Learn about the top flooring options for your living room
Flooring in the house is very important, both for providing a great look and feel to the home and to provide comfort and safety. Before any room in the house can be decorated, it needs to have some excellent flooring. If you choose the flooring of the house wisely, it will stay with you for years and will also maintain its good looks, beauty and comfort for you. Before jumping in and deciding which flooring to get, you need to consider a variety of factors and you need to do proper research regarding which flooring do you want to go with, for the different rooms in the house. There are many options available in the market and you have a lot of choices when you are looking to replace or install the flooring in your home. First of all, you need to consider your budget for the project, as it is an extremely important part of the selection phase. After deciding upon the budget, you will already have narrowed down to some choices. After that, you need to consider the style of the house, the amount of the wear and tear which you expect the flooring to withstand, along with the look and feel you want inside the home. This article explores the pros and cons of different popular flooring options that are trending these days.
Read the complete article to learn more about different flooring options for your living room!
Wood
When remodelling an older home, good fortune sometime smiles upon those brave enough to pull back a corner of a tattered old carpet: There might be pristine hardwoods underneath, which often can be sanded, stained and sealed. With plenty of choices in stain color, the floor and the room as a whole can feel remarkably refreshed, polished and updated with minimal effort and expense. No large crews of workers, no shopping for expensive materials. It can be incredibly satisfying to do so much with so little.
But what if your hardwood floors have damage or need to be extended? A practical and economical option is to match them. “Make use of what you have,” advises architect Carol Sundstrom. “If you already have hardwood, consider matching and refinishing. I prefer large continuous areas of one material rather than a different flooring material in each room, which reminds me of a patchwork quilt.”
And if you need to start from scratch, you can broaden your horizons a bit. There are hardwood options that can be fitted into your space while bringing a sense of age and patina. “We love the warmth of reclaimed heart-pine flooring,” says Jane Frederick, of Frederick + Frederick Architects. “It is sustainable because it is reused from old beams removed from buildings being torn down. The boards are wide — 8 inches to 12 inches — and the patina is wonderful.”
Hardwood Floors
Carpeting
Though wall-to-wall carpeting in bedrooms is still a popular choice, in living rooms, not so much. “I generally never use wall-to-wall carpet in high-traffic or public areas unless my client specifically asks for it,” says designer Rachel Oliver. “It is usually less expensive than hardwoods and many styles are easy to keep clean, but it can soak up odors and liquids in high-traffic areas and may stain.”
Oliver, however, has a trick for taking advantage of the cozy feel that wall-to-wall carpeting provides: In addition to the rugs she likes to scatter about a space, she sometimes has carpeting cut and bound to the exact size needed for a room — it provides all the comfort of carpeting but can be easily removed and cleaned or swapped out.
As for getting the size just right, Oliver recommends floating a large carpet 12 to 24 inches from the perimeter of the room. “It offers a uniform, clean look,” she says.
“The right rug can offer a high-end look in any home, no matter the price,” she says. “There are even many indoor/outdoor rugs that are soft enough for babies and kids to play on. Natural jute, seagrass and sisal rugs are hugely popular, but can be harsh on bare feet.”
Carpet Floors
Author: Julie Cole Miller
Link to the original article:
http://www.hgtv.com/remodel/interior-remodel/top-living-room-flooring-options
