Bamboo Flooring Colors & Styles

As well as being extraordinarily beautiful and durable, bamboo hardwood flooring is also versatile enough to fit into most home's decor. Bamboo flooring has two distinctive colors that make it an attractive and versatile flooring solution. One is a rich shade called “natural” and the other is a lovely, somewhat darker color called “carbonized.” Other aesthetic features of a bamboo floor include its vertical, horizontal, and strand-woven options. Bamboo is quickly becoming one of the most popular flooring materials both for modern homes and commercial buildings.

Natural Bamboo Shades

Natural bamboo flooring is a rich, creamy, golden blonde shade. With its unique look and feel, it can make any room seem brighter. This light-honey shade proudly displays the bamboo's beautiful grain, growth patterns, and joints, giving any room a more luxurious feel. Also, because natural bamboo floors are so light, they can make many small rooms seem larger than they really are. This is perfect for homes where space might be limited, as it can make any room feel more open and airy.

Carbonized Bamboo Shades

Carbonized bamboo wood flooring provides consumers with darker, caramel shades of flooring while still providing them with all the benefits of bamboo. Carbonized bamboo flooring is created when bamboo goes through its heating and pressurizing processes. During this process, the sugar content in the fibers darken from their natural shades to achieve a darker, coffee-colored tone. One drawback to this process, however, lies in the fact that carbonized bamboo becomes about 20-30% weaker than wood that has been not been exposed to treatment with boiling water for more than two hours, although it is still just as hard as most other hardwoods. This dark amber shade can be a perfect addition to many kinds of decor.

Horizontal Bamboo Flooring

One of the three styles of bamboo hardwood flooring is "horizontal style" - a kind of flooring that allows the natural growth rings of the stalks to be visible on the floor's surface. This occurs when the strips of bamboo plywood are glued together along their narrow edges with the wider surfaces facing up. The strips are laminated in three separate layers so that the thickness of the floor is the same as the "vertical style" flooring, and some sources even claim that it is actually harder.

Vertical Bamboo Flooring

When strips of bamboo are glued together with their narrow edges facing up, it creates a "vertical style" bamboo wood floor. This attractive flooring provides consumers with a beautiful bamboo edge grain with very thin lines between each of the laminated strips. This allows for more lines within the pattern of the floor, and provides a flooring with a very consistent, even color. This kind of flooring is perfect for small spaces due to its flair for making rooms feel more open and roomy.

Strand-Woven Bamboo Flooring

Strand woven bamboo flooring is produced from the excess strands of bamboo that are trimmed from the bamboo fillets during the milling stage. These thin strands of bamboo are intertwined and manufactured to create a new kind of "timber" that is scratch resistant, UV resistant, and moisture resistant. The new "timber" is then sawn into planks and becomes strand woven bamboo flooring. Not only is this particular style of flooring amazingly attractive and durable, it also goes to show just how extremely environmentally responsible bamboo truly is. This kind of flooring ensures that no part of the bamboo is wasted.

There is a lot to be said for a practical flooring option that is not only durable and reliable, but also stands out as being one of the most attractive as well. With a bamboo floor you are getting the best of both sides.

Choose a bamboo flooring color and style to suit your own decorating needs. Bamboo flooring is very hard and resistant to wear, no matter what the style.