How To Match Wall Colour To Your Floor

After investing in new and stylish flooring, the last thing you’ll want to do is spoil the room by rushing the paint job. Although it sounds tedious, it’s important to match your chosen wall colour to the tones in your flooring because the floor is the second largest surface in the room.

Whether you’ve opted for LVT, vinyl flooring or laminate flooring, there are certain paint schemes that will or will not compliment your floor. However, most floors, especially wooden floors, have a neutral palette of earthy browns and greys, so finding a floor and wall colour combination isn’t too difficult. Simply follow this guide to find a wall colour to match your flooring.

Detect Your Floor Colour

Chances are you’ve already got a vague idea of whether you’d like a bold or subtle colour. So, to find a shade that matches, it’s important to detect whether your floor has warm or cool tones. This will then help you coordinate and imagine what your wall colour ideas will look like.

Detecting your floor’s colour is easier than it sounds, simply looks for the undertones of the wood. Warm floors tend to have yellow, orange or red undertones, whereas cool floors have grey, blue or taupe undertones. If you've installed funky or unique luxury vinyl flooring (as this can come in a variety of designs), this process may take a little more time.

Find your floor’s most prominent colour on the wheel below, which will tell you whether it is in the warm or cool section. Hues such as purple or yellow can be classified as either warm or cool depending on the shade.

Related: A Guide to Different Flooring Grades

Our Flooring Calculator

When you browse any type of flooring at Factory Direct Flooring Ltd, each product has a flooring calculator on the page. Simply enter the surface area in either metres or feet squared and our My Project flooring calculator will tell you how many packs you’ll need and how much it will cost you.

By simply measuring your room and entering your dimensions, we will provide you with an instant price which will show on every type of flooring you browse across our website. You can either input the total coverage or your width and length measurements, in meters or feet. You can even save your measurements room by room to make your shopping experience stress-free.

It also offers to add an extra 10% for wastage. While this may cost a little bit more, we highly recommend adding it just in case there are mishaps during the installation process. Enjoy the My Project flooring calculator below:

Should walls be lighter or darker than floors?

As a rule of thumb, you'll want to ensure that your wall colours are lighter than your floor colours. Generally, it looks better if you go at least 2 colour shades lighter on the walls than the floors.

However, it all comes down to preferences and there are instances where you'd like darker walls than floors. This can depend on the furniture layout, colour scheme and more.

Finding a Matching Wall Colour

Stick to the Colour Family

Now you know the colour of your floors, finding a corresponding wall colour is surprisingly easy. The general rule is that warm colours go well with other warm colours and the same with cool colours. This helps to emphasise the natural tones of the wood or laminate. For example, if you have a terracotta floor with undertones of red, a warm yellow wall will not look out of place. Similarly, if your flooring has a blueish-grey tinge, a cool green wall will go well.

Go for a Contrast

Another option when choosing your wall colour is to create a contrast by finding your hue’s complementary colour. This can also be done with the above colour chart. Simply go for the colour which is opposite your flooring’s colour. So, if your flooring has yellow undertones, violet walls will create a bold statement while not looking out of place. The cool tones in the walls will then contrast with warm tones in the wood to make both surfaces stand out.

As well as the colours in the undertones, it’s always good to contrast the shades of your floor and walls. For example, don’t pair a dark mahogany floor with more dark walls, regardless of colour, as this can immediately make a room very heavy. Similarly to light floors, matching a white floor with pale or white walls can create a clinical feel. If you have dark floors, opt for a light wall colour and vice versa.

Try a Neutral Shade

If you’re still in doubt, a final tip is to opt for a neutral wall colour. This is an easy way of ensuring your walls will complement your floors, no matter what type of flooring you have. For example, simple shades such as cream, beige or taupe will go with most types of flooring and give you a minimalistic look.

What wall colours did you opt for? Let us know in the comments!