need to match them up carefully. The easiest way to do this is to ask for flooring samples to see how they measure up against your wall color. It’s important to do this so you know how the wall and floor colors compare in different lights and at various times of the day. That’s something that’s hard to imagine by just looking at examples online.

The same procedure works vice versa when you want to keep your existing flooring but intend to spruce up your interior with a fresh wall color. Grab some paint strips to see which colors and their shades work well with your flooring. Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few color choices, you can get the sample pots of paint and try out a small patch on your wall. Take your time to see how the paint looks and try to imagine the finished room, complete with your furniture, drapes and other soft furnishings.

Inspiration for a Full-Blown Renovation

And what about a full-blown renovation of your home? You can try floor and paint samples together in varying combinations until you hit the perfect match for your interior. This can be a painstaking process, so make sure you schedule in plenty of time to consider the possibilities.

If you’re struggling to know where to start when it comes to paint colors, know that there are lots of different sources of inspiration out there to make it easier. Why not start with the colors you are naturally drawn to? Pick your favorite color and take it from there, experimenting with shades that will naturally harmonize or contrast with it.

Find inspiration on social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest, where you’ll find a plethora of ideas and real-life interiors, including wall color and floor combinations, to draw inspiration from. Save pictures into a folder or on a board until you’ve built up a picture of what you want your interior to look like.

Use a color wheel to understand how colors work together and against each other. With a turn of the wheel, you can find the perfect shades to complement your dominant color and also know which tones clash and should be avoided.

Do you have a favorite piece of artwork that you find instantly uplifting and inspiring? Pick out its dominant colors for your wall or flooring, or add some contrasting shades to create vibrancy.

If your chosen paint or floor samples somehow don’t turn out how you expected, don’t give up yet. Try a lighter or darker shade of the same color. It’s surprising how a slight tweak to your color can make a difference!

Matching Your Flooring with Your Room's Function and Features

Another consideration to think about is that different rooms in your house will require the flooring to match with their unique function and features. For example, you will most definitely need to think about the bigger picture when it comes to choosing the flooring for your kitchen. Factor in the type of wood or finish used for your kitchen cabinets, as well as your backsplash to find the perfect flooring to tie all these elements together.

Going for a modern yet rustic style with shaker cabinets? Try a grey flooring with white walls.

Is the rustic look more your style? Then you could opt for a warm colored hardwood floor to match your cabinets and choose from shades like warm sage green or ochre for the walls to create a cozy vibe.

The same goes for bedrooms. Of all the rooms in the house, your bedroom is your sanctuary. So if your idea of heaven is a light and airy room that calms the body and mind, try a lighter wood flooring matched with neutral walls.

With so many people transitioning to working from home permanently, often a bedroom may double up as an office space too with the challenge of creating a space that’s multipurpose, functional and relaxing.

To avoid your bedroom resembling an office, step away from harsh color choices like stark white. Soften the feel while still retaining vibrancy with wall and floor tones in between dark and light. So try a hardwood floor with shades of grey and brown, like Bella Driftwood or Olde Charlestown, with a pastel blue paint. This will create the right balance for both work and relaxation.

For high traffic areas like the living room, you may wish to opt for a lighter-colored wood that won’t show every little piece of dust or dirt. You may also find that a lighter or mid-colored choice offers more possibilities in terms of matching the wall color, ideal if you want to refresh the look of your room by switching up the paint choice.

Did you know that engineered hardwood is also suitable for bathrooms? It comprises a top layer or veneer that offers resistance to moisture, humidity and temperature. Match the look of your bathroom to your wood flooring, and for an ultra-luxe feel, choose dark hardwood. Or keep it bright and breezy with a light grey or brown colored wood.

Finding a Hardwood Floor for All Wall Color Combinations and Personal TASTES

Finding the right wall color and floor combinations isn’t so daunting when you know how! Simply follow our guide to how to match wall color with your wood floor for a result that’s not only just right for your unique style and taste but bang on trend too!

Remember that there’s a wooden floor type for every personality, style and taste, so you’ll be sure to find something that reflects your unique look.

The key is to keep it simple. Start with your chosen wood floor and work your way up, taking into consideration the undertones of wood and wall color and how they can combine together to create a coordinated effect.

Take inspiration from things you love, whether that’s a piece of art or a pop of color in a shade you find irresistible.

Building up the layers of your interior décor in this way will create your own distinctive style, making your house or interior project feel like a true home.

Take Your Pick From the Southern Luxe Collection

Can’t wait to get started? Take your pick from the Southern Luxe flooring collection, where you’ll find a total of five distinct ranges drawing on a variety of colors and materials to match any interior project.

Choose from engineered hardwood and solid hardwood, both choices offering a quality, durable and stunning floor that comprises the base and focal point of your interior.

The first step to finding the perfect match for your home is to request a sample on our individual product pages. This will give you an idea of how our beautiful wooden hardwood flooring will look in your home, complementing your envisaged décor scheme.

When embarking on any interior project, you’ll be sure to have questions. Benefit from the expertise of the Southern Luxe team, whose combined experience can guide you to finding the right flooring for your home.