There’s no doubt about it: When it comes to choosing to floor for your home, it’s hard to beat the luxury, warmth and glamor of hardwood flooring. Here’s a look at the top hardwood flooring trends 2019 has to offer, along with an overview of why wood flooring provides a superlative choice that you’ll appreciate for years to come.
What is Hardwood Flooring?
Unlike vinyl flooring or laminate flooring that’s made with a faux wood finish, hardwood flooring is actually made of real wood that’s been harvested from a wide range of tree varieties. These trees are first to cut into logs, which are then sawn into planks. From there, manufacturers can process three types of hardwood flooring: solid flooring, engineered flooring, and acrylic impregnated flooring.
Here’s an explanation of these three types:
Solid Wood Flooring: This is constructed of planks cut from a single piece of wood that retains its natural tongue and groove edges. These planks can be finished or left unfinished to show the natural beauty of the wood. The quality (and price) of solid flooring depends upon the species of tree and grade of wood being used, but solid wood flooring is typically the most expensive type of wood flooring.
Engineered Wood Flooring: Engineered wood flooring is made of a plywood core board with a veneer of fine hardwood glued on top. Because the only part that can be seen is the luxury hardwood veneer, engineered wood flooring looks just as good cosmetically as solid wood flooring; but because of the plywood core, it costs significantly less.
Acrylic Impregnated Wood Flooring: This is a term used for engineered hardwood flooring that’s been chemically impregnated with a liquid acrylic that fills the wood cells and gives extra support to the wood structure. This process is done to add strength and durability to the hardwood floor. In fact, it can produce a flooring surface that’s 300 percent harder and more durable than a natural wood surface.
Advantages of Choosing Hardwood Flooring
What are the advantages of hardwood flooring? Other than cosmetic ones, which I’ll discuss in a moment, one of the biggest advantages has to do with investment value. According to realtors across the country, hardwood floors can add as much as 2.5 percent to the final selling price of a home. Likewise, according to the 2017 Remodeling Impact survey from the National Association of Realtors, refinished hardwood flooring is one of the components that most appeals to today’s home buyers.
Here are a few more benefits you’ll get from choosing hardwood flooring:
Durability and Longevity: Builders and realtors agree: Hardwood flooring can have the longest life span of any other flooring material. As long as it’s taken care of with regular maintenance, hardwood flooring can last for generations to come. If you’ve ever seen TV documentaries featuring Colonial Williamsburg or famous American mansions from two hundred years ago, you might remember seeing the original hardwood flooring in these homes.
Easy Maintenance: If you’re worried that hardwood flooring requires more care and feeding than other types, rest assured — it doesn’t. Thanks to today’s specially-formulated hardwood floor cleaners, all you need is a quick wipe with a soft mop or sponge. Plus, if you prefer a wax finish, today’s waxes can be applied quickly and easily in minutes, with no buffing required.
Tax Benefits: Did you know that hardwood flooring has a lower sales tax? In some states, hardwood flooring is considered to be a capital improvement, so the sales tax will be lower than on carpet flooring and tile flooring.
Beauty, Warmth, and Elegance: Finally, hardwood flooring has an incomparable natural beauty that will enhance any room and give your home a customized, decorator look. With the many hardwood flooring trends, 2019 has to offer, you’ll be able to find a style that will not only suit your home but also your budget.
Factors to Consider When Buying Hardwood Flooring
Thanks to the many types of hardwood flooring available on today’s market, it helps to do a bit of homework concerning types and styles of flooring. We’ve already discussed the three types of hardwood flooring — solid wood, engineered wood, and acrylic impregnated — but you’ll need to make some aesthetic decisions as well.
In addition to choosing the type of flooring, you’ll need to decide what flooring style you want. Hardwood flooring can come in a wide range of geometric styles, from three-inch strips to wide planks, and from classic parquet tile to squares and rectangles. Thanks to design and manufacturing innovations, today’s homeowners can choose from a wealth of trendy flooring ideas that can transform a home into a decorator showplace.
What you choose will have a tremendous impact on the overall look for your room. For example, wide planks can give your home a rustic, pioneer look (think of those homes in Colonial Williamsburg), while classic parquet flooring looks more formal and elegant.
By the way, what exactly IS parquet flooring? Do you remember seeing those square wood tiles that look as if they’re made of tiny, variegated strips within each square, with each strip a slightly different shade? That’s parquet flooring. Parquet tiles are made of a thin wood veneer on top (usually around 5/16″), which can be put on a solid wood or plywood base (depending on whether the flooring is solid wood or engineered).
You can also choose innovative, modern geometric patterns that will start the party rolling as soon as your guests enter the room. For something completely different, consider hardwood flooring cut in a mesmerizing jigsaw puzzle pattern, with each piece interlocking in a fascinating design that will keep your guest’s eyes riveted to the floor (which, admittedly, might hamper conversation a bit).
After choosing your preferred style, next comes the fun part: choosing what type of wood you want, as well as what color finishes will look best in your home. If you want to hear more about trends in hardwood flooring colors and other popular flooring trends for 2019, keep reading.
Wood Flooring Options for 2019
Types of Wood
When it comes to hardwood flooring trends, 2019 has been a banner year for introducing different kinds of exotic woods into mainstream building projects. That’s why choosing the right wood can be overwhelming, unless you look upon it from a decorator’s standpoint.
When choosing wood, think about the type of ambiance you want to impart upon the room. Do you want a warm, inviting coziness, or a regal, formal tone? Do you want something that looks modern or something that looks like it’s materialized from the pages of a Regency romance novel? What mood should the room inspire — playful and whimsical, elegant, or outdoorsy and adventurous?
Here’s a look at different woods and the moods they inspire:
Bamboo: Did you know that bamboo is actually a grass, not a wood? It’s categorized as a hardwood flooring, however, because it gives the pleasing appearance of a light, lemony wood that imparts an airy, open feel, making it great for smaller rooms.
Since it’s not an actual wood, bamboo is always manufactured in an engineered, rather than a solid wood, format. Because it’s fast-growing, it’s a rapidly-renewable resource. Plus, it’s every bit as durable as traditional hardwoods — and easy to clean as well.
Brazilian Cherry: One of today’s most popular luxury hardwoods, Brazilian cherry (also known as Jatoba) has a magnificent reddish brown color that’s dramatically streaked with black. You can get it finished or unfinished (depending upon whether you want a lighter or darker color), and it lends an incomparable warmth to any room.
Mahogany: What’s more elegant than a traditional mahogany floor? Available in natural or finished veneers, mahogany offers stunning beauty and warmth, as well as amazing durability. In fact, mahogany is one of the most durable of all hardwoods and is even stronger than oak. One of the year’s most popular trends is Santos mahogany, an exotic strain that comes in luxurious shades ranging from orangey-brown to dark chocolate.
Maple: One of the most popular hardwoods, maple has a color palette that rivals the versatility of oak. In addition to traditional maple tones of lemony tan, you can also choose smoky greys, classic neutrals, and exotic gingery spice tones. While oak absorbs stains better, maple can actually be more resistant than oak when it comes to dents and scratching.
Douglas Fir: One of the year’s most popular hardwood flooring trends is Douglas Fir, a reddish-brown pine that imparts a rustic, primitive look, thanks to its classic knots and wavy grain. Available in a wide variety of finishes, Douglas fir has a natural strength that makes it incredibly long-lasting — just think of all those historic log cabins that are still standing with their original fir floors intact — and this durability makes it not only a good investment but eco-friendly as well.
Wood Colors
When it comes to hardwood floor color trends, 2019 offers an amazing array of shades and tints, from versatile neutrals to dramatic, sizzling redwoods. Here are some popular flooring trends for 2019:
Brazilian Cherry: As I mentioned before, when it comes to the popularity stakes, Brazilian cherry wins hands down this year as a customer favorite, thanks to its signature deep red color emblazoned with streaks of black. No matter what flooring style or design you choose, Brazilian cherry hardwood makes a bold statement that commands attention as soon as you enter the room.
Ebonized Hardwood: Another top choice for this year is ebonized hardwood, which is created by adding an opaque ebony treatment to oak, cherry or walnut. The result is a versatile black or brown-black color that adds an elegant, contemporary vibe to any room.
Darker Colors: Within the last several years, the trend toward darker colors has continued to grow. Today’s most popular colors include dark walnuts and coffee browns, which lend themselves to a variety of decorative schemes.
Greige: While dark colors are popular, those who prefer neutral colors are enthusiastically embracing a new blend of light/medium brown and grey. This marriage of tints has created a new color sensation: Greige. Greige is sweeping the country as the year’s hottest new decorator color, and hardwood flooring manufacturers are following the trend by offering a variety of woods in this intriguing shade.
Where to Buy Hardwood Flooring
By now, you’re probably asking “Are there flooring stores near me that sell these fabulous hardwood floors?” The answer is yes — every floor we’ve talked about (with the possible exception of that jigsaw-puzzle floor) is readily available at any good flooring store or discount flooring warehouse.
When you’re ready to start shopping, be sure to get a comprehensive flooring sale and installation estimate that will give you the complete price for flooring and installation, including any additional materials and labor. Otherwise, you might get a case of sticker shock that could totally ruin the enjoyment of your beautiful new flooring.
If you live in or near Arizona, be sure to visit Express Flooring, Arizona’s largest one-stop flooring shop. Express Flooring offers more than a million square feet of every type of flooring — from a wide range of hardwoods, to vinyl, porcelain, tile, laminate, stone and carpet flooring.
Express Flooring carries an amazing range of hardwoods, from popular classics to trendy, innovative styles, all at competitive prices. In addition, Express Flooring virtually brings the store to your door. All you have to do is call for a free flooring sale and installation quote, and a professional staff member will show up at your door with a huge array of flooring styles for you to choose from, along with expert decorator advice on what type of flooring to choose.
n addition, Express Flooring offers fantastic perks such as next-day installation, extensive warranties for your flooring, and year-round discounts for public service/government employees, seniors and teachers.
When it comes to hardwood flooring trends, 2019 is one of the best times to buy, thanks to an unprecedented range of hardwoods, designs and prices to choose from. Whatever you choose, remember that hardwood flooring is a lifetime investment — one that not only increases the value of your home, but also the quality of your life. If you want flooring that will last in 2019 and beyond for generations to come, you can’t do better than choose an attractive hardwood flooring that will enhance your home, while also suiting your lifestyle and budget.
