How to Choose a Colour Scheme, Floor First
Most colour schemes go wrong in the same place. Not in the choice of a floor, a kitchen or a cladding, each of which is usually fine on its own, but in the order they were chosen and the fact that nobody was holding all of them at once. This guide is the order we use in the studio, floor first, with what to match and what to leave alone at each step. It ends with a way to put a number on the whole thing and a box that lets you hold the scheme in your hand.
Start with the floor, because everything else has to live with it
The floor is the largest surface in the house and the one you will change least often. Kitchens are replaced, walls are repainted, curtains come and go, but the floor is there for the life of the house. It also sets the undertone that every other material has to agree with. A warm honeyed oak makes a cool grey benchtop look dirty; a grey oak makes a cream kitchen look yellow. Choose the floor first and the number of things that can go wrong afterwards halves.
The decision is smaller than it looks. Every Marchand colour is the same 20mm European oak at the same price, so you are choosing a tone, not a budget. Decide the undertone from what is already fixed in the house (warm stone and brass point warm; concrete, black steel and cool whites point grey), then the depth from the light you have. Our colour guide walks the twelve floor colours by undertone. If you are between three, order all three, free, and live with them for a week.
Then choose a mood, not a list of products
A mood is a shortcut. It is a set of materials that already agree with each other, so once you know which one you are drawn to, every decision after the first is smaller than the last. We work in four.
Quiet and Light. Blanc, Clair or Picasso underfoot. Around them: oatmeal or undyed wool carpet, pale porcelain or soft white stone, cabinetry in a natural oak tone, sheer linen. Cladding clear-oiled or left to silver. For south-facing rooms, apartments, and houses built on white, plaster and pale stone.
Warm Minimal. Nectar, Saint-Tropez, Riviera or Marron. Around them: biscuit or honey wool, warm travertine-look porcelain, cabinetry in prime oak or walnut, textured linen in sand and clay. Timber cladding in a natural stain. The mood most family homes end up in, and the one that forgives the most later changes.
Smoke and Ash. Lune, La Forêt or Vuitton. Around them: mid grey wool, grey-veined porcelain, cabinetry in a grey oak tone, linen in smoke and stone. Grey-stained or weathered cladding. For schemes built on concrete, schist, blackened steel and cooler whites, and for anyone who has said "no yellow".
Dark and Moody. Lune, Chocolat or Bordeaux, with Noir Bandsawn on a wall or ceiling. Around them: charcoal or peat wool, honed dark stone, cabinetry in bronzed oak or black wenge, heavy linen in ink and umber. Cladding stained deep to sit with the floor. For rooms with a lot of glass and a lot of view, and houses that want the floor to hold the room.
Kitchen and cabinetry: match the undertone, contrast the depth
The kitchen is where most schemes are won or lost, because cabinetry is the second largest surface in the house and it sits right beside the floor. Two rules cover almost every case. Match the undertone: warm floor, warm fronts; grey floor, grey or neutral fronts. Then contrast the depth, so the fronts sit clearly lighter or clearly darker than the floor rather than almost the same. Timber on timber works when the two are a full step apart in tone; it fights when they are a half step.
Melamine or oak veneer is a budget question more than a design one. A good melamine in the right tone reads well against an oak floor at the Considered level of finish; oak veneer fronts, and then veneer throughout, are what the Elevated and Bespoke levels buy. We can match either to the floor.
Stone and benchtops: one of them gets to be the pattern
A floor with visible grain and a benchtop with strong veining compete. Pick which one carries the pattern and let the other go quiet. A brushed, handmade-bevel oak like Riviera or Chocolat wants a plain honed stone or a quiet porcelain. A matt, micro-bevel oak like Lune or Blanc can take a veined slab. Bathroom tile follows the same rule against the wall board if you carry the oak up the wall.
Carpet: it should read as the floor's softer sibling
Bedroom carpet is the material most often chosen on its own, in a different shop, on a different day, and it shows. The carpet should sit in the same undertone family as the oak and one or two steps lighter, so a doorway between the two reads as a change of texture rather than a change of scheme. Wool is the natural pair for oak; the fibres age the same way.
Cladding: the same tone, seen from the street
People are surprised we talk about cladding at all. But the front door is a threshold between two versions of the same house, and an exterior in a fighting tone makes the interior feel like a compromise before you are inside. Timber cladding can be stained to sit with any of the four moods; steel and other claddings can be chosen to the same end. The point is not that the outside matches the floor, but that it belongs to the same family.
Window dressings and the soft layer last
Curtains, blinds and rugs go last because they are the easiest to change and the least expensive to get wrong. Linen in a tone drawn from the mood, a step lighter than the wall, and the scheme closes.
Put a number on it before you sit down with a builder
Our scheme guide gives an indicative budget for the floor and the materials around it, by mood and by level of finish, in about two minutes. It is a guide rather than a quote, a way to walk into the first builder meeting knowing where the money sits and where it can move.
Then hold the whole scheme in one hand
A concept box carries all of the above at once: Marchand oak flooring and wall board samples in your mood, and beside them the carpet, cladding, stone, cabinetry and fabric tones our interior designers would set with that floor. Each box is collated by hand in our studio after a short call about your house. $10, credited against your flooring order, delivered free within New Zealand. Architects, designers and builders can brief one at no charge to the practice.
Or bring the plans and the paint chip to a free design consultation in Auckland, Christchurch or Queenstown, and we will settle it with you.
Frequently asked questions
What colour flooring goes with a white kitchen?
Almost any oak, which is why white kitchens are so common. The decision is the undertone of the white. A warm white (cream, ivory, stone) sits best with the warm groups: Clair, Nectar, Saint-Tropez, Marron. A cool white (chalk, pure white, grey-white) sits best with Picasso, La Forêt, Vuitton or Lune. Blanc suits either if the room is short of light.
Should the floor be lighter or darker than the kitchen cabinetry?
Either, as long as it is clearly one or the other. The mistake is a floor and fronts within a half step of each other in the same tone, which reads as a near miss. Match the undertone, then put a full step of depth between them.
How do I choose a colour scheme for a new build?
Floor first, then the mood, then cabinetry and stone, then carpet and cladding, then the soft layer. Choose each material against the one before it, not in isolation. If that sounds like a lot to hold, that is what our interior designers and the concept box are for.
Do I need an interior designer to do this?
Not necessarily. Marchand has interior designers in-house and the design consultation is free, so you can get the floor and the scheme around it settled with us without engaging a practice. If you already have a designer, the concept box works for them too: they set the direction and we match the samples to it.
Does oak flooring go with grey carpet?
Yes, if the oak has a grey undertone. La Forêt, Vuitton and Lune sit naturally with a mid grey wool. A warm oak next to a cool grey carpet is the most common mismatch we see.
Can the same oak go on the walls and ceiling?
Yes. Every Marchand colour runs across flooring, herringbone, stair nosing and the 120mm wall and ceiling board, so a room can be resolved floor to ceiling in one material.
Last reviewed September 2026.