Want your home to look lighter, brighter, and bigger than ever? That’s precisely what white oak flooring of a lighter hue can do for you. It’ll even help you hide dust or scratches to create a crisp, clean, elegant look.

Overall, light wood floors reflect the natural light in your home and provide a neutral canvas that allows other elements of your décor to shine.

That being said, there are other tactics that you can utilize to make your new hardwood flooring a real showstopper. Here are just a few.

Wide plank hardwood makes a humongous difference.

If you want to create a big visual impact, you really can’t go wrong with wide plank hardwood flooring. For starters, there are far fewer seams. So the grain and other unique characteristics of your hardwood really leap to life.

In addition to being wider than traditional solid hardwood, those planks tend to be longer too. Which means they have to be harvested from the tree trunks not the limbs. Consequently, the pure quality of the hardwood planks is dramatically better too.

Mix things up a little. With wonderful mixed-width hardwood.

It used to be that the widths of real wood flooring were random because that was the best way to use up most of the tree. But now it’s also a great way to add a little more visual interest into your home.

When you use all the same species of the best wood flooring, the effect is subtle and delightfully unexpected. Think of it as giving your friends and family a reward for paying attention.

And, if you’re really adventurous, you can use both mixed widths and different hardwood species blended together. Just be careful that you don’t overdo it.

There’s a pattern here. A herringbone or chevron wood floor.

Here’s yet another way to make your new wood plank flooring really stand out. Just have it laid out in an interesting pattern.

A herringbone wood floor features a diagonal arrangement, whereas a chevron hardwood floor relies upon a very distinctive V-shaped pattern. The chevron is of particular interest since it creates an optical illusion like that hardwood flooring might be tricky to walk on.

Best of all, you need not try to figure out the pattern yourself. There are plenty of prepackaged hardwood options that already have it all mapped out.

Hardwood: not necessarily a no-no in the kitchen any more.

“Should I put hardwood flooring into my kitchen?”. Back in the day, the answer was a resounding “No!”. But today, more and more homeowners are choosing to do exactly that.

The best hardwood floors are softer and warmer underfoot than say ceramic tile is. Engineered hardwood is also a better option for you in the kitchen.

Of course, just like that fact that oil and water don’t mix, hardwood flooring and water don’t either. Be sure to wipe up any spills immediately and you should probably add on a waterproofing finish like aluminum oxide.

At Carpet Exchange, we carry a veritable forest of fabulous hardwood options for you to choose from. So stop by soon. And get ready to see the light.