How To Match Light Stairs With Dark Floors

How To Match Light Stairs With Dark Floors
  • Author: Amanda Arnold
  • Posted On: July 28, 2022
  • Updated On: August 21, 2023

There’s a good possibility that most of the houses in your neighborhood have more than one story. Most likely, your property includes stairs as well. And while you might not give them much thought during a typical day, giving your home new flooring can make them one of your top worries.

Most people purchase homes without giving the stairs much care; whether carpeted or wooden, they were often that way when you purchased the home. For the first time, you might have pondered if you decided to remodel your staircase or replace your flooring.

The improvement of flow is the aim of good flooring. Those entail seamless flooring transition from one level to another for stairways. If you do it well, all that will be visible is the beauty of your house, not how awkward the flooring appears to be.

What Would Be The Best Flooring For Stairs?

The most secure stair flooring is carpet. In addition to offering traction, carpeting offers a softer surface if you fall, lowering the possibility of harm. The carpet can be just as dangerous as other forms of flooring; it’s crucial to remember that.

Because it offers the cleanest underfoot traction, you should choose one with a low pile. If you have dogs, keep any looped carpeting away. Your pet could fall and get hurt if their claws are caught in the looped carpet.

If you choose, you can make some simple alterations to make hardwood stairs safe. Install and make use of handrails.

What Are The Considerations For Matching Light Stairs With Dark Floors?

There are some fundamental decorating trends, such as matching and coordinating, to consider while choosing to floor for your home. Matching is typically what people consider. Since the floors are identical or almost identical, this style is exact.

You should limit the number of distinct flooring types in your home to three if this is the style you decide on. But coordinated is the name of the other approach. Your design can feel casual and less formal if your floors are coordinated but not identical.

Additionally, coordination gives you additional options when choosing your floors. This design uses repeated flooring components to create a sense of cohesion throughout the entire home. In one room, you could put down a hardwood floor, and in another, tile of a corresponding color.

These floors share a similar color. A different hardwood color may be used on another floor, which would share the same material as the first floor.

Is It Possible To Paint Hardwood Stairs?

For sure! A somewhat skilled DIYer can take on the project of painting or staining the stairs to match the rest of the flooring. It requires time and persistence, but it is unquestionably a goal that is attainable.

Before painting the steps, a coat of priming, paint, and water-based polyurethane must be applied. Instead, if you want to stain the steps, you will still need to prepare them first. For this project, you’ll need a reliable orbital sander.

The wood conditioner and stain are the next two things you will apply. Water-based polyurethane sealing, similar to when painting, is the final stage.

Add Carpets To The Stairs To Match With Dark Floors

One of the most popular solutions is to carpet the stairs to match the flooring if your home has carpet on one level and hardwood floors on another. Using the same carpet on both levels makes a visual connection and provides a safe route.

There are alternative methods if carpet on the stairs isn’t your thing. Consider adding a runner in a complementary color instead of completely carpeting the steps. With this, you may connect hardwood to carpet using lead-in lines more upscale manner. It maintains clarity and directs the viewer’s attention upward and beyond.

Additionally, if your staircase has several landings, you can opt to emphasize the way you add flooring to the staircase. Perhaps you could use carpet on the first landing before switching to hardwood to match the various levels.

Go For Hardwood Stairs And Also Hardwood Floor

It’s pretty simple to combine hardwood floors above and downstairs by adding hardwood steps. A thin runner can be used as an alternative if you dislike plain steps. It gets a little difficult when the bathroom and downstairs flooring is different.

Your stairs should ideally have a component from each floor to help you transition between the two. By just mixing both colors, you might be able to merge two different colored floors for steps. One color can be used on the tread and another on the riser.

Another choice is to paint the steps with one color and the handrail with a different color as an accent. Or you might use colored-variegated boards.

Conclusion

A home’s first floor and second story are connected via stairs. For this reason, the flooring for the stairs should also be a transition that unifies the upper and downstairs floors. Wooden steps are one option, combining both options by utilizing wooden stairs and a runner.

Lighter staircases provide a wonderful contrast to whatever darker furnishings you may have in your house. Despite the eye-catching clash of hues, the entire design is still cohesive and does not appear overly cluttered or overbearing.

Keep in mind that every component of your home can serve as an inspiration for your style. Choose a color, paint the stairs that color, or decorate the wood or neutral stairs with colored stair treads.

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Author: Amanda Arnold

Amanda has been working with ConstructionHow since 2021. Her experience spans over 5 years in the creative niche such as home decor and trends, landscaping, renovations, and custom architectural values. As a home designer expert, she has a keen eye for the latest home improvement trends with accurate facts that readers find impossible to ignore. Being invested in home-building trends is how she has gained her lucrative expertise exploring more to bring a positive ambiance for all homeowners (and even tenants!). Currently, she lives in a beautiful beach home, a source of fascination for her.

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