On design blogs, hardwood floors tend to all look pretty similar. There are some truly stunning hardwood floors, but they tend to range from light brown to dark brown. Most of them are made from domestic hardwoods that look great when stained. However, every once in awhile, you might come across a floor that truly stands out. One of the most striking colors you’ll likely see is purple. Purple hardwood floors are still fairly rare, but they’re growing in popularity. There are two ways to achieve a purple floor; you can choose purple wood, or you can stain it. Staining hardwood it is fairly straightforward. It’s just a matter of choosing the color of purple you would like. Purple woods are available for hardwood flooring, though. 

Purpleheart Wood

Purpleheart wood is officially known as peltogyne. It is native to Brazil and the northern parts of South America. Most species can be found in the Amazon basin. The wood is prized because the heartwood is naturally purple. However, it’s very difficult to work for your flooring for several reasons. When the wood is cut, the heartwood is a rich brown. That brown quickly turns to purple. Exposure to UV light changes the wood from purple to brown over time. The final brown color still retains hints of the purple. If you don’t want a very noticeably purple floor, that could be a great option. 

However, if you want your floor to be a vibrant purple, you need a purpleheart that has been cut recently and kept out of UV light. Then, when it’s laid, it needs to be finished with a UV blocking polyurethane to keep it protected. If you do those things, you’ll have a purple floor for decades.

Staining Purple

You can make practically any hardwood floor look purple with the right stain. If you begin with light wood, you can stain it anywhere from a light purple to a rich purple. However, that will likely obscure any natural wood color. If you have a dark floor, staining it with purple stain will bring subtle purple notes to the wood’s color while still being mostly the natural color of the wood. 

You can choose a purple stain or you can mix red and blue stains. Red stains range from natural cherry colors to bright red. Blue stains range from a grayish blue to royal blue. Work with different combinations of those in small batches to find the color that works for you. A cherry stain and a bluish-gray will achieve the most natural-looking purple. That could be ideal if the goal is to mimic purpleheart.