Selecting flooring for your home can be an overwhelming task for most homeowners. It’s a big investment that influences your home’s appearance and sets the mood for your interior style. With endless possibilities on the market, how do you know which flooring is best for your home and lifestyle? Let’s go over some of these options and where the decorative possibilities each option could lead to.

Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood flooring is available in a wide variety of styles, colors, patterns and finishes. It comes in planks, strips and tiles, and each wood species offers a different hardness, grain and color variation that provides unique visual interest. Whether you prefer the lighter shades of oak, maple and bamboo or the deeper shades of walnut and mahogany, hardwood flooring will certainly add warmth and character to your interior.

The light, warm tones of oak, maple, teak and bamboo work well in a modern or contemporary interior. They provide a warm, casual setting that reflects light and creates an open, airy feeling enhanced by bold, bright colors. Darker tones in walnut, mahogany and cherry work best in a more traditional interior. They create a more formal setting that’s enhanced by deep, rich color schemes.

• Solid Wood Floors – Solid wood flooring is made from a solid piece of wood from top to bottom. It’s durable and will last a lifetime with proper care and maintenance. Due to wood thickness, solid hardwood floors can be sanded and refinished many times without causing damage to the floors.
• Engineered Wood Floors – Engineered wood flooring is manufactured from real hardwood, but it’s made from layers of different wood veneers. The top layer, a high-quality wood, gives the finished appearance. It’s durable and easy to maintain, but the thin veneers make it difficult to sand and refinish.

Tile and Stone

Another great option to consider is tiling your floors. Tile and stone comes in endless choices offering various sizes, colors and even patterns that look like wood, brick and concrete. Stone choices include granite, marble, limestone, travertine and slate, in a variety of beautiful colors. Although tile and stone compliment any color scheme, they work best in modern or contemporary interiors where you want a sterile, sleek look.

Unfortunately, tile and stone have no cushion or natural warmth. They are great in warm climates where you want a cool surface under your feet, but not so good in cold climates. They’re easy to maintain with a damp mop, but offer little resistance to cracking and chipping if something heavy is dropped. They provide no sound absorption, so area rugs can provide softness and acoustics.

Carpet

Carpets and area rugs are available in endless styles, patterns, textures and colors. They come in wool, nylon, acrylic, polyester and combination fibers with plush, textured and cut piles. With stain-guard technology in carpet treatments, they offer a durable, easy to maintain flooring choice for any interior style. Carpets and rugs provide warmth, softness, texture, visual interest and sound absorption to your home’s interior. If you live in a cold climate, they can even reduce your energy consumption and costs by providing added warm and insulation.

Whatever you choose, ensure that you’re pairing the proper flooring material for the rooms and areas of the home that will be most suitable for your material of choice. Although it’s just the floor space, the option you choose should still be highlighted and the room should accentuate its features just as much as the flooring should help boost the look of the room’s interior design. If you’re not sure as to what floor goes in what room, it’s a safe bet to keep the material consistent throughout the entire home. On that same note, think about tile in rooms like bathrooms if you have wood floors or carpet everywhere else. Or carpet in bedrooms for a cozier feel if you’ve tiled or installed hardwood throughout the rest of the home. Whatever you do, keep the overall idea consistent and take your time comparing your flooring options. If you don’t absolutely love it, don’t settle until you find what you’re looking for. It’s a huge investment and you want to be able to love every square inch of your new flooring and how it fits with the rest of your home’s decorative themes.