The depth of colour of the flooring will be dependent on overall lighting situation. If you have a light, airy feel to the home (tall ceilings, tall windows, plenty of natural and canned lighting) then you can work fairly dark with the flooring. If you have "normal" everything then you may want to work 1 or 2 steps lighter with the flooring than you "want" to work.

In darker or poorly lit areas the flooring will turn 2-4 shades darker. Hence the reason why you might want to keep the floor to mid-tones. The Bella Verona Bologna is a mid-tone floor that is starting to move towards the darker side of "mid tone". This will be a beautiful floor for a home that has some sort of "airiness" to it. It all depends on the layout of your home and the natural light sources.

House is open and airy - basically kitchen great room dining room all one room. But the windows are all at one end of the home - think perhaps Forti might be a better choice? Will still play off mindful gray walls but not darken living area. What do you think? We are doing 1200 square feet - kitchen, great room area (includes dining room) and hallways and foyer. Want to keep the look "rich" but not dark and gloomy.

Do you think the Forti would look ok with gray walls? Still enough contrast? I just think Bologna is too dark, and I want to stick with Hickory.

Get a sample and put it on the floor. During the day toss it around the room (dark areas, light areas, sunlight, shadows, dark hallway, etc) and do this for a few days. The Forli has more gold in it...which means the choice of gray may have to be adjusted...but may not be needed.

For this reason the floors get chosen and paid for (but not installed) AND THEN the walls are painted with the appropriate colour base. It is hard to say what the wall colour will do with that gold/brown/gray instead of red/purple/gray undertones. It could work...or it could cause your eyes to ache.

It all depends on the lighting and how the colour of the floor casts back onto the walls. Take a sample home and live with it for a few days. Move it around...watch the colour cast on the walls. If you don't like it...then you know you have to work with Bologna Hickory or the Pisa Maple.

Thank you so much! This stuff is driving me insane. We painted the entire home Mindful gray just to get rid of all the ugly colors we inherited when we bought the house. Picking a "darker" floor, which I thought would be a piece of cake, has turned into just the opposite. I will do as you suggest - I will grab the Forti and the Pisa Maple and see how it works with the walls over the weekend. The bologna could work - the room is huge with 20 foot ceilings - just not a lot of natural lighting. Just afraid the dining room will look black. Will keep you posted.

I think that it really is too dark.

Thanks,
J Design Group, Miami Interior Designers - South Beach - Coral Gables - Sunny Isles - Williams Island - South Miami - Pinecrest - Miami - Modern Interior Design Firm in Miami, Florida - Ocean Front Contemporary Decorators - http://www.JDesignGroup.c