The Best Hardwood Flooring Colors (Our Favorite Specific Products)

Hardwood flooring has a lot going for it: it is classic in every way, it's durable, and eco-friendly. The type of wood, board width, pattern, and color also allow for limitless style options. Today we're focusing on hardwood flooring colors, specifically for site-finished (sand and finished) floors, which you can find here in Nashville or anywhere else in the good ol' US of A. These are not the trending hardwood floors of 2020. These are our tried-and-true, looks-good-on-every-floor-we've-applied-them-on, we-want-them-all-in-our-own-home favorite colors. These are just our opinions, but then again, we are Nashville's hardwood flooring experts...

The number of colors available for hardwood flooring is a little dizzying, as you can see above. These are just a few colors from only three manufacturers, and it's still enough to make a homeowner's head hurt. When we're sanding and refinishing here in Nashville, we always ask our clients the kind of tones they like. Warm? Cool? Red? Neutral? That alone narrows down colors quite a bit. Depending on if they want polyurethane or a hardwax oil like Rubio Monocoat, we then apply stains or other products on the sanded floor so they can see how the color samples look in their own home.

Think of this list as a jumping off point for you and your contractor. Don't be afraid to ask questions or request more samples! A reclaimed white oak floor will look very different than a hickory floor, even with the same color on it, so make sure you have a good idea of what your floor will look like before it's applied everywhere. The natural color of the wood, the grain, and other factors all play a role in the color of your hardwood floors. Now, let's get down to business.

1) Rubio Monocoat: 5% White

No, this isn't a white floor. The white sticks to the grain only, highlighting it in a very subtle way. We love this look on white oak, and it helps neutralize the pink undertones in red oak hardwood floors. 5% White also lends itself well to modern homes or those that have a Scandanavian decor style.

Hardwood Floor Finished with Rubio Monocoat 5% White

2) Woca: Pure

Woca Diamond Oil is one of our favorite products, along with Rubio Monocoat. We love the pure "color," because it allows wood's natural beauty to come through, and evokes the warm amber tones of older oil-based polyurethane floors. We used it here on this white oak floor, surrounding the maple and walnut baseball medallion we inlaid, and you can see the natural variation in the floorboards.

White Oak Floors with Maple and Walnut Baseball Inlay. Finished with WOCA Oil in Pure

3) DuraSeal: Antique Brown

DuraSeal Antique Brown is a traditional stain, unlike Rubio Monocoat hardwax oil and Woca Oil, which are completely different products all together. (You can read more about different types of hardwood finishes here.) We love the rich, dark (but not too dark) color, and it matched perfectly with this basketweave parquet pattern in a home in Brentwood, TN. This tone leans more traditional, in our opinion, so it works well with classic styles.

Hardwood Parquet Floors Stained with DuraSeal Antique Brown

4) Rubio Monocoat: Bourbon

Rubio Monocoat's Bourbon color is the perfect light, neutral brown color. It dispels pink undertones in red oak, but it warms white oak and maple. It's a great color, and we even like to blend it with their other colors, like we did here with a custom mix of bourbon and walnut in this Belle Meade home.

Reclaimed White Oak Floors Finished with a Custom Blend of Rubio Monocoat Bourbon and Walnut

5) DuraSeal: Espresso

While we try to forget all the matching Espresso furniture we used to decorate our first apartment, DuraSeal's Espresso stain remains a classic color choice for hardwood floors. Its rich, dark brown color complements many traditional homes, of which there are plenty here in Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, and beyond.

6) Woca: Sand Grey

Gray floors, or grey floors, if you're fancy (AKA European), have surged in popularity in the last decade. As homeowners eschewed all of the beige warm tones of the early 2000s, they turned to gray for paint, decor, and even hardwood floors. While gray hardwood floors are definitely trending, if done well they can be just as classic a choice as brown floors. That's why we love Woca's Sand Grey. It's a warm gray that doesn't scream I'm Trendy right now but you'll hate me in 10 years! Instead, it creates a more subtle, cooler gray toned hardwood floor.

7) Rubio Monocoat: Black

We started our list with white, so now we'll end on the other end of the color spectrum. Rubio Monocoat's Black isn't really black at all. Instead, like DuraSeal Espresso, it's a rich warm brown color. Here we applied it over red oak, which, along with white oak, is the most common type of hardwood floor in Nashville homes. With a color this dark, however, very few people would be able to tell the difference. If you want less red to come through in your red oak floors, this is the way to go.

Red Oak Hardwood Floors Finished with Rubio Monocoat Black

So there you have it! Those are our favorite colors for hardwood floors, and we're sticking to it. If you have questions about these colors, your floors, or any other hardwood flooring problems and you live in the Nashville area, please give us a call at 615-416-9039. We're always happy to help!