Tons of interiors make use of wood for flooring; it’s a timeless, beautiful and long lasting surface that comes in tons of options to match any home and style preference. When renovating, matching new flooring with your existing flooring correctly can be tricky. What happens when you want (or need!) to add new wood floors to a space with wood flooring already in place? You've gotta combine the two! As interior design experts, here are our best tips to help you make it happen!
The three keys to weaving in REAL hardwood flooring:
Identify Species and/or Grain.
This can be tough, especially if your current flooring was laid down before you moved in. If you aren’t able to find the details, you can make an educated guess based on several factors including: When your home was built and the area it’s located in. It’s really important to match the grain pattern’s orientation/direction across your entire space. If the boards aren’t aligned, the new flooring won’t look uniform — even if you get the stain matched up perfectly! If you need more help with identification, we love this comprehensive guide.
Measure The Width.
Get out that measuring tape! It’s important to know the width of your wood strips, that way when you go to purchase your flooring you can choose an option with the same width. This will work wonders to integrate the new flooring with the already existing flooring.
Find a Matching Stain.
The best part! Finding the perfect matching stain can take a little finesse if you’re a beginner. Please don’t run off to the hardware store with only a mental image of the stain color you need. There are tons of floor stain types, colors, finishes, etc. so even if you’re the best at matching colors it’s likely to be more than a little “off.” Instead, we suggest making use of samples. Bring the samples home and take a look at how they interact with your current flooring. Before you make your final selection, be sure you’ve viewed the stain of your choice in all different lighting.
** But what if you can’t weave in real hardwoods?** For whatever reason, it sometimes happens. In that case there’s only one rule we live by, and it's our final tip:
Match Your Existing Wood With Engineered Flooring.
Do your best to match what is in your home with an engineered floor. The engineered flooring that is available today is actually made with real wood, which can be refinished multiple times and can hold up to a lot of wear and tear. The hardest part of matching these floors is pairing the widths, as engineered floors typically come in wider planks than traditional wood flooring. So, we highly recommend matching your current stain to your favorite engineered floor and adding a seamless transition piece or threshold.
If possible, always do your best to keep any existing hardwoods you have. In our humble opinions, real wood (rather than engineered) is always the best option for a wood flooring. There is nothing like a real hardwood floor in a space. It adds unmatched warmth and durability, and has a longer lifespan than any other flooring out there!
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