Anyone renovating their home has been warned to be very careful when choosing floors because subtle changes in lighting can vastly alter the way that a floor appears within a décor.

One of the real problems with taking a look at flooring options in a shop is that the different lighting and design scheme in a shop will change the way that you view the flooring.

This is why it is of utmost importance to take a flooring sample to fully assess in the room you intend to install it in.

Reported cases of consumers fitting their dream flooring only to find it is much darker or lighter than they expected are not uncommon, in fact it is not unheard of for the flooring to turn out an entirely different colour.

Jane Cardillo, for the Edmonton Journal, confessed that her kitchen renovation went entirely to plan until the flooring was installed, she said: “It was a brown blight on our black-and-white colour scheme.”

The reason for this soon came to light as the samples had been viewed under the old lighting, which changed, and a window in the room had been altered so the natural light was also different.

The colour of the room will also affect the shade in a subtle way so it is very important to get samples of the flooring you are considering and view them under the correct lighting and colour scheme.