Everything You Need to Know About Scandinavian Design: What Type of Wood Flooring to Choose

​Everything You Need to Know About Scandinavian Design: What Type of Wood Flooring to Choose
If you’re looking to redecorate your house’s interior, chances are that you’ve encountered Scandinavian Design.
This trending European design plan exemplifies minimalist ideals with carefully-selected wood flooring.
Several factors have led this endearing Scandinavian design trend to becoming a lasting favorite. With a growing number of uses in modern, minimalistic design, it’s time to take a closer look at this hot style.
What is Scandinavian Design, exactly, and why has it become so popular? How does the right choice of wide-plank wood flooring help complete the look?
Refer to our comprehensive guide below for everything you need to know about this trending style.
What is Scandinavian Design?
Scandinavian Design is a minimalist design concept originating and first designed in Scandinavia. Known for its pale colors, Scandinavian Design often gives interior spaces a more open and clean feeling.
Scandinavian wood flooring proves a quintessential element of this particular design. As we’ll see later, this would may come from a variety of sources.
That being said, however, designers typically only use a small palette of colors. The muted color scheme of Scandinavian Design aids in facilitating an open and clean atmosphere.
The use of wide wooden planks helps accent this color scheme for a more dramatically-open effect.
While many recognize Scandinavian Design for its distinctive wooden floors, the term actually applies more generally to entire sections of interior design.
An entire house, for instance, may be outfitted with pale wooden floors and walls—making the entire dwelling a work of Scandinavian design.
What Makes Scandinavian Design So Distinctive?
The wide-planked, white-washed floors of Scandinavian Design help create a unique atmosphere in any home.
The design concept allows it to be perfectly blended with modernistic principles while still retaining a natural charm.
This results in part from Scandinavian Design’s ability to highlight natural architecture.
The pale and white color scheme used allows for a greater emphasis on a home’s natural wooden architecture. In turn, this creates a more rustic feel in a modern and sleek looking abode.
This rare combination helps set Scandinavian Design apart from other design principles. As homeowners simultaneously enjoy both rugged charm and futuristic shine, Scandinavian Design proves one of the most versatile interior decorating concepts around.
What many favor about Scandinavian Design is its overall clean and airy feel. Rooms designed and furnished with this concept tend to feel both cleaner and lighter—helping add a professional edge to almost any home.
Perhaps the color scheme, more than anything, earned Scandinavian Design its trending position in today’s design market.
Though best known for its white and off-white colors, Scandinavian Design has demonstrated the unique use of a pale blue. This design element appears to have originated in Scandinavia with the style and is still predominantly found in Europe.
Those looking to add a sleeker and more open look to their house should consider Scandinavian Design.
The concept’s simple Minimalist approach makes for quick and easy installation.
Scandinavian Design works particularly well for rooms with large access to sunlight, as the sun’s rays help highlight the style’s glow. Those who wish to build their homes from scratch using this concept may find that large, floor-to-ceiling windows fit naturally into the design plan.
In turn, this helps accent the room’s natural architectural features and provide an airier and more open atmosphere.
For this reason, many now associate Scandinavian Design with the concepts of elegance and grace.
The pale or all-white design helps refine the atmosphere of any room, bringing luxury straight into your home.
Because of this, a growing number of modern and minimalist interior designs are now following this Scandinavian trend.
With Scandinavian Design, you can transform your home into a high-class haven that retains all of your house’s natural charm.
Elements of Scandinavian Design
Check out five of the most common elements of Scandinavian Design below to find out just what it is that makes this design form so effective:

• Wood

The wood used in Scandinavian Design isn’t dark brown like the wood used in many other design forms. Instead, Scandinavian Design makes use of lighter or grayer forms of wood to give your room a sleek, clean feel. This brighter wood gives your room a more “open-concept” feel and a more modern appearance.

• Perception

Scandinavian Design is all about perception. With bright color schemes and enhanced light, Scandinavian Design can often make your room look bigger than what it really is. This is especially helpful in smaller rooms or houses that need extra space to not look congested. 

• Simplicity

There’s no denying the simplicity of Scandinavian Design. This minimalist design form seeks to use the bare minimum to give you an open space that is livable and workable. Without a doubt, this is one of the main reasons that Scandinavian Design has become so popular.
This simplistic design allows you to escape the clutter of daily life and gives you “room” to breathe.

• Details

Scandinavian Design is conducive to several different types of furniture. This means that the details are largely up to you. The best part? Because of the nature of Scandinavian Design, you are likely to find complementing furniture that enhances your room’s natural openness and cleanliness. This can give you the look of living in a nice, contemporary home with a more professional feel.

• Bright Light

Rooms that are cast in darkness look smaller and more intimidating. Rooms that are bright, however, are larger and more inviting. One of the best advantages of Scandinavian Design is that it is naturally conducive to bright light. This means that your room will immediately look more welcoming!
Why Is Wood Popular in Scandinavian Design?
With that in mind, one must consider why wood is a necessary choice for Scandinavian Design.
It’s a choice that results from both the design’s cultural history and its inherent properties.
For starters, Scandinavian culture places a high premium on natural materials. This age-old artistic preference helped foster an environment in which naturally-designed houses became popular.
Additionally, some believe that the pale colors help brighten rooms during cold, dark winters. This possibility provides the most pragmatic reason why wood has become a requirement for those looking to utilize Scandinavian Design. By optimizing their materials and their colors to the environment, Scandinavians were able to create a design that provided both aesthetic and functional utility.
Which Kinds of Wood Flooring Are Popular?
Generally speaking, light-colored woods prove most popular in Scandinavian Design.
These are typically made from real wood—Oak, Pine, and Fir.
These woods are treated with a white-color finish to better integrate them into the Scandinavian Design color scheme.
What Type of Wood Flooring Should You Choose?
So which type of Scandinavian flooring is right for you?
It’s hard to say.
Ultimately, the flooring you choose will depend on the overall color scheme and nature of your home’s design.
Generally speaking, however, the lighter the color, the more sunlight-optimized and open the room will be.
For this reason, those wishing to enjoy the most benefits from their Scandinavian Design should focus on investing in only the whitest of wood.
Remember, this wood should extend to both the walls and the flooring of the home so as to optimize the look.
Pine and fur tend to be the most common types of wood used in Scandinavian Design. Other types of wood can be used once Lye treated.
But how do you know which one is right for your home?
To do this, there are several factors you need to have in mind already:

• Current Atmosphere of Your Home

If you don’t understand your home, you’re not going to be able to pick the right wood for it.
And that’s just the truth.
As we all know, the atmosphere doesn’t rely solely on its design. It’s often created by the people who are currently in or have been in it.
For this reason, make sure that you’re in tune with your home. This means familiarizing yourself with the intricacies of the house before decided to hire an interior designer.
By doing so, you can be sure to choose the wood that matches the scheme of your home. This will allow for a more cohesive final appearance for your home.

• Layout of Your Home

This also means that you’re going to need a detailed understanding of the layout of your home.
Which rooms have windows? How feasible is it to redo the entire house?
By being able to answer these kinds of questions, you’ll be better equipped to start renovations. Remember, the success of Scandinavian Design rests on its ability to mix well with copious amounts of sunlight.
If your home doesn’t have large windows or access to sunlight, you’ll likely want to use all-white floors. Your goal should be to maximize the lightness and the openness of the room. For rooms with small amounts of sunlight, you can’t afford to invest in darker wood colors.

• Architecture of Your Home

Likewise, consider your home’s natural architecture before investing in Scandinavian Design.
Because the design will highlight the architecture of your home, make sure that it’s something you’re willing to show off.
You may find that you’ll have to entirely renovate rooms to make them suitable for your new open Scandinavian Design concept.
For this reason, take extra care when selecting the wood you use for the room. You may find that darker colors help ease the contrast between your home’s traditional architecture and the more modern look of the Scandinavian Design.
Because this depends largely on your own personal situation, make sure to understand your home’s architecture when selecting your Scandinavian flooring.
Other Considerations You Should Make
While Scandinavian Design is an increasingly-popular design choice, there are some factors you must consider before bringing it into your home.
Namely, you’ll need to consider if the modern look of Scandinavian wood flooring is really what you want.
Though the added brightness can lighten a room and increase its glow and natural space, it can also call attention to certain unpleasant things.
If there’s a flaw in your architecture, for instance, or if there is a mess on your floor.
Because of this, maintaining appearances with a Scandinavian Design often proves more difficult than with traditional homes.
Additionally, you’re going to want to consider if your room is optimized for Scandinavian Design to begin with.
Though you may be attracted to the style’s overall concept, it’s important to be aware that rooms without access to bright sunlight don’t typically benefit as much from the design.
Furthermore, it’s important to keep in mind that Scandinavian Designs may work well with certain businesses.
Museums, for instance, have found the minimalist concept useful for its ability to highlight their collections. By removing unnecessary distractions, Scandinavian Design allows viewers to pay more attention to and better remember their surroundings. This proves perfect for museums and other exhibitions looking to catch the eye of visitors.
The Bottom Line
Scandinavian Design can add a sleek, modern feel to almost any interior.
By building off your home’s architectural, natural lighting, and pale colors, this popular European design brings elegance into any home.
Unfortunately, getting the right Scandinavian design for your home isn’t as simple as 1. 2. 3.
Instead, you’ll need to take special care to choose the materials.
Primarily, this will mean the type of wooden flooring that you buy. Scandinavian wide-planked flooring is integral to the overall design concept.
Made from Fir, Birch, and Oak, these wood floors come in light colors that help maximize a room’s natural sunlight to create an open and airy space.
The concept’s minimalist design draws attention to your home’s natural architecture, adding new-found grace into your home.
To maximize your results, it’s important that you select the right wood for the job. As a general rule, many who invest in Scandinavian Design prefer white wood.
By following the tips above, you can be on your way to implementing a jaw-dropping interior design plan in your home. 

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