Why You Might Want To Avoid Dark Hardwood Kitchen Floors As An Avid Home Cook

When renovating your kitchen, you have a lot of choices to make, even when it comes to colors. You need to decide what kind of countertop material you want to use, along with the color and finish of your walls, cabinets, appliances, and floors to make sure everything comes together cohesively. The latter can be a particularly important choice that's sometimes overlooked, as the floor color can really make or break the flow of a room. When installing hardwood, many people love the warm, luxurious look that darker colors bring. However, any kitchen flooring has its pros and cons, and dark hardwood floors are poorly suited to the kitchen if you're a frequent home cook.

While dark hardwood isn't more likely to get cracks or scratches than any other hardwood, any imperfection will be more obvious against its dark surface. There's no quick and easy repair for these scratches either; you'll likely have to remove and repair an entire board to fix it, and it still might stand out from the rest of the floor even then. Because of this, dark hardwood will begin to show its age more quickly than other varieties.

In addition, it's more obvious when dark hardwood floors are dirty than other varieties, as any kind of dirt, fuzz, or aberration stands out in stark contrast to the dark wood. In the kitchen, where lots of food is prepared and the fight to prevent the sights and smells of trash never ends, your dark wood may look dirty a lot of the time unless you clean it very frequently — and most cooks don't want to sweep the floors every time they make a meal.

If the challenges that come with dark hardwood flooring don't scare you away from installing it, there are a few things you can do to keep it looking its best. First off, you should choose a floor with a low gloss finish. The less shiny a floor is, the less likely it will be to show off scratches, and while the dirt might still be fairly noticeable, it won't be as glaringly obvious as with a high-gloss finish. The lighting in the kitchen can also help your floors stay looking their best, as bright, high-powered lights reflect heavily off the floors and make dirt and dents more noticeable than if your kitchen has soft, warm lighting.

If you love the look of dark hardwood but are worried about it aging fast, consider placing it in a lower-traffic part of your home. Not only are you likely to use your kitchen every day, but for families with children, kitchens are high-traffic areas that are frequently at the center of home activities and hangouts.

This is why families often end up regretting dark hardwood. Consider placing it in a bedroom or a den. That way, you can appreciate the look of the wood without its appearance immediately being lost to dirt and damage. Keep these wood floors clean and polished, and they'll last for much longer than they would in your kitchen.