Adventures in Flooring

Floors. I think they are the number one item that can make or break a house. If done well, they lay an awesome foundation to work from. If chosen poorly, well, you'll be fighting them every step of the way in your decorating journey. The original owners had quite the mishmash of flooring downstairs.

Inexpensive, red toned laminate in both rooms on either side of the kitchen.

And slate? look alike vinyl in the kitchen and entry hall.

To complete the mismatched theme, they finished the living room in something we affectionately called the duck sh*t brown carpet.

The quality was fine, but this room is dark enough.  No need to make it worse with the carpet that was surprisingly close to Pantone's Ugliest Color.



I kid you not, in real life the carpet was THAT color!

It all felt discombobulated and we were fighting to find ways to work with it, even
on a temporary basis. The brick fireplace might be the main focal point
for this house's design, but the floors will set the overall tone.

See that narrow opening and closet to the left in the picture above? We needed to address that before we could put down the new floors.

Ahh, the dark dungeon of an entry after we removed the closet and about thirty inches of wall. Now the opening is centered on the living room. I have dreams of barn doors here. I wanted barn doors long before they were an interior design thing. Our home in 2004 just begged for them between the living room and den. Alas, we sold it in 2007 having never made that upgrade, mostly because the hardware was all but impossible to find. Fast forward a decade or so and I may get them yet.

The work in progress view from the front door. This area started off almost claustrophobic. You practically ran into the hall closet as you walked in the front door.
Nothing says Welcome to Our Humble Abode like running smack dab into a wall, shutting the door and feeling like you're locked in a closet!

Now we have some breathing room. And a lot of drywall work ahead of us. And a new door, please, somebody send me a new door!

We stripped the vinyl out and found what was probably the original linoleum from
when the house was built in 1970. Its still a cave :(
Notice the carpet on the stairs? That is what we have upstairs. Its not horrible,
so we will live with it, for now.

Hubby and the boys are getting it done! Our original plan was to put in the wood look tile, but our subfloors weren't nearly level enough. Plan B, a higher end, textured laminate. It is water resistant if installed correctly and nearly indestructible. Muddy paw prints are a thing in this house. No getting around it with nearly 300 pounds of doggy love.

Until next time...