wood flooring

[stainesmassif]

until today i had set my heart on dark oak wood flooring in the lounge and dining room of our victorian semi. boring, i know.

however, when i went to wickes and saw this i was very disappointed by the plastic-y quality of the real wood.......and then my mum helpfully pointed out that any fluff sticks out like a sore thumb on dark flooring, so may be best to go for light.

in a nutshell, does anyone have any suggestions for easy clean flooring that will fit in with a house of this period? (we have four cats and a baby about to be weaned - hence importance of easy cleaning).

ps, many thanks!

We have light oak wood flooring treated with a hardwax oil finish in our Victorian house and it's great. V durable and any scratches just blend in ( unlike with darker woods, which can be a nightmare.) Just needs a vacuum and a quick mop over. Having said that the best flooring (ie most durable and easy to clean) I have ever had was just stripped and varnished floorboards, but it was extremely cold and draughty so we went for engineered wood over underfloor heating when we moved.

hmm, yes, the reason i want flooring as opposed to stripped floors is entirely the heat factor. can't lose any more heat than we are already.

one of my favourite books when i was a teenager was 'when the sweet dove died' (?) by barbara pym - really not sure that i got it at the time though!

We have honey teak - medium in terms of darkness and quite forgiving in terms of dirt.

I am about to have re claimed oak over original boards also becuase of cold and the originals don't look great either.It is already old ish looking so am hoping it blends with the house and doesn't need much work.have you looked at any of the wood floor sites on google?there are so many choices maybe worth a look and not too expensive either

Honey teak is lovely A friend has it in a big kitchen family room and I think its the nicest new floor I've ever seen.

We have original floorboards & had the gaps fillited & now there are no drafts coming up as no gaps. We had the floor hand waxed & it looks great but the colour is darker than I wanted (the bloke persuaded us, ugh) & you can see any bits of fluff. Next time we will definitely go lighter in our new house if we have wood.