I think we've decided that we will tile the entryway to handle long term wear and tear and then we will put wood flooring throughout the rest of the house. I agree that carpet is a smarter and safer option with crawlers and new walkers in the house (thanks for that reminder ladies) so we might put off the wood until Daisy is a solid walker...but, truth be told I'm itching to do this because I know it will improve the look of our home so much. Carpet is cozy but, never looks as nice in my opinion. I will also need to invest in a big, cozy area rug for our living room as suggested so thank you for that reminder too! You ladies were such a huge help in making this decision so thank you!! Joey and I are beginning to check out various wood and tile samples at Home Depot and Lowe's and we (or I should say I) are having a very difficult time pinning down what would look best in our home. We are debating on whether or not to have laminate or real wood floors flowing from our front door throughout the entire house (minus the kitchen and bedrooms) or if we should tile the small area that is our entryway and then lay laminate wood or real wood flooring throughout the rest of the house. We know that there are pros and cons to both but a big pro for tile is that it holds up much better under wear and tear (kids) and a front entrance gets a lot, but...will it look as nice as continuously flowing wood? Thoughts, suggestions, likes, dislikes. These pictures are just samples for the record.
Umm... I personally do not like laminate (aka Hardwoods ugly cousin). We put dark walnut in our house and x-large travertine tiles in the bathrooms. I LOVE the look of travertine- no two squares are identical, a look you can only achieve with natural stone.
ReplyDeleteTile definitely will hold up the best, the only thing you really have to worry about is dirty grout lines but you can place the tiles very close together, choose a neutral grout color and seal it yearly. I REALLY love our wood floors, they are easy to clean and they look great but I do stress about scratching them.
Hope that helps!
you know us! I love the tile in our kitchen...the different colors make the mess look less, and with it being a darker color than most the grout never looks dirty (at least it isn't dirty on the past 2 years)!. We love our wood laminate because of the low maintenance and the easiness of it, however, definitely go with a more expensive laminate to get better quality. I think your kitchen would look great with tile and hardwood/laminate in the rest...you could do tile in the front hallway, dinning room into kitchen and then wood other places....we can talk...but i think it is a great idea for when kids get older! i don't know what i would do if we had carpet downstairs!!! I would love hard floors upstairs!!
ReplyDeletewhatever you do will be beautiful!!!!
ReplyDeletewe have cheap laminate in our house and it has withstood a great dane and a lot of furniture moving and other various other abuses...it is good for that, but i miss the beauty of real wood. it's easy to clean, though! :) i wish we had it everywhere-the carpets get so dirty so fast! (i blame sarge!)
In our condo, we had a tile entry as well as a tile border around our fire place and laminate flooring through out. I thought it would look weird having tile and laminate butting up to each other, but I was very surprised at how well it just kind of went together. So my vote is tile entry way. :-)
ReplyDeleteI will tell you that your wood floors will be a lot harder to maintain. The darker, the more they will show every crumb or speck of dust. But I like the look of them better. I have lived in houses where there is too much tile and it gets really old walking on that stuff! Plus, I just don't think it looks that great all over. Another thing is tile would be a lot harder on Daisy's knees when she is learning to crawl and a lot more dangerous for kids to be running around on. (I'm sure you already thought of all of this). It's kind of funny because every time I look at your blog and there are pics of your carpet I think "wow, that carpet is so brand new!" When we put in our hardwood floors we would be amazed how cozy carpet was when we were at other people's houses that had carpet. So either one you go with, I would budget for a huge comfy rug because we always wished we had one. I excited to see what you choose.
ReplyDeleteFirst, your home is beautiful! Secondly, we have tile in our entry ways, bathrooms and kitchen and carpet in the rest of the house. I would LOVE to rip up the carpet and lay hardwood, but I would keep the tile where it is. You are right, the wear and tear is tremendous, particularly when you start talking about alot of little feet.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to consider before taking out the carpet is when Daisy starts crawling and walking. Especially the walking and running part. We kept carpet in the house until they were beyond this stage because I was always afraid they would fall and hit their head. Actually with Lance, our last child we moved to TX and the house had carpet in the living rooms but not the long hallway and I was always scared it was going to fall flat on his face.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's so much easier to roll around with the kids on the floor with carpet.
I meant to say "...he was going to fall flat on his face." not it. Guess I should proof read ;)
ReplyDeleteHi!! I talked to my floor guy hubby :) Whether to do tile and/or laminate really is personal preference and really depends on the layout of your home. Generally speaking, the more floor types, the choppier the flooring, and the smaller the space, however, the layout changes that! The big thing he was mentioning is the moisture there. I'm guessing NC is wetter than here. If it's rainier/muddier, definitely go with the tile in the entry way! Keep the moisture off the wood as much as possible :)
ReplyDeleteHe has some recommendations for your wood too :) LoL! He said buy a GOOD felt pad for under it - it makes it feel like a good floor when you walk on it. Better to get a cheap laminate and good pad than a good floor and a cheap pad. Makes a huge difference. If the wood is $2.00 sq/ft or less, he says you need to put glue on the tongue and groove as you install it (if you guys are the ones doing it). Tight Bond Wood Glue - with the red label works well. When a laminate is inexpensive though, over time it can get kicked and separated. The glue makes it last longer like a higher quality floor :)
One more thing, based on my experience - we have laminate, they hold up really well, occasionally they will scratch, so remember, the lighter the laminate, the less the scratch will show :) We have dark, so I use a black permanent marker to mask the scratch color a little.
Ask if you have any questions! My hubby's been doing wood floors since he was 13 :) He's seen it all!
wow so many people with good advice! I agree with the person who said that your carpet looks brand new in the pictures- it always looks so clean and fluffy! I vote to wait a while before you change your flooring. Just let the kids trash the carpet during this baby/todder stage and save up for some really nice flooring after that. Maybe the carpet won't seem too bad to you if you know it is only temporary. Plus, buying a nice rug to put on the hard flooring gets expensive and you would definitely need rugs to have for the kids to play on. Overall, my advice it to wait it out a few years!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Melissa. Hardwood and tiles floors can be dangerous with kids and even on the small sections in our house that are hardwood, Brayden slips and gets banged up. We would love to do hardwood/tile throughout the downstairs, but for kid friendliness, we decided to wait until we're done with toddler years for all our kiddos!!
ReplyDeleteI hear what everyone is saying about waiting until the kids are older, but with Claire, she just runs around bare foot in the summer and wears slippers in the winter...that limits the falls. And with Carpet, you have to worry about stains and then when it comes time to potty train, you will be so happy that you don't have the carpet...it makes potty training so much easier. :-) And you can get cheap area rugs for 30-60 dollars while the kids are little, and once they are bigger, you can get a nicer one.
ReplyDeleteIn one of our houses we got the bambo from Costco and loved it!! We need to do our current house, but are putting it off until Jacob walks...or as long as we can stand it!
ReplyDelete-Steph