Questions to Ask Yourself
- How do you live? Are you in and out of the house a lot with the kids going to games and practices? Do you entertain formally? Do you have a dog that likes to roll in the mud or a cat with sharp claws? Or, are you an empty nester who lives more casually?
- What is your style? Do you have more traditional tastes? Do you like the farmhouse style, or do you prefer modern minimalist? Love mid-century? Industrial? Contemporary? Your flooring needs to enhance your style. Flooring and walls are the backdrops to the setting of your furnishings, and everything needs to work together.
- What kind of space are you working with? Is it big and open? Is it a small room? Is it somewhere in between? Does the space have any quirks, like maybe a beadboard ceiling?
- What colors are you using? Designers are showing everything from all white kitchens to brightly patterned bohemian living rooms. Do you like cool gray or warm beige? Are you into happy millennial pink or deep moody indigo blue?
- Texture is king right now. What sorts of textural accents are you using? Do you want a textured floor to set the tone?
Pairing Flooring with Lifestyle and Personal Style
Lifestyle. If you have a busy lifestyle, with or without pets, it is best to make flooring choices that are durable and easy to care for. If you entertain a lot, then you need something that will withstand a woman’s high heels and a spilled glass of red wine. While empty nesters and those who demand less from their flooring have different choices that would be best for them.
Busy lifestyles need flooring that can stand the test of time and wear. While wood and wood laminate floors are beautiful and popular, a cat’s claws can gouge real wood, as can a woman’s high heels. It is best to use more durable and easy-to-clean products in entryways, like tile or natural stone. With many companies producing wood-look porcelain tiles, it is easy to get the look and beauty of wood floors while having the strength of porcelain.
Another option for busy lifestyles in high traffic areas is luxury vinyl tiles or planking. These products can withstand moisture and high traffic and they are easy to clean with soap and water.
Calmer Living. For those who don’t have an endless stream of company and are not constantly going in and out, there is natural wood, engineered wood, and wood laminate. All of these are beautiful, and most of the rug companies will create custom area rugs to provide warmth as well as a statement piece.
Style. It is important to make sure your flooring choice fits the look that you’re going for. A formal living room will not look its best with light colored, wide plank wood flooring.
Many designers are giving homes a traditional feel with a modern twist, like updating old carpeting with a more contemporary geometric pattern instead of the more-staid oriental rug. Rug graphics are becoming pieces of art themselves.
Space. Lighter colors make a room look bigger, while darker colors make a room look smaller. But dark floors and dark walls can make a huge room more inviting and intimate, which may be what the room needs. A bold floor in a small bathroom can make it look bigger, as can large format tiles.
Does your room have flaws? One way to “hide” flaws is to use it as an accent which can make it no longer a flaw but an asset. Cover a fireplace that is big, old and ugly with brightly patterned Mexican tiles or bright teal translucent arabesque tiles to hide the “ugh” and make it a “wow!”
Color and Texture. New manufacturing capabilities and a change in taste are bringing more colorful and more textured flooring to the market. Tile and rug colors are becoming more vibrant.
All flooring is introducing more textural options – like sisal rugs for summer and scraped wood floors to add interest. Cork floors are another option, as each cork floor is utterly unique as cork is a living, breathing thing.
Learn More
These are just a few things to know when choosing a new floor. Check out some of our other blogs about making flooring choices, like “Top Nine Ways to Lay Down Wood and Tile Flooring.” And if you want to know a little more about floor care, read our blog “10 Golden Rules of Floor Cleaning.”
Finding the best flooring for your needs is all about being prepared.
