Wood flooring is easy to clean and suitable for dust allergy sufferers. While using the same flooring throughout your home creates a sense of space, it's not necessarily the way to make the most of each individual room. Dark wood floors, such as Brazilian walnut or mahogany, work well in both south-facing rooms and large rooms; smaller rooms benefit from lighter tones such as ash, maple or white oak. Not only can you combine different woods for the flooring in your home, but you can also mix and match woods elsewhere, such as the furniture and cabinets. Contrast Ensure the different woods in one area are distinctly different, as combining woods that are too similar in color can appear as if you have simply made a mistake. In the hallway, for example, combine a dark wood on the stairs, stair rails and doors with a much lighter color on the hallway floor. If you are going to lay a darker wood floor in a room off the hallway -- such as the kitchen -- aim to match the color of the floor with the darker wood in the hallway.

In the same way, match the color of the kitchen cabinets with the lighter tones of the hallway floor to maintain a sense of cohesion throughout the home. Laying the Floor In a long, narrow area, avoid laying the flooring so it runs parallel to the length of the space. This will only reinforce the sense of length and lack of width, creating a bowling alley effect. Laying the floor so it does not run parallel with the length of the space makes it appear wider and takes the emphasis away from the length. When laying two different floors in adjoining rooms without a door between, maintain the direction the floor runs in throughout both spaces. If, however, the two adjoining rooms are separated by a door, mix things up even more by changing the direction the floor runs in. Transition Ensure that the transition between different flooring in two adjoining rooms happens in a straight line at the threshold of the room. A piece of T-molding is a quick and easy way to create a neat transition. Viewed from the end, this molding creates a T shape, where the lower part slots in between two floors and the top part creates a smooth transition.

Draw a straight line to mark the center point of the threshold and leave a small gap between the two floors to slot the T-molding. Room Size In a large room that receives little natural light, opt for a warm wood for the floor. Beech, Brazilian cherry and redwood are all suitable and feature warm orange and red hues. Picking out those warm hues and using them in the paint on the walls will not only complement the floor, but it will further help to create a cozy atmosphere. In a small room, use a light wood -- such as hickory, maple or cypress. Opting for a highly polished surface also helps to bounce light around the room, creating a sense of space. References Ask a Floor Guy: Mixing Multiple Floor Coverings in Your HomeHome Improvement Time: No More Matching! Photo Credits Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images Suggest a Correction From bullnose trim to stain pens to T-molding, there are many ways to blend new wood floors with preexisting floors to ensure a seamless transition and a polished, designer look.

Sun fading is a leading cause of mismatched floors. When laminate or engineered flooring is involved, try and match the faded tones of the existing floor to new products being installed. Gather samples with different intensities of the same color, then pair them with the existing, faded floor. Choose whichever sample is closest in color to the existing floor. Even though the match may not be exact, once furniture, area rugs and accessories are added to the space, the slight difference in floors will be minimized.Affordable Wedding Dresses Jhb When hardwood flooring coverage is expanded, it's not always necessary to sand and stain both the preexisting and newly covered areas at the same time. Window Cleaning Dallas GaInstead, consider having a custom mixed stain matched to the same intensity of the existing wood. How Much Cla Fat Loss

This often entails having a contractor water down a stain color until it matches the sun-faded or dulled tones of the existing planks. Real estate experts and interior designers are apprehensive about mixing different types of wood flooring, because the abrupt transition can cause rooms to feel disjointed. Here, a red-toned hardwood hallway leads to a master bedroom covered in ebonized obsidian plank. Prior to hiring an interior designer, the abrupt transition drew attention to the bedroom floors, creating the look and feel of an afterthought. An excellent way to solve this dilemma is with T-molding. T-molding is used to bridge gaps in hardwood. Commonly used in doorways to camouflage rough cuts made where two different installations of hardwood flooring meet, T-molding features a narrow channel which slides between two gaps in wood, then masks the area with a slightly rounded or square piece of trim which sits nearly flush to the existing floors. Here, the T-molding will lay directly over the seam where the red-toned hallway wood meets the ebonized bedroom wood, blurring the lines between the cuts from each plank.

Over time hardwood floors are likely to receive their fair share of nicks and scratches. These isolated mishaps can be fixed with the simple use of stain pens. Similar to paint pens, stain pens need to be shaken before use. Press the white tip down to allow the stain to saturate the tip. Fill in any imperfections with the stain, then wipe away excess stain with a damp cloth. Should the stain dry too lightly, add an additional coat until the imperfections are adequately camouflaged. Shoe molding is a wedge-like trim that conceals gaps between cut planks of wood and surrounding baseboards. To keep shoe molding from looking mismatched, invest in full strips of shoe molding to span the length of a wall rather than having multiple cuts where additional shoe molding has been added. This requires taking off the existing shoe molding with a mini crowbar, mitering its corners, then attaching with a nail gun. Carpet transitions are used to slightly overlap the edge of wall-to-wall carpet at the point at which it meets hardwood floors.