Once-Trendy Hardwood Floor Colors That Are Now Making Your Home Look Dated

As an interior designer, I absolutely adore wood floors because of the refined warmth and organic texture they bring to a space. However, as with all design selections, the devil is truly in the details, and the wood stain color can go from elegant to outdated in an instant with the wrong choice. Not only does this huge design element have a massive visual impact on the overall look of your space (floors cover a lot of square footage!), but wood floors are expensive to refinish or replace. Therefore, getting the color right the first time is essential.

So how do you know which wood stain colors are going to take a downward spiral in your space, moving in a direction from chic to "eek"? Whether you're choosing a pre-stained color option for engineered wood (or even wood-look luxury vinyl plank flooring or LVP) or selecting a stain color to refinish your hardwood floors, there are two categories of stain colors I always avoid thanks to their dated aesthetic. The worst offenders are overly drab, inauthentic gray wood floors that bore you to tears, or the polar opposite, overly saturated hardwood stains with overpowering red, orange, or yellow undertones that make you wince. Let's break down why these two dated wood stain color types really drag down the aesthetic, as well as which options to choose instead when selecting a floor or how to stain your existing hardwoods.

Once an extremely popular 2010s flooring trend that's now become tired and outdated, gray-toned floors have faded from favor for two major reasons: They're unnatural and sterile-looking. Aside from exposure to water or sun that causes a rustic patina, innately gray wood tones rarely, if ever, exist in nature. Therefore, the once-trending gray-toned wood floors you've seen exist that way because they were artificially gray-washed or manufactured that way. Unfortunately, since most of the population is at least subconsciously aware of this incongruity, gray wood floors give off the nearlyuniversal impression of artificiality. And because they exude fake vibes, they often read as the cheap way out, even if that wasn't the case, which is the last impression you want your new (probably expensive) wood floors to give.

On top of looking inauthentic and often economical, the cool-undertoned hue typically reads as boring, sterile, and uneventful. These soulless planks don't contribute any warmth, leaving the overall vibe as drab, uninspired, forgettable, and, quite frankly, straight out of the 2010s. Even though the floor color is new, they are immediately stuck in another rather visually uninspired era.

If you love the light, airy quality that gray floors give, but want a more updated, classic alternative, opt for a warmer light-hued wood stain. These maintain the same easy-breezy airiness but add a timeless, elegant warmth that makes a space feel more organic and inviting than gray alternatives. Just take care to test out light stain swatches on your specific hardwood species because it can reveal undesirable undertones, such as when red oak floors turn pink. I highly recommend working with a hardwood pro for creating custom light stain colors, as they'll know all the tips and tricks for navigating undertones from experience.

The second category of wood stain I always avoid is any over-saturated color with overbearing undertones that command too much attention. Think of the way a honey oak stain with intense yellow-orange undertones or a cherry stain with bold red undertones instantly transports you back to the 90s. These once-popular saturated stains finished with a glossy sealer were ubiquitous in the 1980s through the turn of the 21st century, but fell out of fashion in favor of more subtle, nuanced shades that weren't quite so aggressive. Because these super-saturated stain colors have such a dominant visual presence, they're notoriously hard to balance since they don't play nicely with others. When you walk into a home with a saturated wood floor stain, the effect is often jarring and overwhelming. The color palette is automatically inundated, as the saturated wood stain wholly overpowers the space, leaving no room for other elements.

If you want the drama and impact of a darker floor without the eyesore of an outdated saturated stain, opt for a desaturated hue with more neutral, calming brown undertones. Depending on your wood species, this can range from medium options like light oak, Early American, or medium/special walnut, to dark selections like dark walnut and Jacobean. Once again, I advise testing out each potential candidate as a swatch on your hardwood floors to see how it reacts with your wood species and natural light before committing, consulting a pro if necessary.

The next time you're in the market for new wood floors or have plans to refinish your existing hardwoods, do yourself a favor and steer clear of wood stains in the gray family or any over-saturated color with pronounced undertones. You'll thank me later!