Thanks for the validation on keeping the wood. I’m not sure if it’s the absence of the yucky area rug (lol) but I do think I like the warm colored wood.
Our entrance hall is the main entrance to the home - it had wood before and did get pretty banged up/bleached by the sun from the very large entranceway window. But I think wood would be more welcoming than tile (and is a more popular choice for homes in our neighborhood).
I know there is luxury vinyl plank in a ‘tile look’. Would that look less nice than real tile for a kitchen/bathroom/laundry room?
Right now in those areas we have the old-school, builder-grade vinyl (bleh). So there is some logic to using some variant of that material in those rooms - just kinda want it to look nice/elegant. And fake wood (in lux vinyl plank) abutting the real wood family room seems like it’s not going to cut it (for me) asethetically…
I’ll also throw in here that area rugs unless they have extreme value are meant to be changed now and again. You can update a room (specifically floors) and make it more modern or bright or trendy or whatever you hope to do with a new area rug. Check out HomeGoods sometime and browse their rugs - you’ll see some great rugs in different styles for many tastes.
We don’t have a true entryway/foyer in our home - the front door opens right into a living/dining area so there really was no way to have different flooring in front of the front door. We have hardwood flooring throughout the main level WTE of the powder room (tile) and backdoor mudroom (slate I think). Front door is generally the most used entrance. I have a 4x6 rug immediately in front of the door so that upon entry, there is enough room to walk in, turn and close the door, without stepping on the wood. While we don’t have guests remove their shoes, if the weather is yucky, most do and there is room to leave shoes in the entry rug. We have no problems at all with the moisture there.
I personally would much prefer hardwood to LVP. We’ve had our wood floors for almost 20 years - four “not very careful” kids, two large dogs and one medium dog later, they still look great. No issues in the kitchen but we use rugs in front of the sink and fridge. I agree that if you have beautiful wood floor in your family room, I would never tear that up to replace with LVP everywhere. I’d install hardwood and match it if you are able.
I would never ever pull up a good hardwood floor. I put a stone mosaic tile in my front entryway, and my powder room floor has tile. (It’s an old mosaic tile probably from a 1960s renovation which I would replace if I ever redid the entire bathroom.)
Thanks again! I’m off to check tile prices (in the interests of keeping the wood floor in fam room!). This might eventually leave us more room in budget for some taller cabinets that hub wants (we both like the ‘to the ceiling stacked’ look - 36"/15") - but those were initially beyond the budget…
Also following this thread’s advice - I thought…what do I really want?? Ha, apparently it’s a windowseat reading nook (have wanted one since I was a middleschool bookish kid)! Just not a big cook so we can bypass all the fancy appliances and cool cabinet accoutrements, lol…
I have not read the thread. ShawWife is usually several years ahead of trend. Our architect noted that as well after looking at our old house and curent choices. About 5+ years ago, she put very dark wood floor in our bedroom. Two years ago, we bought a new house and she did a white Canadian maple. This year, as part of a big renovation, she did an elegant large grey tile all over the main section of the house (LR, DR, K, family room, hallway).
Interesting! I am trying to get a bit ahead of trend if I can do it (to help with eventual sale… maybe 3-5 years down the road). Glad to hear others took the tile option! My friends have large, rectangular grey/white tiles in their ($$) kitchen rehab - it looks so pretty.
The only issue is I don’t have the funds to redo to a different color if grey goes out of style in a few years, LOL!
We have never “redone” anything so far in this house. Fortunately the original owners redid kitchen about 7 years before we bought it in 1990. We are content with things but D is really looking forward to installation of ductless A/C for entire house this weekend!
We went with tile throughout our new home. It’s Crossville’s Portugal porcelain tile, 24" X 48", in Vehlo White, while the bathrooms have different tiles. The only problem we’ve had with the white (which is not bright white and has some very soft grey/griege veining) is some marks left in a few spots by the installers. Crossville sent info on several ways to remove the marks, so I’ll try their suggestions after the holidays.
We had to conform to HOA regs for the exterior, but the interior is much more modern. H and I both love the pale floors after decades of dark hardwoods. H’s only complaint is that I’m more aware of how often he spills coffee, but at least it’s easy for him to clean up.
Actually, I take that back, we installed white oak flooring in all rooms of our house except bathrooms and kitchen. We did re-floor the kitchen with new sheet vinyl a few times.
Thanks again for the input! I just talked to a home designer (where we are buying cabinets) and a retired builder who has done a bunch of higher-end homes in our area - both agreed that having two types of ‘wood’ (the nice, mid-toned hardwood and any color of a lux vinyl wood-look) would not look good right next to each other. And I agree - this just confirmed.
So looks like our options are:
do kitchen, hallway, entrance way, powder room, laundry room in a “tile-look” lux vinyl (so a different material abuts the hardwood room) or
Do the hallway, kitchen, etc. in lux vinyl (likely darkish to make white kitchen pop) and cover the beautiful hardwood.
The former builder gave me the idea for #2. The lux vinyl on top of wood in fam room will be slightly higher than the adjacent kitchen floor, but there is a transition strip there anyway.
His most persuasive argument - you have an open floor plan - don’t chop it up with a bunch of different materials…
Wondered if anyone else has done ‘tile-look’ luxury vinyl flooring?
I have lvp tile in my sunroom. I’m ripping out. It’s our next project. It was in the kitchen too when we first moved in and was the first thing we removed. I think it looks and feels awful.
Did you abandon installing real hard wood to match what you have?
Thanks for that. Well, I asked the builder about 'hardwood all throughout" and he said that we could get raw (real) hardwood, run it through the whole area, and try to match the existing hardwood. Aesthetically, I did like that idea. Hub is not a fan of hardwood in kitchen, powder room, and laundry but builder said (like many here!) that it is do-able.
However, it would be pricey. We’d need to get someone with quality skills ($$) to do the stain and match. Builder said it wouldn’t be exact - but it would be close.
Alternatively, we could refinish the existing hardwood to match the new raw wood (all same). All said in done - after living with this beautiful hardwood for a weeks - I really like it and get people’s enthusiasm for it!
I think our next step is to get some prices. The two options above seemed more affordable. A whole ‘real wood stained’ project would be pricey - and we might want to sell in a few years.
If it was my ‘forever home’ I think I’d have a slightly different analysis.
In the interim - my goals are to have the floors not look cheap or ill-suited for the space(s)…!
When people say LVP, what brands are we talking about? I am not knowledgeable on flooring, but would wood floors be difficult in dry climates? We have travertine that was already there when we moved in. Our tiles are not the prettiest (I would have selected a different color/“marbling”), but I do like the tile placement and that our tiles are jumbo sized. Caring for it is easy. We did rehab the bathrooms and used Porcelanosa tile. They have these cool tiles (I don’t think it’s vinyl?) that look like wood. Sometimes we think of that for our mid century modern home.
When I lived in the Midwest, we had hardwood everywhere (except bathrooms with tubs/showers) and didn’t have a problem with wood in laundry room, kitchen or powder room.
This is what we have here; hardwood all over the ground floor. It looks very well put together. I would put tile in the laundry room but keep the rest real wood.
I gulp covering up any good shape hardwood floors with another material! - that’s me.
Here is LVP in our sunroom vs. the step up to dining room that has 100 year old white oak floors. And a close up of the LVP , not the best pic, but showing that there is some hardwood floor groove look that is pretty legit
Thanks, Bunsen! Hardwood would be - I guess - my first choice. But it’s so pricey and we have such a large area. If it were a forever home I might stretch to do it - but we are planning to sell in a few years (empty nesters).
abasket - yours looks great!! We don’t have a step-down, though. The two rooms (with, potentially, two different materials) would be right up against each other. Some of my neighbors have done this - the proximity and “almost-ness” of the two materials just doesn’t quite work. If I had a step separation like yours - I think it would work really well!!
covering up any good shape hardwood floors with another material! - that’s me.
