Choosing flooring for your home is often one of the most important decisions you will have to make as a home owner. It combines all aspects of your home and you truly want the flooring throughout your home to blend with the style of the home as a whole. One thing that was odd in the house I grew up is that each room had different color and textured carpet. The kitchen flooring was berber, the living room was a frieze/shag and the bedroom carpet was plush. Another thing was odd is that my bedroom had red carpet, the boys had brown, the kitchen was white/blue/gray and the living area was beige. How did any of that tie our home together? I am sure the people who bought our home immediately tore out the flooring and replaced it.
Flooring does depend a lot on personal style. This is a surface that every day you will use. Family and friends will use the surface for walking on, sitting on, accidentally spill their drinks on and play on. It needs to be durable and practical for your family and friends. If you are the hostess of many family gathering is it really wise to have white carpet throughout your home? As you begin the processes of choosing your flooring take several things into consideration. First you must determine a budget, consider the size of the room, what is the usage of the room, do you have kids and pets and how long do you expect the flooring to last?
Kitchen flooring is always a fun area to consider. There are so many personal decisions to make. Several choices exist, linoleum, ceramic tiles, wood, faux wood and carpet. Carpet is not necessarily a popular choice these days. As with a bathroom, the kitchen takes abuse from moisture, spills and an abundance of traffic. If you are looking into living in this home awhile and hoping for high resale value buck up and spend the money on real hard wood. It is durable and long lasting. It can take a beating the aging looks like a natural progression of a home that is lived in. When you start to miss that new floor it is easy to call a local flooring expert out to refinish it bringing the luster right back into the floor. Linoleum is the least expensive option and ceramic tile is a great mid cost product to use that also holds up well. You might have to have the floor grouted again after several years of use but that is a fairly inexpensive project for your local handyman.
In bathroom flooring it is obvious that you need to consider a material that will hold up against daily use and moisture. Linoleum can be used but it is a short term material. Often linoleum will wear and date itself within seven years of installation. Better long term options are ceramic, limestone and marble. Again this is where budget and personal preference come in to play. Color and texture options are plentiful in any of the above mentioned materials.
Areas such as living rooms and bedrooms are areas that personal preference will take over. I have a thing for the comfortable look and feel of carpet. I think that with my children being small that they spend most of their time playing on the floor. Carpet provides the warm, comfy feel I enjoy in a living are. However many people really like wood floors with area rugs. This is a very good option for longevity but will be pricey to install. Wood can always be refinished which makes it the longest lasting option. Area rugs are inexpensive and can be used to add warmth to any room.
As with most home renovations flooring can increase the market of your home. Take this into consideration if this home is just a mere stepping stone. Don’t spend astronomical amounts of money on a floor that you will not enjoy. If it a home that you are looking to spend the rest of your life in consider the upgrades otherwise choose a mid grade option that will tend to be on the neutral side of flooring options. These will the resale value of your home in the long term. Kitchen flooring and bathroom flooring are areas that will change the perception of your home. This is often what makes or breaks a home sale so consider this before doing something radical like adding carpet to your kitchen like my parents did.