How Coloured Floors Can Enhance Your Home
Boost your home decor by adding neutrals, warm hues or vibrant colour to your floors
Walls and trim are most often finished and maintained using paint, so they are the place where homeowners first see potential for personalising their house with a new palette. But people often overlook their floors, the colour of which can greatly influence your decor scheme. If you’re looking for a seismic shift in your interior design, or are just looking for smart ways to add height or create energy or calm, try one of these grounding colour concepts.
2. Use white to quiet a room
Visual distraction and clutter can take away from the calm you want in a room that will host music study, quiet contemplation or conversation. By selecting a white-finished floorboard, close in colour to the walls, the perimeter of the room is diminished and the space opens up to present a feeling of stillness.
Visual distraction and clutter can take away from the calm you want in a room that will host music study, quiet contemplation or conversation. By selecting a white-finished floorboard, close in colour to the walls, the perimeter of the room is diminished and the space opens up to present a feeling of stillness.
3. Let unusual colours become neutrals
In a small house, the floor is a good place to put saturated colour. A hefty hue taken in from overhead is less dramatic than surrounding your peripheral vision with it. Strong colour on walls will appear to come forward and diminish the space.
When flooring is stained or painted an unusual colour and used throughout the home, as with the teal in this contemporary, it becomes a neutral. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more you use an unexpected colour, the less out of the ordinary it becomes.
In a small house, the floor is a good place to put saturated colour. A hefty hue taken in from overhead is less dramatic than surrounding your peripheral vision with it. Strong colour on walls will appear to come forward and diminish the space.
When flooring is stained or painted an unusual colour and used throughout the home, as with the teal in this contemporary, it becomes a neutral. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more you use an unexpected colour, the less out of the ordinary it becomes.
4. Add energy with warm colours
A warm colour, like this citron floor, can raise the temperature and energy in a room where you want a positive vibe. Because of its bold flooring installation, this ostensibly classic white kitchen radiates heat rather than cold.
A warm colour, like this citron floor, can raise the temperature and energy in a room where you want a positive vibe. Because of its bold flooring installation, this ostensibly classic white kitchen radiates heat rather than cold.
5. Anchor vibrant artwork with bold colours
Like a landscape to be taken in and enjoyed, a well-thought-out interior of colour and form can enhance the enjoyment of life at home. And the perfect rug can add interest and easily pull a room together.
Using the floor for a bold colour statement is particularly effective in a ‘destination’ room where you’ve arrived to enjoy artwork and fine furniture with friends and family. The one-of-a-kind rug design seen here puts soft green shadows at the base of fiery fuchsia, a colour counterpoint that keeps the living room lively but visually balanced.
Like a landscape to be taken in and enjoyed, a well-thought-out interior of colour and form can enhance the enjoyment of life at home. And the perfect rug can add interest and easily pull a room together.
Using the floor for a bold colour statement is particularly effective in a ‘destination’ room where you’ve arrived to enjoy artwork and fine furniture with friends and family. The one-of-a-kind rug design seen here puts soft green shadows at the base of fiery fuchsia, a colour counterpoint that keeps the living room lively but visually balanced.
6. Play with patterns to visually expand a room
Superimposing a large, organic pattern in white over the clear-coated hardwood makes this kitchen floor appear expansive. Sticking to a simple white and orange colour palette keeps the design from overpowering the space and drawing all of the attention.
Superimposing a large, organic pattern in white over the clear-coated hardwood makes this kitchen floor appear expansive. Sticking to a simple white and orange colour palette keeps the design from overpowering the space and drawing all of the attention.
The diagonal checkerboard shown here is another visual trick to open up the space and give the room breadth.
The canvas floor cloth that was used is a softer tone-on-tone installation. Painted, stretched canvas is an old-time floor covering popular before linoleum, with many of the advantages. Heavy canvas can be stretched, tacked to the perimeter and then painted or fashioned into a rug.
The canvas floor cloth that was used is a softer tone-on-tone installation. Painted, stretched canvas is an old-time floor covering popular before linoleum, with many of the advantages. Heavy canvas can be stretched, tacked to the perimeter and then painted or fashioned into a rug.
7. Introduce wallpaper and paint to highlight architecture
Stair treads and risers are often overlooked as design elements. These wallpapered risers add interest to a steep set of stairs.
Stair treads and risers are often overlooked as design elements. These wallpapered risers add interest to a steep set of stairs.
Or try painting treads to set them apart and define the steps for easy transit.
8. Use soft, bright colours to bounce light around
The soft yellow deck of this side entrance welcomes with a sunny glow. The happy verandah floor, which complements the purple grey of the home’s exterior wall colour, provides a place to linger and sends light in through the interior windows all year long.
TELL US
What do you think of coloured floors? Let us know in the Comments section.
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The soft yellow deck of this side entrance welcomes with a sunny glow. The happy verandah floor, which complements the purple grey of the home’s exterior wall colour, provides a place to linger and sends light in through the interior windows all year long.
TELL US
What do you think of coloured floors? Let us know in the Comments section.
MORE
Find Your Match: Floating Floorboards
Concrete Flooring Is Cool, but Warmer Than You Think
Choose the Right Hard Flooring for Your Open-Plan Living Area
Successful architectural design always takes human scale into consideration. We want to fit the proportions of our home.
Colour can help adjust the visual perception of the height of a space, especially in areas of the house not part of the original floor plan, like this sleeping loft under the eaves. Want to drop the floor? Take a cue from your favourite swimming hole and saturate the surface with dark blues or blue greens.