The Most Popular Blonde Flooring Options

Blonde flooring is what everyone has been talking about in the last few years. It is a new and emerging trend or a trend that is coming back from a few years ago. It is flooring is assumed as a very classic option of solid wood flooring from many. It is because of the light colours and simple appearance of blonde flooring that can suit all sorts of styles and designs. Contemporary and modern or traditional and even vintage, this type of flooring is a good solution to any interior design you can think of. Blonde flooring can work as a simple background to more expressive, loud, and bold interior designs, colours, furniture pieces, and textures. It can also contribute to a relaxed, simple, even minimalistic style at home or the office.

What makes blonde flooring so popular in the upcoming year and probably longer than that is its simplicity. It is a safe choice because it will never truly go out of style or look tacky. In contrast, it is somewhat of the epitome of real wood floors and what people envision first when the words “wood flooring” are mentioned. Blonde flooring will be always easy to style around and play with, no matter if you decide to go from cutting-edge modern to vintage at home in a couple of years or go from red walls and plush sofa in bright yellow to a minimalistic colour scheme and Scandinavian-inspired designs.

Three main factors affect the lightness of wood and make it blonde flooring:

• Wood Species
• Stain Colour or the Natural Colour
• Type of Polyurethane Finish – Oil-based or Water-based

What is Blonde Flooring?

When it comes to solid wood flooring, like it is with everything else, there is no such thing as “one size fits all”. Real wood flooring comes in an impressive variety of textures, colours, finishes, and looks in general, and this is one of the most wonderful things about the market. When it comes to this type of floor, there is no single type of real wood floor that is categorized as blonde flooring. In fact, under this broad umbrella of blonde flooring fall all floors that are naturally or intentionally made light in colour and don’t have a lot of natural patterns, which means they are often prime grade. The lightness of wood can be determined by many factors, some of them being natural, others affected by people, such as staining and finish.

Most importantly, different people call blonde flooring on different floors and for different people, the meaning of light can mean something different. To achieve blonde flooring, in case wood is not natural light, you can alter all three factors determining its look, or one or two of them, and be able to achieve the effect of blonde flooring you are going for. If you are refinishing an older wood floor, you are probably going to change some things and go for staining or finishing with a certain type of polyurethane finish, or other professional treatments to make the colour of wood lighter. However, if you are considering buying a new floor and you want blonde flooring, here are the most classic and beautiful wood species that easily can provide you with the one that you want for your home or office.

Which Wood Species Make Blonde Flooring?

Red Oak

A very common and domestic type of wood species in the UK, red oak is lighter than its “brother” and often a rival on the market white oak. Yep, the name does not suggest it, but red oak is a great choice if you want blonde flooring. Red oak has pinkish undertones and a stronger graining.

White Oak

This one more a very classic choice for blonde flooring and real wood flooring in general. Compared to red oak, white oak is slightly darker and with more golden undertones. It is also slightly harder and slightly more durable. If you want to make white oak floors even blonder, they work perfectly as a base for white and grey floor stains and water-based polyurethane that will make a floor a real blonde flooring.

Maple

In terms of natural colour, maple is the lightest of the domestic wood species and easily creates beautiful blonde flooring. With a smooth graining for a modern and simple look and harder than oak, maple is the ideal choice if you are going for the simple Scandinavian interior and naturally blonde flooring.

Birch

Birch is yet another great option for naturally blonde flooring and is very similar to maple. It is very light and with smooth graining, but it is not as hard as maple. Birch doesn’t stain well. We recommend you use water-based polyurethane to prevent the yellowing of your birch blonde flooring.

Ash

Ash is very similar to oak and also makes up for beautiful blonde flooring. However, ash is less hard and durable than oak.

Wood Grade and Blonde Flooring

Not only the colour of wood species, but their grades too will strongly affect the way blonde flooring looks. As you can guess, the more natural pattern the wooden floorboards have, the less blonde they will be and the darker they will look, even if it comes to oak, maple, or birch. Therefore, when you are considering blonde flooring, you also want to think of choosing the right grade. Prime and select grades are your best choice for blonde flooring because both categories mean there will be little to no colour variation and natural patterns such as swirls, knots, etc. On the other side of the spectrum, rustic grade makes for very distinctive and unique floors with a lot of natural patterns and very noticeable colour variations in the floorboards.

The Lightest Floor Stains for Blonde Flooring

Remember that it is impossible to convert a dark cherry, walnut, or chestnut floor into blonde flooring. Wood floor stains are great, but they cannot do magic. However, you can brighten up and make lighter wood species that are naturally already light and classify as blonde flooring. Here are the most popular wood floor staining options for it.

Natural

This pretty much means you are leaving the natural colour of blonde flooring exposed and not using any additional staining colour besides the transparent protective coat of the finish.

Whitewash

Whitewash has been a very popular choice in the past few years and is perceived as the ultimate choice for blonde flooring by some people. Whitewash colour gives the home or workspace a very modern, contemporary, clean look.

Light Grey

Yet another popular and modern option of blonde flooring in the last few years. Light grey colour gives the home the ultimate cutting-edge modern look and makes every room look more spacious.

Other Traditional Options for Blonde Flooring 

All the rest of the stains will be naturally darker than Natural. However, this does not mean they cannot offer you blonde flooring. While not the crisp airiness, simplicity, and clearness of whitewash and light grey, some lighter wood floor stains will give the floors a bit more character and depth. Other wood floor stains for blonde flooring you can consider include Golden Oak, Golden Pecan, Fruitwood, Ipswich Pine, and Puritan Pine.