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Flooring
rndewar

Hardwood flooring dilema

Ric
7 years ago

Need your advice! Mirage Maple Charcoal hardwood choice for entire house- good idea or too dark? Or to grey? Enough Brown in it?

Thoughts? Anyone picked this?

Featured Answer
  • User
    7 years ago

    In the upper end market builds here, it is all about classic timelessness. Rift and quartered oak, with only a light to medium stain. The look will last for generations. You do see some adventure in color in some of the builds with a sleek modern aesthetic, but those are few in number. But those modern homes are just as likely to be using stained concrete or terrazzo tile as wood. Traditional through transitional are classic and timeless.

    The local charity home show for the top 5% price market just concluded, and almost all of those floors were rift and quartered, with the darkest tones being not much more than the classic gun stock color. You had one that had some hints of gray, but it was very subtle.

    In many of the mid market 50 percentile builds, dark floors do have some traction. Not so much the pure grays though. You see greeney browns with gray undertones. Walnut like, but with more of a hint of gray. Some light gray wash on white oak. A hint of color away from natural. Not so much the truly dark almost ebony floors though. Everyone is over that big time. Even with a weekly maid stopping in, the floors never look pristine.

    Surprisingly, it's all of the entry level to mid market builds whose floors that are really embracing the grays trend. Light whitewashed driftwood all the way through charcoal tones. There is hardly any traditional "wood color" wood being done. Perhaps it is a consequence of using the less expensive materials (laminate is common) that allows them more freedom to use a fad. It costs less to change it out down the road when you are using $2 a square material.

    When you're paying $15-$20 a square, you don't want to ever be replacing it in your lifetime. That is why the traditional upper end homes avoid fads. Buy good quality timeless once, take care of it, and that is the only time the purchase has to be made.


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