Bad laminate choice

brombear

Had just put in a Wilsonart Estate laminate in the kitchen and am increasingly getting disappointed. The light is totally absorbed by the dull floor. Is there any way this floor could be made shiny and would that help with the light?
Is there any other solution to make the color lighter? (it is now Hazelnut Birch) The cabinets are natural maple and that's probably what I also should have chosen for the floor.
Thanks.

Floorwizard

There is nothing you can do to the floor to make it lighter.
You can paint the walls as bright as possible and add a couple windows.

the good news is that the floor is about as durable as lam gets.
good stuff.

Teetorbilt

Sorry that I can't help but this is a common mistake with flooring, paint, cabinets, etc. Everybody looks at colors in small scale, say a paint swatch. When you cover the entire room with that color, it changes the absorbtion/reflectivity of the surfaces which will also influance the color of other room features.

To take this to an extreme. Paint a floor with an eastern exposure Barbie pink, as the sun comes up everything in the room will get a pink hue depending upon its color. White walls will be a lesser shade and dark colors may not be a noticeable at all.

Way too many people are watching HGTV and thinking that Mulberry walls are cool, It only works if you have the lighting to carry it off.

brombear

the good news is that the floor is about as durable as lam gets.
good stuff

Thank you, that's at least a little consolation.

brombear

I had to learn it the hard way but I've been trying out different things and I might have a partial solution: throwing a nice rug on it!