We’re trying to soak up all the things that we love about this house before we move on to our next big project, and we realized that our floors make us inordinately happy. And it’s not just the fact that they’re mostly hardwood in a nice mocha color, it’s the whole cohesive flooring thing in general. Seriously, I never thought these words would come out of my mouth (because it honestly sounds like I’m a motivational speaker or someone who takes design way too seriously) but… cohesive flooring is a game changer. Really. It is.
Our house used to have eight different flooring materials and seams. Think about that for a second. Eight! All on one modestly sized level. Talk about chopping things up and making them feel even smaller. There was faux stone linoleum in the laundry nook, yellowed vinyl tile in the half bath, a sheet of dated blue linoleum in the kitchen, thin ratty carpet in the full bathroom, faux parquet linoleum flooring in the den, another thin ratty carpet in the sunroom, and hardwoods in about the other half of the house (thank goodness).
You can see a few more floor before & after pics here (although admittedly we weren’t the best at taking photos back in the early days). But the point is that now our entire house is all dark solid hardwood (some that we installed during our kitchen reno, and some that we got refinished to match those new hardwoods) along with a similarly toned mocha marble floor in the full bath (there’s the same mocha hardwood in the half-bath to keep everything cohesive).
It’s amazing how much more of an open feeling it lends to the whole house. Of course it’s totally a subjective thing (and we can see how it’s fun to play around with different flooring colors and materials if that’s you thing), but as far as this small home full of small rooms is concerned, similarly toned seamless flooring was one of the best decisions we could have made. So we thought we’d pass that tip along to anyone else who’s slowly but surely working with a small space full of an inordinate amount of linoleum, nappy carpet, or faux parquet. It might not be the cheapest home improvement undertaking, but you can find some pretty great deals. We got our new hardwoods cheaper than most laminate flooring that big box stores sell thanks to Lumber Liquidators, and we only paid $1.50 a square foot to get our existing stuff refinished. The point of this diatribe? Life’s too short to live with crazy mismatched floors.
And so ends a weird little Friday morning brain dump of sorts. What’s up with the floors in your house? Do they all match or have some sort of relationship with each other? Does every room in your house have a different floor personality? Come on, the least we can do is see this weird floor tangent through…
Alexa says
Are you taking everything with you or did the new owners make any requests that you leave them behind with some of your goodies?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Alexa,
We’re leaving some things and taking others. Here’s what’s definitely staying: all kitchen and laundry appliances, all light fixtures except for the one in Clara’s room, all curtains and rods, the built-ins in the bedroom, the bed frame in the bedroom, and the floating shelves in the dining room.
xo,
s
Serena says
I wholeheartedly agree with this post! We bought a house that was originally built in 1854 and had been added on to several times over the years. By the time we got it, it had disgusting lineolum and various colors of office-style carpet throughout, and a few rooms had the original plank floors, which had been painted hunter green. The various ugly flooring mixed with the several additions resulted in a very choppy house, so we ended up buying some of the handscraped wide-plank flooring from Lumber Liquidators (and we waited for a sale since we needed 2000 sq ft for just the first level!) and replaced it all (We saved the original plank flooring to reuse at some point in the future – I’m thinking about putting it in the kitchen ceiling or something along those lines.)
Our house looks amazing now – everything flows so well, and we’ve got a great foundation now to work with. It was the best decision we could have made.
Pammy says
We are having all of our hardwoods in our 1960s split level refinished and stained a rich chocolate :) They should be finished tomorrow, and i am absolutely dying to see them! We do have carpet in the lower level family room, though.
Jackie says
We have a tiny condo and we plan to have the floors done next year. We currently have tile, wood and carpet and in 980 sq ft it doesn’t flow seamlessly. Your house transformation never seizes to amaze me. Can’t wait to see the new house!
Beth says
We were lucky to have hardwoods in pretty good condition in our living room, dining room, hallways, and all bedrooms. So we just refinished them ourselves. We have a laminate hardwood in the kitchen, but it is stained from past water damages, plus the floor is uneven. We have rusted linoleum in our laundry room, beige tile in our guest bath, and mint green tile in our master bath. We plan on replacing the kitchen and laundry room with matching tile, although this post is making me second guess that decision :). Our den (which the only accessibility to is through the kitchen) has hardwoods too, but they were different from the hardwoods in the rest of the house, plus had a bad stain that we just couldn’t get out. So we painted the den floor. The bathrooms we will most likely replace with updated tile when we get there…
Holly E says
We installed all new flooring when we bought our house four years ago. Dark hardwood in the entry, living room, dining room, hallway, and three bedrooms, and creamy/beige travertine in the kitchen and two bathrooms. I like the mix, but I think it is good to have all of the flooring coordinate somehow, which is why I used the same tile in all three rooms, even though they are not connected. One thing I am adamant about: no wall-to-wall carpet!! We have two dogs and two cats. In my opinion, scratches and nick in hardwood equal charm, stains on carpet equal grody. Our laundry room is separate from the rest of the house, and accessed from the back patio (very common in our older Phoenix neighborhood), and has a concrete floor. We stained it a dark mocha color (like your sun room!), but it is looking really rough these days, so we will be tiling it over the Christmas holiday!! I chose a dark grey/brown 12×24 porcelain tile. Can’t wait!
Jessica says
Hehe I had to chuckle and think “only John and sherry” when I read “lifes too short for mismatched flooring” lol. I think hardwood, or laminate wood is going to be our next home improvement. I remember growing up with real wood floors and they were easy to clean. My mom sprayed a duster spray all over the floors and everyone put on a pair of socks and went to town sliding around and dancing. Slippery but so fun. Didnt even feel like cleaning!
Irina@CanDoGal says
This point is causing me a little agony now, as I’m about to start remodeling the powder room. It attaches to a small hallway, that leads to the kitchen which blends into the dining room, and I would love for the floor to be one unit. I can’t fathom tackling all that space now, especially since I want to gut the whole kitchen in a year or two. So here’s my question: how difficult would it be to install a flooring for just the powder room now, with a threshold, and then extend that same flooring in the rest of the space later?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Irina,
Hmm, it stands to reason that it wouldn’t be very hard (just remove the threshold and use the same wood to later extend it so it looks seamless). I guess the only snafu would be if the wood got discontinued between now and then- so maybe get something super easy to find that’ll definitely be around for a while? Good luck!
xo,
s
Cait @ Hernando House says
We have 5 types of flooring in our house, but the majority is hardwood that’s original to the house and I love it. Hopefully we can at least rip up the two carpeted rooms and put down coordinating wood, because I am so sick of our ugly builder-grade diamond patterned carpet!
Elizabeth says
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea of using a similar colored tile to go with our wood floors when we redo both baths. I knew I loved your brown, marble bath tiles but didn’t really realize that’s why. Thanks, Sherry! We’re lucky to have wood floors through the majority of the house too; however our home’s previous owners put a cheap do-it-yourself shine coating on the living room wood floors that peels and flakes off. We managed to scrap the majority, but it’s been next to impossible to get it all. We really just need to refinish.
Birdie says
I wish we lived in a house that had all the same flooring! HA! We bought our 950 sq ft ranch, and it is a mess! One bedroom had nasty PURPLE shag carpet, the other bedroom has gray/blue commercial grade carpet. Our open living & dining space has cheap berber, the kitchen was half carpet half linoleum that extends to the bathroom down the hall! Our laundry room is yet another odd commercial grade carpet and finally the bathroom is 50’s old yellowed, cracked linoleum. All separated by brass metal edge. FUN! or not. We plan to do the entire house in a medium tone laminate flooring, but its a long time coming! You guys did amazing things to your gorgeous house!
Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says
We have red oak floors in almost every upper level room except the baths (both are marble) and the kitchen, though that will be replaced when we remodel. Our below grade basement has the same tile throughout except the two bedrooms. I love that it’s so cohesive! I totally agree with you!
http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/the-grand-tour/
Amy says
Ack, the floors in our 1978 rambler are the bain of my existence! We have a nasty off-white (well, used to be) carpet in the family room (which features the only two side and back yard access doors in our house, and we live on a farm and have dogs, so you can imagine), weird unfinished pine plank flooring in the kitchen and main bath (um, not waterproof!), ugly old square parquet flooring in the entry and dining room (one stained dark, the other light), old flattened berber in our bedroom, nasty brown carpet in the living room and hallway, and thin (with thin padding) brown carpet in the other two bedrooms.
I envision a wood or wood laminate floor throughout the living areas, and tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. Yum!
Carrie says
We have honey-toned hardwood floors that are mostly throughout our entire house. They were one of the greatest perks when we found our house. Our larger bathroom has white tile with white grout, that I don’t love, and the smaller has white linoleum, which I don’t mind. And then there’s the kitchen/dining room area…awful whitish linoleum with squares outlined in blue accented with little blue flowers in the corners. I absolutely can’t wait to completely redo this area so that there are cohesive hardwoods throughout with the exception of the bathrooms (which we plan to eventually redo but haven’t decided what to use). Not only is the kitchen/dining area an odd layout but the linoleum drives me bonkers!
Kate Ediger says
I totally agree!! Last year we had our water heater go out and flood the carpet in the hall and living room. We ripped it up and didn’t stop there – all carpet gone! My allergies have never been better! However, we had to live wit the black glue covered cement floors for a year while we saved up for new floors. We chose to stain the cement. (well have it done, it’s quite a process to put a thin coat of cement down to cover all imperfection then stain that). It’s a nice dark brown that looks like leather! Perfect! We have been able to do the master bed/bath, the great room (which involved taking out a supporting wall, installing a beam and opening up the kitchen, dining, and living rooms all into one), and the hallway. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and the laundry room left to do, but it was just too hard to move everything out at once. So by next year, we will have one single flooring in every room and I just can’t wait!!!
jenn says
my parents first house had different flooring in each room. it was a three bedroom, three floor house. i remember the hallway, laundry room and kitchen all had laminate flooring, each a different style all a yellowy white colour. the stairs had brown carpet, the hallway was navy blue, one bedroom one was green, another pink and the last was a lighter blue. this was the late 80s early 90s so im sure my parents liked it. we didnt end up changing it until the year we moved. and our next house had green carpet in every room and gorgeous ceramic tile. mind you this was a brand new house so my parents got to hand pick the mint green carpet. i don’t know what they were thinking.
Lindsey d. says
I’ve got five types of flooring in my 1135 sq. feet 1937 cottage:
– Beautiful original hardwoods in the front living room and master bedroom.
– beige vinyl in the kitchen and bathroom (separated by two other types of flooring, of course)
– green faux-marble look peel and stick vinyl tiles in the rear entryway (shudder),
– ugly white berber carpet in the back tv room and
– beige carpet in the second bedroom and the short hallway, covering up damaged original hardwoods.
The goal is eventually have all medium-toned hardwoods throughout (praying there are original hardwoods under the kitchen vinyl) and either cork or a dark vinyl in the existing bathroom and the one I intend to carve out of the existing pantry.
Thankfully, the hardwood in the front of the house just needs to be refinished, but the kitchen and back tv room will need new wood (provided there isn’t hardwood under the existing kitchen floor, which I’m assuming there isn’t for budgeting purposes).
I’m putting off doing the floors until I can renovate the pantry into a bath and hopefully even redo the kitchen, so I’ve got a long wait until I have the floors I dream of.
Jen says
We refinished the hardwoods in our house before we moved it. Closed the deal and met with a refinisher the next day. All the flooring in most of the rooms of the house match, minus the bathroom and kitchen. Our basement is finished and has carpeting and an unfinished area, but it doesn’t hurt the flow to have those a different floor. It was a great decision and everyone comments on our floor color when they first see it (most houses in our neighborhood have very light colored flooring, but we went with a darker/reddish look.
hi-d says
You guys did an amazing amount of work to your house. I think it would be really hard to leave after all of that…but with all of your talent and sense of adventure – you’re going to have fun remodeling the new place. I can’t wait to see it!
Cara says
The previous owners put down beautiful cherry hardwood in the dining room, entry and all the hallways but left off-white carpet in the three bedrooms, white linoleum in the two bathrooms and turquoise ceramic tiles in the kitchen and laundry room. So flooring is definitely on our to-do list. Though, to be fair, I love my turquoise tiles. They match Quietude, which is the paint color on the kitchen walls.
Kayla says
OMG, I can totally relate. Our house has been in the family for about 60 years, and it’s been renovated in phases, somewhat inexpensively, as each family as needed, no extravagances. Four types of carpet (white! beige, grey, and a neutral gray-tan) two types of linoleum, and a bit of stone-work by the front door. Hubby and I hope to do mostly to all hardwood in the future….but for now, it adds to the history of our home I guess. =) It defintely cuts each room short though, and there is a lot of space definition, which added to the narrow doorways doesn’t help. Hoping to widen doorways, and change the floors in the future, YHL style. =)
RLR says
We’d love to upgrade our entire downstairs to hardwood. It’s an open floor plan, which I think would look SO much better with the same floor through the kitchen, dining and den areas.
Anne says
Ok. In that first picture, every time you have posted it, I thought that guy was standing on steps. I guess I never really figured out your layout or just ignored the fact that you didn’t have steps in your house. But with that second to last, it finally makes sense. Ha.
As for my own house, we have 5 different types of flooring. Vinyl sticky tile in the unfinished part of the basement (this will be removed), gym flooring in the workout area of the unfinished part, carpet in the finished part of the basement (will also be removed and replace with tile), tile in the kitchen and baths, and hardwood everywhere else. Very cohesive except for the unfinished section of the basement.
Krystal says
All the living spaces in our house have the same laminate hardwood floors while the kitchen, laundry room, and both bathrooms have white ceramic tile. All the bedrooms have white fluffy carpet (except one, which is lavender). I personally am a person that prefers tile and carpet to hardwood, but mostly because we have 4 dogs that shed, so the hardwood floors get great big balls of dog hair that roll around the rooms like tumble weed. Doesn’t matter how much we vaccuum (which is usually twice a day), but we just can’t keep those wood floors clean.
Lauren says
Seriously… who carpets a bathroom??? That was in our first house as well. NASTY! Even the throw rugs need to be washed every now and then… Having full on wall to wall carpet for years and years is just unsanitary!
I love what you did with your full bath floor. What type of material is that? Was it hard to do? We ended up just getting the peel and stick vinyl ones from Home Depot at our first house, but now we’re looking to redo the tile at the new house and hoping for something more professional looking like yours.
Erin says
The first thing we did when we bought our house was fix the floors on the main level. The kitchen was a very yellowed (not sure if ut was supposed to be!) linoleum, the dining room, living room, staiis and hallway were all a newish carpet, the guest room and office had wood floors (one of which was covered by the smelliest carpet ever) and the master bedroom has carpet. Not sure why you would ever put in wood floors in two bedrooms and not the master, but whatever. Before we moved in we pulled all the carpet and linoleum and then had to pull all of the second subfloor that had been installed to make the carpeted area the same height as the two rooms with wood floors. On top of that, all baseboards had to come out so they wouldn’t be floating above the new wood floors we had installed. The installer put in raw wood, then finished those rooms and refinished the two with existing wood all together. We were lucky and the 8K tax credit covered the whole thing. Best thing we did to the house. Ever.
Amy says
We have 3 different types of flooring in our ranch and it’s bothered me since we moved in. Our main floors are hardwood, with a white-washed finish. I didn’t like them at first but now I really do. They hide so many imperfections and we don’t worry about the dog scratching them with her claws. The other main flooring is in our kitchen and sunroom, which I don’t like one bit. I would love to replace it and extend the hardwood into those rooms. The third is old tile in our bathroom and while I’d love to gut that whole room, it’s staying for now. You can see the different floors in my house tour page here: http://shutterlylovely.squarespace.com/house-tour/
Loren says
Our apartment has 8 flooring types in 6 rooms (counting the hallway). The building used to be one big house so some walls have been torn down and moved, that’s why the floors change in the middle of the room. All of it is hardwood except for the tiled bathroom and this weird patch of pink carpet in the bedroom. Granted each hardwood floor is at a different level and color, sometimes there’s an inch or so difference in height at a threshold, and NONE of it is level. I love our bizarre little apartment but I can’t wait till I can afford a modest little house.
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
When we first bought our home 3 years ago it had about 6 different floor types. We have a Hi-Ranch, so upstairs we had hardwood in the bedrooms, tile in the bathroom, hardwood in the LR and tile with lineolum on top in the kitchen and DR. Yes lineolum on top of tile. We have no idea. LOL! Now the whole upstairs has hardwoods throughout, except for the bathroom, that still has the tile. (thank god it was nice tile). Downstairs we had gross, pee & poop carpet throughout, except for the kitchen & bathroom in the apartment area. Yes they basically let their animals pee and poop everywhere, it was really gross. And the carpet was glued to the concrete slab fundation. {faint} Now it’s laminate flooring and tile. The laminate is a little darker then our hardwoods upstairs, but they compliment each other. We are happy with the look. Can’t wait for you to move so we can see your new home already.
Do you have to re-do floors in the new home? Do you have hardwoods there already?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jen,
Scroll back a bit for that answer. We have some hardwoods, but some other interesting things to update too….
xo,
s
Tanya says
I definitely agree with any statement in favor of unified flooring. Literally the first thing we did was rip out the mismatched carpet upstairs to install hardwood (the same kind as in the living area on the mainfloor). We also replaced the flooring in the two upstairs bathrooms so they match one another too. This is especially key in smaller homes (like ours) so the rooms look more spacious. I would have loved dark floors like yours, but we don’t get a ton of light (it is a townhouse, so no side windows!) and the light flooring does a better job of reflecting light, making the rooms seem brighter. The kitchen and hallway don’t match, thanks to the previous owners’ penchant for the remnant bin, but the tiles installed so well we can’t bring ourselves to scrap them. A little variety won’t kill us :)
Claudie says
I definitely think having the same flooring throughout makes a huge difference. When we bought our house, there was linoleum in the kitchen, tile in the bathroom, and carpet in all the other rooms. Oh, and when I say carpet I mean different carpet in each room. It was really scary looking to tell the truth. We put in laminate wood flooring in every room except the bathroom (we have a concrete subfloor so real wood wasn’t really an option). Having the same flooring makes our 1000 sq. ft. place seem so much bigger than it did when it had all those different ones. I think it’s the same thing as the paint. We painted the kitchen, dining and living room the same color since they’re open to each other and the space just feels huge.
kristin says
i definitely think cohesiveness is smart and needed in a house (esp with one level)… but what popped into my mind was that they might want to make the house feel larger with the different flooring options. a new room; a whole new experience?
we looked at a house a while back and were so tempted to buy, but it had several flooring changes throughout- mostly wood looking, but were different levels, stains and kinds. it broke my heart, especially growing up in a frank llyod wright student home (wood is serious- be smart using it). all i wanted to do was make it all the same. the wraparound porch had turf on it. this is michigan. turf makes no sense on a porch there (or anywhere in my opinion).
Tamisha says
We had nine, count ’em, NINE different floors in our 88 yr old 1800 square foot dream dump. Orange shag stick on squares, blue and white high low sculpted shag, pink 80s shag, gold 80s shag, 6 layers of wet/moldy linoleum, yellow tile in one bath, white tile in another bath, red and white linoleum in one bedroom, and VCT tile in the sunroom.
Thankfully, we had hardwoods under all that carpet that are now gorgeous and dark. Still have the yellow tile in bath, and we installed marble tile in the powder room. I love it!
Teresa@Where In the World? says
We’re in grad student dorms and we have that lovely rental beige polyester carpet that seems to be in all apartments…complete with the bubbles
I’m just a bit sad because they are updating all of the flooring to be laminate and berber carpeting as folks move in and out.
They didn’t change ours though…and we’re hoping to move to another suite just for the floors.
Does anyone know of any over the carpet tricks to adding texture to a rented space? We are specifically interested in hard flooring underneath our dining table…one of us is constantly dropping peas on the carpet.
Barbara says
I’m fortunate. Growing up, my mom insisted on same flooring throughout. Our neighbors had different carpet in every room. And in deep, solid colors, blue, red, green, yellow…oh man, it was horrible!!! My current house has hardwood throughout, pink tile on the floor in the bathroom and fake lino squares in the kitchen. I only need money…
We’re doing a dog food drive for homeless dogs on my blog. Anyone who wants to help would be appreciated!!
http://ifididnthaveasenseofhumor.blogspot.com/2010/11/could-you-spare-bag-of-pet-food.html
michelle says
As an allergy sufferer with pets, I LOVE hardwood floors. Carpets tend to hold allergens no matter how often you vacuum. It’s really easy to get all of the pet hair, dust and dirt when you have hardwood floors.
Our 1920 foursquare’s flooring is mostly original hardwoods. The main level is all the same color, except the kitchen. That room’s flooring is stained lighter, which is annoying as it tends to show wear and tear faster. Back entry/mudroom and bath have a neutral tile. Second floor is the same hardwood flooring as the main level, except the bath. Bath tile is in very poor shape and I’d love to replace it with cork…someday.
Tanja @ Postmodern Hostess says
Such a timely post for us! When we first moved into our condo, it was all yucky carpet, except for horrid 8 inch tiles with PINK grout in the kitchen, and this sort of pinky faux wood slat vinyl in the two bathrooms. We ripped out the carpet in the living/dining room and hallway and put in rich espresso bamboo which we ADORE. We kept the carpet in the bedrooms and put white porcelain in the bathrooms. Now we’re doing the kitchen and can’t decide what to do. Do we put in more bamboo to match the rest of the house? I think so, but husband doesn’t agree. Do we put in tile to match the bathrooms? I don’t want to lay more tile. Decisions, decisions! You can see all of our current flooring and what came with our place when we bought it here.
xoxo,
Tanja
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Tanja,
It’s totally a personal thing, but we both like the idea of bamboo, so I guess we’re on your team. Haha.
xo,
s
Erica says
We have all hardwood floors throughout our family bungalow house. When my great-grandmother lived here there was carpet everywhere except the kitchen, bathrooms and spare bedroom. When my aunt lived here, she had all of the floors refinished except for the kitchen. About 4 months before my aunt passed away, she had the kitchen floor repaired and refinished to the point it matches the rest of the house perfectly. Sadly she never saw the kitchen floors but we feel we have appreciated enough to make up for the fact that she never saw them. We love the hardwood floors, especially after living in an apartment with carpeting everywhere including the bathroom. I also love knowing that my great-aunt used to skate around these same hardwood floors in her socks when she was young.
Emily says
I will NEVER understand carpet in a bathroom! It seems so un-hygienic! Why oh why would they have installed that? I’m so happy when people rip it up!
Looks great!
Stephanie says
Our recently purchased house has tile in the three baths, the family room and mudroom, super light laminate in the kitchen, and hardwood (in two different shades) everywhere else. So I guess that’s seven different floorings? I’m looking forward to going to hardwood throughout and updating the tile in the bathrooms – one bath has tile printed with little dutch looking houses.
Jodi says
I agree. I like the same flooring throught the home, however, we will be redoing a pretty sizable kitchen remodel and we can’t decide whether to go hardwood in the kitchen, or marble tile. I like the warmth of the hardwood, but like the durability of tile. Maybe this would be a good poll to create.
Lonely Wife Project says
I love the marble in your bathroom! Our floor situation downstairs was honestly hideous. We had pretty decent Italian marble tile throughout the downstairs area, but the person who lived there before thought it was a good idea to lay down berber carpet in the living room in a WAVE pattern to break up the spaces. It’s difficult to imagine, but picture the carpet didn’t have a straight edge. It had a wavy edge. Yes, I lived with wavy-edged carpet for 5 years before we redid all our floors and now they’re a beautiful dark wood (laminate because more sturdy for our 3 dogs). And that was the beginning of my blog. The news floors inspired me to start updating everything else!
Victoria says
Do y’all have any ideas for this issue… in one bathroom of our new-to-us house, there are medium-sized white tiles with dark grout or mortar that’s like 3/8 inch wide. It looks ugly. Is there a way I can paint the grout white…? Or shall I just get large enough bathroom throw rugs to cover it up?
The rest of the house has beautiful red oak floors and lovely clay tile with *light* grout.
YoungHouseLove says
You can scrape down the grout and re-grout with white! It’ll only take about an afternoon or a day (on and off) at the most. And it’ll look so fresh and new!
xo,
s
Victoria says
And PS, forgot to say: your floors are *beautiful*. I wanted to make ours dark because yours are so gorgeous but I was persuaded otherwise because then we’d have to re-stain all the original wood paneling too.
Holiday says
The before and afters here are a great reminder of how much work you have done! I have fought the battle of unmatched floors, but for me it’s wood of all kinds and it’s in good shape, so it will likely stay. In 1898 they seemed to use the *really* good stuff in the kitchen (for wear and tear-ability I guess), basic oak in the living spaces, and then upstairs they moved to cheaper soft pine. Can’t wait to see what you do in the new house!
Malissa says
We have a 1700sq ft ranch that we have been working our way though, improving. The floor plan was actually perfect (if we could change one thing it would be making the master bathroom larger, but it isn’t a deal breaker for us). When we moved in the entire house has baby blue/gray carpet that was most likely the original 1982 builder’s installation, except the kitchen and entry ways, they had vinyl and faux marble linoleum tiles (also original). Ick.
We have three dogs so we ended up choosing a strand woven bamboo flooring because the carbonizing process “stains” the bamboo all the way though making scratches almost impossible to see. Also, the strand woven process makes the flooring appear more like an exotic wood than an Asian restaurant’s floor and it is said to be stronger than oak…all important when you are dealing with three horses…er dogs. :)
Here is a link to my blog post about replacing the floors if you’re interested in seeing them:
http://hughesisms.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-floors.html
carolinaheartstrings says
I couldn’t agree with you more. I want hardwood floors throughout my whole house. One day one day.
K (Barking BabyMama) says
We have a small 1295 sq. foot home, but it’s two story, so the floors are pretty small! We also opted to put the same flooring throughout (some honey colored wood-laminate that really warms up the cool colors we like to decorate with) and it really helps the rooms flow into one another, and helps the upstairs and downstairs feel like one home!
K (Barking BabyMama) says
Oh, and on a side note, last night I had a dream that I hung out with you and John at your house – you had a bunch of people over, and somehow I met you and you invited me to join you guys! I guess I like your blog a little too much :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, feel free to come over again tonight when you go to bed!
xo,
s
Anna says
We live in an apartment, so our floors are not something I can change, at all. But after moving in, and getting down to clean our linoleum tiles. I realized that no one thoroughly cleaned them before sealing them. There’s dirt and dust and hair in places (like near doorways and next to kitchen cabinets) that I can’t clean because they are stuck there. It bugs me. Can’t wait to get our own place :)