Hardwood Flooring Trends for 2021 – Wood Floor Planet
Hardwood flooring trends continues to grow in popularity, and it is by far the preferred flooring type for homes.
Not all colors work in all homes, and you also need to consider your overall decor theme (including paint color for walls and furniture), so choose something that you love…and anticipate you will love for a long time.
2021 Hardwood Floor Stain and Color Trends
Overall, there’s a shift towards darks and lights (yes, the two extremes), as well as cooler and browner tones. Redder and warmer tones are less popular and more polarizing.
Dark and cool toned hardwoods
Hardwood flooring trends for 2021. Yes, the trend towards darker colors keeps growing and growing. It’s been on the rise for the last decade or so. We seem to find two types of customers:
- Ones that prioritize style over maintenance and they tend to go darker and darker (these customers tend to be households without kids (either “pre-kids” or kids that have gone to college) or wealthier households that have extra help to keep the floors extra clean).
- Those that absolutely love dark floors, but want to go a bit lighter so that the floors are easier to maintain.
Gray and gray blends (including charcoals, greiges and brown/grays)
Gray flooring has been on the rise, and you can see it everywhere you go – in wood; tile that looks like wood, and gray vinyl planks that look like wood.
This trend started to notice and demand for gray hardwood flooring around 2010 or 2011 But it was only on pre-finished (or factory made wood), and it wasn’t until 2012 or so when I started to get lots of local customers ask us to refinish their existing floors and turn them gray.
Light, natural and muted
Yes, on the opposite extreme to dark, the 2nd most popular floor choice is light – i.e. going natural. But the theme is a consistent one. There’s a preference to drown out the yellows and go for cooler tones. Hence those that are more up on the trends are going for the high grade and more environmentally friendly water borne polyurethane.
Whitewashed and lightly whitewashed floors
Whitewashes are back, and they’ve rapidly grown in popularity. For those of you who remember whitewashes from the 80’s, you’ll be happy to know that they’ve been reinvented and modernized.