Top paint colour matches for wooden flooring

Here are some of the top paint colours to try in your home to accentuate those timbers!

Pale, cool blues look fantastic with natural wood grains

Pale, cool blues look fantastic with natural wood grains.

Wooden flooring and furnishings are reasonably common around Australia and New Zealand. Much of this is because of the warmer temperatures throughout the year, but it's also due to the fact that this natural appearance is absolutely gorgeous within any home.

There are a huge array of timbers to choose from, each offering its own grain. Plus, Resene Colorwood interior stain can also change the hue of the timber, allowing you to choose the perfect tone for your home. As an added bonus, floors made with renewable timbers are an environmentally friendly material, so you know you're helping reduce your home's carbon footprint.

If you do have wooden floors and other furnishings (such as unpainted window frames, furniture and kitchen cabinetry), you may be wondering which paint options will work best. Ideally, you'll find one that complements the natural hue and brings out the grain in the wood, while also looking fantastic by itself.

Here are some of the top paint colours to try in your home to accentuate those timbers!

Natural greens

If in doubt, take a cue from nature. Any shade that you can see outside your window will generally look fantastic within your window, too.

Natural green hues complement wood

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To keep a room light and airy, match your wood tones with paler greens. For a cosy warm atmosphere, consider medium and dark greens.

For example, Resene Amazon is a lush rainforest hue that works well with lighter wood tones, and the paler Resene Bay Leaf will work with virtually any wood type.

Neutral whites and greys

As with most colours, off-whites and greys will generally match everything. These tones are often the best at highlighting the other colours in the room, and they will really allow any wood furnishings to stand out.

A neutral grey dining room

Neutral greys help bring out the tones of wooden floors and furnishings.

This option can work best when you are particularly fond of the wood grain and what to accentuate those knots and stripes in the timber. Plus, it's also a good choice if you have a lot going on in the room already and don't want to overwhelm the space by bringing in a new hue. Whites and greys work equally well with paler and darker woods.

An off-white tone such as Resene Alabaster is always a winner, and a cool grey like Resene Ajay is a great way to veer slightly away from the expected but still keep it neutral.

Warm orange tones

Many timbers carry warm undertones, which makes them exceptionally good at matching hot paint colours such as orange, terracotta and dusty reds.

Like green, the rule of thumb is that if you can see it outdoors, it'll work indoors, too. Therefore warm earthy, clay tones are always a good choice.

Resene Burning Sand sits on the pinky-red side of the spectrum and is particularly suited to medium wood tones, whereas Resene Di Serria offers a terracotta hue that will instantly warm up a room and bring out those gorgeous wooden tones.

Pale blue

A blue colour steps away from the usual wood matching schemes as it isn't a tone that you often find in nature. Therefore, it's a great way to add something a little unexpected to your home, while still creating a stunning and welcoming interior space!

Blue hues with grey undertones often work best, especially when paired with darker woods such as walnut. This offers a contrast both in the shade and in the colour, which allows them to play off one another.

The cool tones of Resene Scandi is a great example of a paint that looks simply phenomenal with wooden floors and furnishings.