Grey Wood Flooring Ideas: Designs For Creating a Rustic Look

Neutral colors have a nearly universal appeal when used on walls and floors. This is because these areas act as a backdrop to other accents and paint colors. For many years, beige was the reigning champion of neutrals, but over time people began to desire a neutral that had more personality. Now the new home decor trend on the block is grey hardwood flooring.

This interior design style can still be used with lots of other accents, has universal acceptance, but also has a character of its own. Plus, grey hardwood floors help to hide dust, dirt, grime, and scratches, making them perfect for homes with pets or children. For these reasons, many shades of grey are growing in popularity.

Wooden floors can be warm and light grey or it can be cool and dark grey, which means that there is a shade for every home and every homeowner. Hardwood floors with a grey finish have character and personality that can far surpass other flooring styles. They’re an ideal foundation for throw rugs and furnishings, but have enough color and interest to be left bare as well.

If you’re looking for a way to remodel the type of wood flooring in your home, take a look at these grey wood flooring ideas.

Selecting a Floor

There are a lot of considerations that go into selecting a hardwood floor for your home, and choosing a grey wood floor is no different. Real wood floors can be made from many different species of wood, and they can be given numerous finishes. You’ll also have the added benefit of being able to refinish real wood floors in the future, which can’t be done with laminate flooring. 

Some wood species are harder and have more durability than others, which can influence your ultimate choice. Good examples of durable, solid wood include maple, oak, and hickory. However, each of these wood species will also have different character and wood grain marks.

For example, maple is often a very uniform wood, with either few or very consistent wood grain marks. This can give you a grey wood floor where the color is the main attraction, with a very quiet, subtle appearance.

White oak has a naturally blue/grey background color to it, along with a more pronounced wood grain. So, a grey wood floor in white oak will have a different, richer color to it, along with more variation. White oak has many benefits, including being somewhat water resistant. Grey oak flooring would offer durability and longevity to a flooring remodel, as well as being nice to look at!

Red oak has a slightly creamy pink background color, which will warm up the grey finish of the floor, and produce a grey wood floor that fits in better with accent colors on the red side of the color wheel.

Hickory has a very wild, pronounced wood grain that varies tremendously from piece to piece and within one piece. A grey wood floor made of hickory will have a lot more character and color variation; this is a solid wood floor that you would want for an uncovered space so it wouldn’t clash with other patterns.

Selecting a Finish

Like all hardwood flooring, grey hardwood floors can come with several finishes. These may be a subtle, quiet, matte finish, a highly polished finish, or a distressed finish. The finish you choose may impact the way that the grey color shows up, along with how the wood grain shows as well.

For example, a quiet, matte maple floor will have a consistent, soft grey color. It will make an excellent floor for a wide range of home designs. A white oak, grey wood floor with a high gloss finish, will have a more striking and dramatic look; it would be a centerpiece in the room design and would work better in more formal settings.

A distressed grey wood floor would have a more rustic appearance, regardless of the wood species, and could be used in farmhouse, cottage, and rustic-modern home designs.

Grey Flooring Design Ideas

Like all wood flooring, grey finishes come in a range of styles that can give you very different looks and room ideas. Take a look at these grey wood floors to get an idea of how you could use them in your own home.

Warm, Distressed Grey Wood

Grey in its purest state is a very cool color. This floor warms it up by letting the natural wood tones show through. Saw marks and other distressed areas keep the floor from being too formal, which also warms it up visually. This wooden floor would fit in best in an informal living room, rustic kitchen design, or dining room in a cottage style home.

White Oak Grey Floors

This grey flooring shows off the beauty and grain of a white oak floor, with the grey serving to highlight the variation in grain, color, and texture. Because white oak already has a blue/grey tint, the grey finish complements its natural color beautifully and lets the variation shine. Go for a minimalist style by using this floor somewhere in the open, such as a dining room or living room, without throw rugs to let its character come to the forefront of the interior design.

Greige Wood Finish

Another very popular way of describing a soft, warm grey floor is by labeling it the color “greige”. This means a blend between grey and beige, which warms up the grey tones and lets it fit in with more settings. These soft, wide planks have a very subtle variation. They would work well in a room that had a lot of pattern and color going on, that needed a floor that would complement, but not contrast.

Light Grey Wood Finish

Formal settings need more quiet, elegant floors. This light grey wooden floor has a subtle variation on the grain and in the knots, giving it just enough interest to keep it from being boring. But the overall color and tone is light and consistent, letting it fit in best with a more formal room in the home. Light wood floors can increase the brightness of a room and are ideal for rooms that don’t have much natural light, are darker, and are smaller. 

Distressed Rustic Flooring

Distressed grey flooring has a lot of interest and variation to give it character and dimension. This floor shows nail marks and a streaky finish, as well as a contrast between the natural wood and the grey color. This makes the floor full of depth, and perfect for fitting in with a rustic, cottage, or rustic modern setting.

Consider Going Grey

Grey wood floors have a more unusual appearance than a more naturally finished hardwood floor. This will automatically make them a focal point in the room design. If your floors need a makeover, consider investing in a new, grey wood floor to help give them the character and create the dream home you’ve always wanted. Elmwood Reclaimed Timber carries narrow plank options as well as wide plank options, which can give the room design a more contemporary feel. Contact Elmwood Reclaimed Timber today to find out more about grey wood floors and find the right style to fit in with your home decor.