An interior decorator’s secret weapon is the ability to understand how color works and then how to use it. Dark colors appear heavy, so to ground an interior scheme you can use a dark floor covering. This can be either a fixed floor covering like carpet, timber, or tiles, or can be a movable item like a floor rug. Take a look at some of the examples here and you will start to understand what grounding a scheme means.
See Lee Brown from WillowCollege present an interior design tip about using grounding an interior scheme using dark floor coverings. Take a moment to subscribe to WillowCollege’s Youtube channel so you don’t miss any of the other interior design tips.
Dark Timber Floor
Dark-colored timber allows the floor to look solid and heavy, this provides the illusion that everything else is light around it, this is helped with the size of the window and the natural light coming through it. You can now focus on the focal points in the room, which is the sculptural furniture.
Dark Floor with Texture
You can see in this image that there is a dark timber floor then a dark floor rug. This adds a soft texture and makes the bedroom feel more welcoming and luxurious. The walls are also textured, this allows for a more casual feel to the space. The fun comes with the striped linen adding personality to the bedroom. You can see how the dark floor coverings set up the space to ground the floor and allow for the action to happen above.
Make the Floor Disappear
Sometimes we just don’t want people looking at the floor, we want them looking up and around and in this commercial situation, we want them to buy things. Here the black floor has been used to make it disappear as well as providing the necessary contrast to the cabinetry and walls allowing them to become the focus. The dark floor looks heavy and solid and makes the space feel reputable and sturdy. It also helps to hide lots of things you don’t want the customers to see. As you can see if you look closely they have taken the black up the walls and are covering up some services.
The Golden Sofa
This wonderful herringbone dark timber floor sets a great backdrop for the golden sofa to be the hero! Contrast is a useful tool for designers. It’s not all about which colors you choose, it is more about which combination of colors you choose and how these colors when put together enhance the look of one another. This is called juxtaposition, some colors are made more intense when placed together, others look duller. Read more about the juxtaposition of color here. In this example the dark timber with a lack of Hue (color) allows us to see the vibrancy in the gold sofa.
Using a Floor Rug
If you don’t have a dark floor already you can use a floor rug to define a space and as seen here use it to highlight the white sculptural chairs. There are so many ways to play with a floor that can change the way a room looks.
Making a Statement
You can see here that by making this floor dark, and having dark timber trim in the interior, all of the pale timber furniture and cabinetry stands out and becomes the focus of the space.
This interior is a little different, they have dark flooring, but they also have dark walls. This has proven to be too much for the space, so they have chosen to use a floor rug to lighten up the room. Personally, I don’t believe the pattern works with the design of the room, but I can see what they were trying to achieve.
The dark floor in this example defines the space within a much larger space. It is then focused in even more by the use of the floor rug which adds some much-needed pattern and movement to the space.
Black and White Floor
Black and white are used frequently to create high contrast. This is a great example to show how the black floor grounds the space. It is heavy and solid and permanent. It can definitely carry the weight of the heavy table and all else surrounding looks light and airy.
Light Floor
Here is an example of a light floor, see how different the room feels. It feels open and endless. Not heavy and grounded.
A mid-toned floor – what does it say? Not much really.
Now, if you want to see how your selection in floor coverings makes a difference to how a room feels – check this out! The room is already incredibly busy, add in the highly ornate floor, with multiple colors and a 3-dimensional pattern and our eye just doesn’t know where to look! Imagine if it was a dark warm timber, where would your focus be then?
I hope you enjoyed this brief look at using a dark floor to ground an interior scheme. See more Interior Design Tips
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