Many medium toned floors are created using fuming techniques.

Fuming is a process that accelerates the natural aging of wood and in doing so it transforms wood to deep brown tones by reacting with the timber’s tannins. These tannins mainly occur in oak, but some other woods have them too.

The darkest form of this process is called double fuming, which is where the wood turns dark all the way through to the core, not just at surface level. This takes over three months to complete with the result being a strong brown colour.

We also create single fumed (or simply, fumed) floors where the fuming gives a much lighter brown tone of wood, but the fuming is much shallower – many of these floors would be described as medium in tone.

One thing to remember about fuming is that it only reacts with tannins and where there are no tannins the wood will not darken. The sap wood is the new growth on the outside of the tree, this is still hardwood, but its lack of tannins means that it will stay light when fumed.

These natural variations can be a beautiful feature in a floor due to the subtle beauty of the features.

Heat Treated Medium Hardwood Floors

Medium wood floors can also be achieved with heat treating.

This is a complex treatment where you cook the wood at a high temperature allowing it to slowly mellow to a brown, mid-tone wood; this treatment also increases stability.

Just like fuming, different degrees of heat treatment results in a range of medium tones. Heat treating transforms the wood’s colour throughout.

The colour of the woods are innovative and industrious, adding to the wonder the natural world has produced.

Natural Medium Hardwood Floors

Medium toned woods can often be considered the natural tone of the wood, with no treatment needed.

This is especially the case for walnuts and some tropical woods. American black walnut flooring is a deep brown tone. It has a subtle grain pattern with an array of other colours hidden within the wood, including soft greens, blues and yellows.

Other naturally medium hardwood floors include tajibo, a high-quality wood that looks similar to walnut, but has a tighter grain structure. We source this wood from FSC certified forests in South America.

You should also consider woods with texture and undulations as they work effortlessly with medium coloured flooring. One great example of this is Husk from our Warehouse collection. This is a floor that transforms a space. Every piece of the floor, in plank, herringbone and chevron, has been hand-worked to achieve a subtly undulating texture.

Handmade Medium Wood Flooring

Woodworks is our specialist division.

They handcraft wood floors that cannot be created in a under factory conditions, using delicate techniques which they have developed throughout the last decades of working with antique, reclaimed, aged and new woods.

From our Cheshire workshops, our Woodworks team make extraordinary medium wood floors in a range of species.

Abbot is a standout medium wood floor as it has a soft brown tone, almost feeling bleached, whilst retaining the medium colour. Throughout al of our Woodworks collections you will find all manner of medium coloured wood floors suitable for your project’s specifications.

Medium coloured wood floors are highly versatile and a popular choice for all residential and commercial spaces.

Being warm and welcoming, they work very well in traditional and period homes, pairing with the brown colours that often feature throughout. With these comforting characteristics, medium wood flooring makes rooms feel safe and secure, with a subtle link to nature. Medium tones also benefit contemporary spaces with smooth textures and sharp micro bevel edges.

Use lighter medium colours if you want to make a space expand and feel larger, and if you need a space to feel more intimate, a darker medium wood floor should be selected.

Kitchens and other high-traffic home areas, such as hallways, will benefit from the easy maintenance of a medium brown floor, whilst commercially, you’ll be sure to see these tonal variations in leisure, hotel and workspaces projects, amongst others.

Medium oak flooring, and mid-tone floors of all species for that matter, have the advantage of aging gracefully within projects. They gain a rich patina over time, this is something that cannot be replicated and only occurs over time as the wood ages and should be celebrated.

Medium coloured woods floor hide wear and tear well so they always look fantastic, adding to the natural feeling of the wood. If cared for correctly, these enduring floors will last a lifetime at the heart of your project, being able to be sanded down throughout the years to return a ‘just-purchased’ look.

Medium and mid tone oak floors have big benefits over their manmade alternatives.

All work hard to replicate wood’s natural look but nothing compares to real wood flooring.

Vinyl or LVT struggle when compared to real wood.

Wood has a huge advantage of manmade floor in that it is fully sustainable. These woods can be used for a lifetime due to their exceptional stability and each has been sourced from sustainable forests, or reclaimed sites with full chain of custody certificates. Even when the wood finishes its life within your projects, it can be fully recycled, reducing environmental impact.

Contrary to the claims of being easy to care for, it is still prone to scratching and unfortunately you cannot restore this floor; once the damage appears, you must simply live with it, or replace it. Oak wood flooring on the other hand can be restored many times over and this why it is a ‘buy once’ investment that can easily last a lifetime with the correct care. For more information on caring for your wood flooring, visit our Advice Hub.

Free samples of all our wood floors are available. Place up to three of your favourite floors into your basket, fill out your details and we’ll get them shipped to you as quickly as possible.

We’ll also be in touch to discuss your project’s requirements, ensuring that you find the perfect match for your space.