I've seen a couple of natural finished walnut floors that are really stunning. My concern is are they too dark for home with standard 8' ceiling?

Color, Light, Dark, Wide, Narrow, Short, Long, Thin, Thick, Too red, Too dark, Too light, Too yellow, Too brown, Too grainy, Too plain, etc. All subjective things. Buy what looks good to you. You're paying for it. You're living with it. Who cares what others think! BTW, American Black Walnut (the species) is not that hard; softer than oak! Thought you should know!

It is also butt ugly when you mix up heart and sap.

Thanks Gary,

I agree with your POV, I was just curious if any of you have experience with a darker floor and did it make a room seem smaller. BTW I was aware that walnut was on the softer side, but hey it's slightly better than my prior first choice: cherry. Since we're leaning toward hand scraped/distressed that might mitigate the issue. Since we've got big pups and little kids I figure we're going to have distressed floors whether I intended it or not!