Here we share our matching hardwood floors guide including effective tips, factors to consider, and how to match hardwood to vinyl and laminate.
Well, matching hardwood floors isn’t that difficult to do. It is actually a great idea to enhance the appearance of your flooring. However, it also has a few downsides.
There are several ways on how you can match hardwood floors with new or existing ones. In this article, you’ll know some of the tips and reminders that will guide you in ascertaining a faultless transition and a well-polished flooring appearance.
How To Match Hardwood Floors
Match The Tones
Ensure that you’re selecting the closest color to perfectly match it to your hardwood flooring. The color you’ll select does not necessarily need to be 100% the same with your hardwood floors’ tones as your furniture, carpets, and other accessories can conceal those little color dissimilarities.
Custom Staining
What’s more logical is to just have a custom-mixed stain that’s matched to the current hardwood’s stains.
This activity usually involves mixing customized stain colors until the mixture starts to match the faded tones and stains of the current hardwood floors. Read more about our guide on the different types of hardwood floors here.
T-molding Process
This process is normally used to bridge gaps found in hardwood flooring. This is also generally used in doorways to cover up uneven and odd cuts that are caused by 2 different hardwood flooring installations.
The T-molding process highlights a narrow channel that slithers between 2 gaps in the hardwood. After that, it will conceal the area using a rounded or square trim piece that almost levels to the current hardwood floors.
Hide Floor Imperfections Using Stain Pens
Stain pens work almost the same as paint pens. You just need to start pressing the white tip downward to let the stain drench the tip.
Use the stain pen to fill in all the floor blemishes and scratches. Make sure to remove all the excess stain using a slightly wet rug.
Once the stain gets dry, you can try putting a supplementary coat until all the blemishes are starting to get unnoticed.
End-Molding Process
Matching Existing Hardwood Floors
In reality, existing hardwood floors can be matched with either old or new hardwood floors. If the process is done correctly, the transition between the floors will look faultless.
When matching existing hardwood floors, you might need to consider these few factors:
The Species Of The Hardwood You’re Installing
Some wood species like red oak can be easy to match, but wood species like maple can be more challenging to match with other hardwood. Read more about our guide on maple hardwood flooring here.
Your Existing Hardwood Floor’s Condition
But other than this, there are no other ways to make matching hardwood floors easy. Read more about our guide on the cost of wood flooring here.
Your Existing Hardwood Floor’s Age
This will make matching very difficult as new and existing maple hardwood wouldn’t look good together.
This is still possible though. There are several staining processes that might help you match your existing hardwood floors with new ones.
Matching Vinyl Flooring to Existing Hardwood
It is a board that’s placed between 2 different floors to provide a seamless and smooth transition. This process is easy if you wish to match vinyl with hardwood.
Transition strips can be installed using screws or adhesive construction glue. But remember, you need to make sure that the tones of your vinyl flooring match the color of your existing hardwood flooring.
Matching Hardwood Floors to Laminate
To match hardwood with laminate effectively, some experts are also installing transition strips. One other thing that will make the matching process successful is by incorporating the T-molding process. See more related content at our article about laminate flooring pros and cons on this page.
Since I had a lot of free time recently, I decided to try fixing any spots on our wood floor using a stain pen. In some areas, it worked well and helped me achieve my goal of covering those spots. For scuffs that can’t be removed using this method, though, I applied a vinegar-based cleaner and wiped it gently using an extra-fine steel wool. It helped me deal with those scuffs on the floor right away.
Hello,
Thank you for your wonderful article. I have wood like porcelain tiles in my kitchen, bathroom and entry and carpet in the rest of my home. I would like to install hardwood floor and get rid of the carpet. How do I match the hard wood with the wood like porcelain tiles?
Thank you.
I am trying to match our hardwood floors with a Pergo or similar product. Our hardwood is 2.5” We need to keep the laminate as thin as possible as we cannot remove the underlayment of the floor that will have to get laminate. We will use a transition strip. Our best option would be one that has 2.5” strips or that appearance.
Looking for a solution for best match of 2.5 in hardwood in our hall. Bedrooms are carpeted and I want to replace with laminate and have no idea what to get
Will you share the color and brand of flooring shown in the picture under the words “Your Existing Hardwood Floor’s Condition” ? thank you