Choosing the right stain color can completely transform the look of your hardwood floors. In 2025, trending stain colors range from timeless classics to bold, modern hues. Whether you prefer rich, dark tones or light, natural finishes, we’ve rounded up the most popular hardwood floor stain colors to help you find the perfect match for your home!
Hardwood Floor Stain Trends in 2025
Reports show that hardwood flooring is topping the charts as a number one choice for homebuyers.
But before you press go on your new flooring, you have an important decision to make. What wood color will you choose?
Nowadays there are more wood flooring stains available than ever, and it can feel daunting trying to pick an option from all the selections.
If you want to make sure your new floors don’t look dated from day one, you definitely want to take some inspiration from current trends and find out what flooring color options are the most popular in 2025.
Ready to get clued up on color before you start installing your wood flooring? Keep reading to discover some of the wood flooring trends that were big in 2025.
Light Natural Tones Are Hot On Hickory Floors Without Stain
One of the big wood floor trends we’ve witnessed over the last few years is light, natural tones.
One of the reasons behind the popularity of light, natural wood floor finishes is the overall move towards these wood tones in design.
As Scandinavian design made waves, so did its signature light, natural wood colors.
If you love the Scandinavian influence, then light wood flooring color options might be the ideal choice.
Not only are they right on-trend, but they are also practical. Light wood flooring finishes are great for disguising dust and dirt marks. They also bring in a lot of light, softness, and warmth into space, while still being highly neutral.
The neutral tones of these light floor color options also make them easier to pair contemporary furniture and decor against.
Last but not least, light and natural wood flooring colors can also open up areas visually and create the illusion of spaciousness.
Medium Browns Stain Makes Your Wood Floor Look More Consistent
Although light natural wood floor colors are highly popular, medium browns still remain a tried and true favorite.
Medium brown natural wood floor stains colors pair particularly well with traditional and timeless design styles. Earthtone shades are also ideal for setting a backdrop for midcentury modern-themed interiors.
There is a myriad of medium brown wood floor stain colors to choose from, so give some thought to how dark you want to go and what tone you want.
A great way to approach this is to think about your color palette and the items you own or want to incorporate in the space.
For instance, an aged oak floor in a medium warm-toned brown will pair exceptionally well with a color palette of creams, peachy tones, and warm metals.
On the other hand, a darker stained, cooler-toned maple floor might go better with blues, greens, olive colors, greys, and taupe.
When it comes to choosing between light and dark floor stain colors, you should also think about the level of contrast you want to create. For instance, medium brown wood floor stain colors will create a mid-range level of contrast with light walls and soft furnishings, whereas a light floor will create a softer more monochromatic look.
Dark Browns Stains Are Not As Popular as Last Year
Dark natural browns are just as popular as light natural wood flooring colors and medium browns.
Dark natural browns add a statement and can lend an added sense of luxury to a space. They are also very grown-up and traditional. For instance, very dark wood floor colors are usually the best option for Tudor homes.
At the same time, a lot of dark brown tones also lend themselves exceedingly well to modern, contemporary, and minimal spaces.
Dark brown hardwood flooring stain colors can also create a lot of contrast if paired with white walls, which is great for adding impact.
As far as practicality goes, darker flooring color options tend to show more dirt than lighter stain colors. Any scratches that crop up are also more visible on a dark wood floor stain color.
If you have kids, dogs, or a lot of foot traffic in your home, then you might want to opt for a medium or light brown color for the sake of practicality.
However, if you really have your heart set on a dark shade of wood floors, then the extra cleanup might be worthwhile.
What’s more, interior design experts are predicting that the recent Met Gala’s influence is likely to overflow into people’s homes in the form of dark antique woods. If this is true, dark brown is likely to continue to be one of the big hardwood floor trends in 2022.
Black Floors are the Most Uncommon Floor Stain Choice
If you want your floor to make a statement, then black wood flooring stain colors are the answer.
Blackwood floors aren’t very common, therefore they will instantly differentiate your home. They are also ideal for achieving a high-contrast look.
According to Architectural Digest, black wood flooring is both more lux and more unexpected than any other option, including the finest herringbone or the widest whitewashed planks.
As far as drawbacks go, black is probably the most high maintenance of all wood flooring color options. It takes the most light away from rooms.
However ever, if you want to do something bold, high contrast, edgy, and fearless, then choosing black wood floors might be perfect for achieving this.
Whitewashed Options Are Gaining Popularity As Stain Colors
Another highly popular choice when it comes to wood flooring colors is whitewashed options. Whitewashed hardwood floors disguise the warmer yellow and orange tones that some homeowners dislike and make for a great neutral option.
Whitewashed floors are a dreamy pairing with both coastal and modern farmhouse design styles. However, thanks to their neutral nature they can make a wonderful backdrop for a variety of aesthetics.
Thanks to their ultra-light color, whitewashed hardwood floors also bring a lot of light into rooms and can create the illusion of extra space.
Whitewashed flooring can also make rooms feel cleaner and more uncluttered.
Grey Flooring, Not As Common as a Stain as Last Year
Grey has been all the rage in the interior design space for the last few years. Because of this, grey hardwood flooring has been a very popular option and still is a go-to choice for a lot of homeowners.
However, over the last few years, the popularity of grey has slowed down a bit, with some designers calling it out as tired and overdone. Because grey is neutral, it probably won’t go very far out of fashion.
Do you love a grey color palette or have your heart set on grey-toned hardwood floors? If so, then you shouldn’t let the fact of it being one of the wood flooring trends that’s slowing down discourage you.
Grey will most likely continue to be a common color in interiors, even if it isn’t as hot a trend as it used to be.
What’s more, there are a lot of ways you can make a grey interior feel current. One of the tricks is to warm it up with naturally opposite tones like brown woods and leathers.
Warm Tones Are Popular Wood Floor Stain Colors
Yellow might be one of the floor color options that are least popular at the moment. Some people associate yellow wood stains with old, yellowed varnish, which might be one of the reasons why very yellow-toned wood isn’t all that popular.
Yellow tones can also be difficult to decorate around if you are trying to achieve a traditional or contemporary design style.
However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider yellow-toned hardwood floor colors at all. If you like yellow-toned wood floors, that is reason enough to include it as an option.
What’s more, yellow-toned hardwood floor stains can also be ideal for certain specific design goals. For instance, if you are aiming to create a rustic or cabin-style feel, yellow-toned flooring might be a good choice in stain color for the wood floors in your home.
Yellow-toned wood flooring stain colors are also useful if you want to achieve a lived-in feel in a new build or family home.
Warm Tones of Hardwood Floors Are A Top Stain Choice
Another set of lesser popular hardwood floor color options are red and orange tones.
The reason for this is not so much that they are entirely outdated or inherently undesirable. Instead, red-toned flooring tends to be polarizing. What this means is that most people either love them or hate them.
Red-toned wood flooring is also anything but subtle, so it doesn’t blend into a room the way softer and more neutral woods do.
Like black, red-toned wood flooring makes a statement and has a high visual impact. However, it is more difficult to match with other tones and design elements, because, unlike black, red is not neutral.
That said, red-toned hardwood floor color options are surprisingly versatile and can be paired with both contemporary and traditional design styles.
What Color of Floor Stain Is On The Hardwood Floor In Your Home?
I love the natural finishes on hardwood floors, especially on lower-graded Red Oak and Hickory. I say the lower grades like Cabin because those flooring products will exhibit a wide range of colors. A floor that has a stain added will lose some of the contrast that makes that floor appealing to me. In my house I have a wide plank Hickory with no stain; only an oil-based polyurethane. The poly, being oil-based, did cause the stark white heartwood to take on a softer, warm hue which I really like.
What Is Your Most Popular Color Of Stain For A Hardwood Floor?
Picking the right color before installing wood flooring can feel like a confusing task. However, now you know about the main hardwood floor trends from 2022, you’ll be primed to select an option that will stand the test of time from a design perspective.
Hardwood Floor Colors at the Best Prices
Are you ready to start picking out potential floor color options for your hardwood installation? We stock a variety of hardwood floor colors at some of the best prices in the country.
Visit our online storefront today to browse our hardwood flooring selections.
Check Out Our Warehouse Sales For Great Deals On Hardwood Floors.
Each month at ReallyCheapFloors.com we have a Warehouse Sale. This is where we get rid of our closeouts and slower moving goods. Also, most of our price reductions on in-stock inventory will happen at the same time. Don't miss this opportunity to save big bucks.
