Dark!

Lighter

Darker, because that's what some species of real wood looks like when it expands and contracts (shadow). There's also a French bleed technique that makes the joints look darker. Light grout makes it look like tile, as that is what most people choose when laying tile :)

French bleed.

This flooring IMO should look as close to real as possible so matching the flooring will do that . You would not see a light real hardwood floor with dark grooves so why would you want that with this

I'm sticking with dark, wood ages darker. And Jewel agrees!

Dark looks more realistic to actual wood.

A dissenting opinion. I prefer the lighter color as it is closer to the wood tones. The darker shade creates more obvious grout lines. Those lines would not be so wide or obvious with real wood planks. Let us know what you decide.

A friend did lighter & I see their's. Dark better.

When we moved into our home 10 years ago, we wanted the hardwood floors stained much darker than their natural finish. The flooring company could not get the stain right so we reverted back to the floor's original natural oak color. However, the dark stain penetrated the seams and remains today. When I see the dark grout around the natural wood color it reminds me of our staining mistakes.

dark looks like laminate to me

The dark looks more like real wood for sure. The sides on real hardwood flooring creates shadows which the dark grout will mimic!

Although this is not a great picture.. This is the engineered hardwood we use within our showroom, here you can see the natural shadow that occurs. as well this flooring as been designed to accentuate were each plank meets. We hope this helps with your choice!

Dark. I have natural oak floors and they have the dark lines. I think the dark looks more real and the upside is that you won't see the dirt!

I am having same predicament. Wondering what you finally did?? Do you have a photo?

surprisingly, I went with the blending color. I love how it turned out! Hope this helps. The color I picked is probably the middle tone of the tile.

I prefer the dark.

It looks beautiful. I don't have a good
blending color. My tile is a really life like raw wood look so it has varied
coloring with some gold and grey undertones.

It doesn't have enough
brown in it to go with a mocha/cocoa I don't think.

The lighter grout is
a beige and blends some places but not others; likewise with the dark grout
which is sort of a dark brown with some gray in it I think.

I have attached close up of the 2 samples
stuck between 2 random pieces of my tile (but again..tile color is varied).
Color in this photo fairly accurate.

Also attached is a photo of my tile in someone
else's home with the beige grout (taken by the contractor). Third is
a picture of my floor in progress...color doesn't show accurately, but you can
see how many knots and color variations there are.

What do you all think after seeing
photo...beige or dark brown??

Thanks so much...!

Dark.

When I see photo one with the grout choices I am a bit torn but when I see the contractor photo it looks too light. I have seen floors where the grout is too light and it screams fake wood. I think I would go with the darker one. I think it is comparable to my floor grout choice in tone. The dark option I had was almost black for reference. Depending on your tI Minh you can have them sample it on a few tiles ( problem is you have to wait for it to dry to see the real color though). It is a big decision so it might be worth it. Grout will eventually get dirty so the lighter color will show that more. I think your darker choice looks great. Let us know what you decide. If they can mix your grout with a stain preventing grout mixer instead of water it is better. Hard water can sometimes create white spots on your grout. We have really hard water:0. When I did the grout I had them almost carve it out so that it dips down a touch instead of being flush (I didn't have straight edges on my tile though. I had the rounded ones. Anyway maybe too much info :). Love your floor though!!

what did you do?

Just done last week. I did the dark and it looks amazing! It really isn't that dark and blends perfectly with the tile so it makes it look really natural. The light would have been awful with this particular tile I think, and not blend as well as I first thought. The dark picks up some of the medium colors.

Thank you all so much for the help!!

So I used Castelvetro Woodland Oak 8x48 tile with TEC Power Grout Sable, and they did 1/8" grout lines. The Grout was expensive but has built in sealer to help maintain color and keep clean. Well worth it I think. The woodland oak tile is beautiful and has many varied patterns so you have to really search for the like tiles.

Looks great! So glad you did the darker one :). Congrats on being done with the floor.

Color? Trying grout Florida tile Kerala Karma planks. Looks .