Need to match hardwood floors???

[alpidarkomama]

My first non-homeschooling question! So exciting! :)

 

We're going to get rid of the rest of the carpet in our house. It's only about 400 square feet total. The rest of the house has oak hardwood floors. The learning room and the music room are the two rooms that we're working on. The learning room is just off the living room, but the music room is off the kitchen.

 

Do you think we need to match the hardwood floors in the living room to the new floors in the learning room? I found a close match, not exact, but pretty close. It's not my favorite choice. I really liked a light maple laminate because it would reflect more light (lighting is an issue in our learning room that we're working on too!). It's quite blond, so of course it wouldn't match at all. There is a set of French doors between the living room and learning room, but they're usually open. Anyway... would it look okay to have two different wood floors adjacent to each other?? Or should they really match????

 

Thank you, Hive! The best answers always come from here. :)

[northcoast]

I don't think they need to match. We put all the same hardwood in the kitchen, DR, and hall and tried to coordinate with existing baseboard and wood kitchen cabinets. We took a cupboard door and baseboard to Lumber Liquidators so we could put it next to different floor samples to see which we liked best. Then we brought a sample home to see it in the different light at home - both day time and night.

 

HTH!

[Tammyla]

I'm hoping to read a good answer here. I'd love to match our hardwood kitchen floor throughout the downstairs.

[Plink]

You will probably be happier if you do not attempt to match the existing floors. Wood (and sealant too) changes color over time. Anything you match today will probably not match in several years. To truly match a floor, you will need to tolerate an un-matching floor for several years - and you still aren't guaranteed a perfect match.

 

Personally I would choose something entirely different. The light wood you described sounds lovely!

[Perry]

We just did this last year. My kitchen, dining room and entryway were all oak, and the rest of the downstairs was carpet. We had a local company do the work, and they were able to match the oak almost exactly. He was able to tell by looking at the existing floor where it came from, and he ordered the new oak from the same factory (or lumberyard, or something). They then "laced in" the new wood so there was no demarcation between rooms.

 

I originally wanted to replace the carpet with bamboo, but I was the only one that thought it was a good idea. :glare: I'm glad they talked me into matching it up. It looks really nice.

[Perry]

 

I'm hoping to read a good answer here. I'd love to match our hardwood kitchen floor throughout the downstairs.

Aren't you in Iowa somewhere? If you're near Cedar Rapids, I can recommend the people that did ours. I think he travels all over eastern Iowa. I can post or send you pictures of the work we had done.

[sweetstitches]

Are they being stained in the home? I would try to match them as close as possible. Honestly, it would be a huge turn off to me if I were home shopping and the hard wood floors didn't match.

[May]

We didn't and at first it bothered me. We had to put engineered wood over the flooring in the living room that could have contained asbestos. It is a light oak while the rest of the downstairs is a golden oak (real wood) As time goes on, it bothers me less and I guess I could always sand the real stuff to make it match.:001_smile:

[TechWife]

We changed our flooring this year. We had ours match. They are finish on site hardwoods. The company came out, laid the new floors (same kind & width as old) and sanded down both the new and the old floors. When they sealed them, they all matched. It would absolutely drive me nuts if they didn't as we can stand in any one room and see two other rooms. Now that the flooring matches, the first floor of our house looks bigger as well.

[Parrothead]

I have one room that does not match. Well, really two if one counts the kitchen. Anyway the wood in the bathroom (yes, wood in the bathroom) is totally different than the bird's eye maple in the rest of the house.

 

Although it does not match it is fine just the way it is.

[alpidarkomama]

I forgot to say that the new floors will actually be laminate. The floor in the next room is real hardwood. So... near match or completely different??? There will be doors and a threshold thing between the two rooms. Would a near match really just look different??? I wish I could try out both colors before we put it all in!

[Garga]

I forgot to say that the new floors will actually be laminate. The floor in the next room is real hardwood. So... near match or completely different??? There will be doors and a threshold thing between the two rooms. Would a near match really just look different??? I wish I could try out both colors before we put it all in!

 

 

Are you able to bring samples home? They'll only be a small square compared to the whole room, but maybe it will help you to decide either way.

 

 

Does it need to be wood? Could you use ceramic tile or something else instead? Then it wouldn't be expected to match at all.