Bright Colors
Light & Whitewash Hardwood Floors
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Why Bright Hardwood Floors?
Open, Airy Aesthetics:
Light hardwood flooring varieties naturally reflect interior light. In flooring, that means that it can make spaces feel more open and spacious - even corners of the room & areas behind furniture will be illuminated.
Modern Appeal
Light colors in hardwood floors contrast with the small seams between planks, making a clean, linear pattern. These architectural patterns are naturally more modern -- they draw the eye across the room, which tends to make a room feel bigger.
Complementary Colors
If you have a strong preference for bright floors, you might also have a preference for bright cabinets, furniture, and accents or trim. In modern spaces, bright complementary colors help the space feel more cohesive. Dark objects will stand out - but will also feel heavy.
Let's Get More Specific. Why Choose Whitewash or Traditional Clear Coat?
Natural Whitewash
Whitewashing on wood floors evens wood color tone and brightens rooms while allowing the true grain of the wood to shine through. In some cases, like hickory, it can take a wood that is definitely stylistically traditional and make it feel quite modern.
Whitewashed floors are excellent at reflecting bright daylight - sometimes to the point of being glaring - which easily camouflages fine scratches and hides dust. That said, in evening light, whitewashed floors will show heavy dirt almost immediately - so a robot vacuum cleaner and a nearby hardwood-approved damp cloth are must-haves.
In general, whitewashed floors also patina less, and so they will resist shifting to golden tones over time under carpets and furniture versus traditionally clear-finished wood.
Traditional Glow
Traditionally finished, clear-coat floors have a colorless polyurethane coating to protect the wear surface of the wood without any additional stain added. This gives the truest view of the wood grain and color. Nevertheless, the process always adds a faint golden tone to the floor simply due to light reflecting through the thickness of the additional material.
Up to 50 to 60% of our customers prefer traditional clear coat finishes versus stained floors simply because it shows the true color of the wood to the best extent possible - which makes sense - we are talking about real wood floors!
And, for practical reasons, these floors are excellent at hiding dust and low to medium-levels of dirt and scratches. They are also extremely cost-effective over time, because you can touch planks up without worrying about matching a stain color (but that is less of an issue with a Steller Floor overall).
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