How to match your floors to your furniture

Newsflash – perfectly matched rooms are phasing out. Gone are the days when your furniture matched the grain of your floors. Today’s trends take a tonal approach instead. So, you don’t have to combine an oak dining set with oak floors, painstakingly search for the identical shade of hardwood in flooring and bookcases. We’ll take you through the latest looks and inspire you with some great combinations to try.

Keep an open mind when shopping and start by asking what type of look you want to achieve. If your room has lots of dark furniture, consider light-coloured flooring to brighten the mood and create a feeling of light and space. Lighter matching furniture with pale wood flooring will really open up the room and make it feel bigger. Using different tones of the same colour and pops of contrasting shades will keep the look interesting and stop it from becoming too bland. A neutral furniture palette will offset a room with dark floors perfectly and provide an eye-catching contrast. Or pair up dark floors with dark furniture to style an inviting space, using accents of white and neutrals to stop the look from becoming too heavy.

The good news is you can mix and match a whole variety of different combinations depending on what you want to achieve. Think about the look you want to create rather than getting hung up on matching individual pieces – do you want to style a pretty country cottage look, a sophisticated urban space, or a snug den?

Combine an oak floor with retro-style furniture and cosy up the look with walls in warm teal blue. Or give rich chestnut flooring a contemporary makeover with a neutral colour palette, and stick to pale creams and whites on walls and furniture for an effect that’s very in right now. Create a rustic feel with a pine-effect floor styled with Shaker-style furniture and panelled walls in white.

With its warm tones and timeless appeal, oak furniture looks good in any design scheme and suits a wide range of flooring. And if you’re wondering what colours go with oak furniture best, well, the answer is you can combine it with a huge variety of colour palettes, from pale pastels to rich dark tones.

Keep the look light and bright with pale-coloured wood in a textured finish and throw in white and pops of darker colour for interest. Or throw away the rule book and match your furniture with eye-catching oak flooring. The key here is to play with texture to create a contrasting effect and use rich wood grains to really bring the room to life (keep the walls pale for the best effect).

Hardwood floors bring a sense of luxury to your home and dark wood floors, in particular, create a very warm and inviting space. But it is possible to get the look of genuine hardwood in a variety of cost-saving options, including laminate and vinyl. Engineered wood is another great option where you can have the look of solid wood with a toucher base, and luxury vinyl tiles recreate the feel of solid wood but with incredible water-resistant properties.

Finding matching furniture with wood flooring is as easy as looking at the different tones of wood you are working with. Choose furniture that harmonises with the darker tones – reds, deep browns, slate greys, or other natural wood shades will all work well. Or create contrast by pairing dark wood flooring with white furniture, and adding colour and texture for the eye with deep green cushions and a knitted blue throw.

Hopefully, you now have a great idea of what colours go with your furniture, and what colours go with your flooring! If you would like some more assistance, you can always pop into your local Tapi store and speak to one of our floorologists, or even contact us to find out more information about what flooring we have available. Alternatively, for more style inspiration, head on over to our ideas hub.