How to Find Paint to Match a Wood Floor
It's very important to coordinate the color of your walls with the other major elements in the room -- especially the floors. This will create an integrated and unified environment that is both pleasing and attractive. Although you don't have to find a paint that exactly matches your hardwood floors, the closer you can come the better. As with all decisions regarding the design and decor of your home, paint color decisions affect the resale value of your house. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Categorize your floor based on its appearance. Your floors will either have a cooler gray tone or a warmer red or yellow tone. The brightness value of your floors will either be light, dark or medium.
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Choose a few paint colors that will coordinate with your floors as you have categorized them. Collect swatches of these colors from the store where you will purchase the paint. Warmer-colored floors will work well with warm-colored paint, or they can be juxtaposed against cooler colored paints, as long as the wall color and the floors are complements of each other. For example, yellow or honey-colored wood floors stand in pleasant contrast to medium blue or lavender-colored walls. Cooler-colored floors (floors with a gray tone) will work well with cool-colored walls. If your floors are a light color, you can use light paint or dark paint. If your floors are dark in color, you're probably better off staying away from dark-colored paint, to avoid darkening the room too much.
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Bring the swatches you selected home and choose a few favorite colors. Eliminate colors from the group by comparing them to your furniture and other items and accessories in the room. Eliminate paint colors that clash with items in the room.
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Purchase sample sizes of your selected favorite paint colors. Paint large sample areas on the walls. Paint the samples near enough to the floor so you can compare the color of the walls to the color of the floor.
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Choose the color, after the paint samples have dried, that is the most pleasing in combination with the hardwood floors.
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Tips & Warnings
Warm colors are those colors on the color wheel that fall into the category of red, yellow or orange. Cool colors are the greens, purples and blues. However, hardwood floors can be considered "warm" or "cool" based on the specific tone of the stain they have been painted with. Honey-colored stains or red stains will create warm hardwood floors. Grayer hardwood floors tend to be considered cool.
When picking a color for your walls, other factors such as lighting and mood should be taken into consideration. Look at the samples at different times of day and at night before deciding on a color.
Neutral colors such as beige and gray will almost always work well with hardwood floors.
References
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