While we are waiting for bids back from the contractors for our massive kitchen/bath remodel, we have a huge decision left to make. What flooring to put in this 700 square foot space? (Just typing that is crazy….my kitchen and dining room are 700 square feet. My first house wasn’t much bigger than that.
We were going to do porcelain wood look tile and found a great option, but tile is sooo expensive! The store offered us a sale price of $3.50 a square foot and on the surface it sounded doable. Then we realized that didn’t include backing, adhesive, grout and a professional to make sure we didn’t mess up.
So I suggested we consider real hard wood in prefinished planks. Darren’s done that before and it looked amazing.
We took a field trip out to lumber liquidators and looked at all the options. I was personally partial to the strand bamboo idea, but in person none of the options were right for our space.
We found 2 wide plank handscraped floors that were still fairly smooth (grooves and texture look cool, but grab and collect dirt–yuck.). Darren votes for the dark floor above.
Darren is right. In a perfect world the dark floor looks awesome. But in our world of 6 kids and a wife who would rather make stuff than clean, a dark floor would look dirty all the time. So I vote for the same floor in a more mid tone.
We walked on the sample boards with our dusty shoes just to see if I was right, and I was. But I could tell Darren still wanted the dark floor.
The lower cabinets are the cherry wood color the upper cabinets are white. How do you vote? Dark or Light? I think it will be on sale tomorrow and I need to decide ASAP.
(an old photo of the green carpet)
Also, I want to tear out our green carpet in the living room and put the same floor into that space (they are connected.) Darren thinks it’s too much to think about at once, but I think it would be smart to buy it all at once, on sale, even if the living room floor installation has to wait until the kitchen project is finished.
I’m feeling overwhelmed at the big decision and would love your input. (Oh and I’m pretending it hasn’t been ages since I blogged last. )
Sorry Darren, but I also vote for the lighter wood. š
Ok, this might sound crazy, and I admit to being a screw loose at times ;-)–what about unfinished oak that then you stain the finish you like and seal with a coating of some sort. Ok, so I know nothing about this stuff, and that may be more work than it’s worth, but could be a money saver?? Would you be able to find a stain easier that you both like than a pre-done flooring option? Against the cherry cabinent above, I actually see more of a match in hues with the darker option–don’t kill me for going with his choice! š The good thing about wood flooring, is it is easier to keep clean than some other options–I think. Especially if your vacuum has a flooring attachment that works well on such floors, it could just be added as a chore for the older kids?? Don’t tell them I said this!
Best wishes on your remodel and prayers for all to go well while keeping sanity in tact! š
Carrie
Definitely the light! As a mom of 3 boys, I too prefer not to have to constantly clean the floors or live with dirty looking floors. We had mudstone wood floors in our last house and I loved them. Yes, I realize dark might be appealing at first but I think upkeep would get old fast.
My last comment should read “midtone”. Silly auto-correct!
We have lighter colored wood floors in our living room and hall and I always wished we would have went with a darker color. My friends just redid their hardwood floors to the dark color you showed and I am so thankful now that we have the lighter color! It showed everything!!! I was only their 15-20 minutes and it drove me nuts! They are clean people so I know that it wasn’t just several days or weeks of dust and dirt covering it either.
I vote for the lighter option. I just moved a few months ago with my four boys to a house with a large section of wood flooring in the kitchen/dining area. It is a lot of floor to clean and the most convenient tools to keep it clean are pretty spendy, so I’d go with the easiest to keep looking nice. Dark wood shows everything! Is there any option without grooves between the planks? Crumbs get stuck in those grooves so easily!
I vote for the lighter–dark shows the dusty dirt, crumbs and smudges more, which is the lion’s share of wood floor cleaning with kiddos. Also, with the dark lower cabinets and dark floors, it might make the room look oppressive and bottom heavy If you can afford it, doing both rooms at the same time will make the transition between rooms smoother.
No matter what we all say, do what feels right to you both–and enjoy!
One word of advise. If you are doing the living room in the near future buy all the flooring now. Even though it would be the same pattern and color, dye lots differ. I love the look of dark but be prepared to clean every single day and sometime more then once a day. Not a kid friendly color!
Definitely the lighter shade!! The dark is too close to lower cabinet color as well as showing dust etc. I bought dark wood end tables for our living room a few years ago right before we were transferred to the dusty desert SW and they look so much worse (always appear dusty long before other things) than my oak and midtoned wood furnishings.
Study how the samples look in your home both night and daylight to see how they look in you space/lighting.
I know I’m going against the grain here, but I’d go for the dark wood, merely from a visual point of view. The light wood being lighter than the bottom cupboards and a noticeable third color, I think it would visually be cutting your space up/making it appear smaller/shorter and “busy” (think re: socks and shoes should always match or be darker than the pants/skirt above them). The dark flooring would create a more continuous/harmonious visual flow from cupboards to floor, imo. I know that has nothing to do with cleaning them, but a good dust mop should help (or kiddos in socks :D).
I would go even lighter and even consider mixed wood. I have dark concrete, what was I thinking. Someday I will have lighter wood floors.
I say go with what you love. Both floors are going to get dirty and both will show different types of stuff. You want to love your floors and you will clean the same amount of times based on your clean preference. For instance, I will clean it because I know it’s dirty, not necessarily because I can see the dirt. This is a long time investment and you have to live with it. Your kids will grow up, tracking in less stuff and your floors will still be there. Love the choice you make. That’s my opinion.
Isn’t it funny how we expand? When it was my husband and I and our first two kiddos, we lived in 860 square feet. It seemed plenty spacious. Now we’re up to 2000 square feet (and almost five kids–one is going to be here any day) and I swear we could fill up twice that much with the stuff we have accumulated over the years. Sounds like it’s time for a garage sale š
As for the floor, I’d go light. My mom got her dream wood floors after all the kids had moved out and she was constantly cleaning it (she mopped at least once daily–with no kids in sight.) She got a robot thing that cleans the floor, but I don’t know how that is working out.
I vote for the lighter color. Dark does look dirty and I also agree you should buy it on sale even if you can’t get to the other project for a while. Blessings, and I hope you get a really good deal on your wood. š
My wood floors are light; they show enough dust. If you have to constantly clean them, you won’t enjoy them. You’re going to be living with them a long time.
As a mom of 6 and a Labrador, I vote for LIGHT! No question about it! I have mid-toned oak and I wish they were lighter. Every hair, fleck of dust or sand (we are in FL, where our soil is really just sand) shows and it drives me crazy. I dry swiffer my floors at least once a day, and vacuum around the dog crate and in the kitchen and breakfast nook after every meal. LIGHT, go LIGHT! LOL
We recently purchased a freddie mac home and have/are going through all of these decisions. We are doing a white glazed cabinet. I really liked the dark woods but we decided to tone it down for the simple fact that we have children. We did decide to buy through build direct–awesome experience. We ended up choosing a medium engineered walnit that varies in color. Love love love the wood…just need to drywall and paint them we will be installing it. I vote—the lighter color.
The light! We had dark wood and bare feet prints just about made me crazy everyday!!
We put laminate in our kitchen,dining room, hallway, and bedrooms. It is soo easy to clean and looks like real wood without the groves to clean. I went with a lighter color too, I wish I had done the living room as well. The living room carpet has not held up for even 10 years. While the laminate still looks new with only water cleanup and swiffer sweeper.
You always have great ideas. Do what makes you and your family happy š
I can see pros and cons to both colors – I can’t help but vote to go ahead and get enough to do both rooms, though. If you buy it later for the living room, it will be from a different “batch” and you’ll be able to see the shift in slight color variation of the floor. If you change your minds about installing the living room, you can always resell the flooring on craigslist or whatever :). But you can store it nicely in the garage or whatever for a long time while you wait for you budget to catch up, and it will look nicer in the long run. We learned this when we retiled the entire first floor of our old house.
Do the mid tone- it is easier on the clean up, and is a bit more timeless so that you won’t be frustrated in 10 years. And bite the bullet and pull up the green carpet- one of my biggest regrets about redoing our house now was that we decided it was too expensive to put hardwood in the back section of the house ( the only 200 sq ft without wood). Now we are looking at putting wood in that section as the carpet is getting nasty, and it is proving hard to find the pre-finished wood we used prior to this. My husband and I have both said we wished we had just done it the right way the first time.
I too vote for the lighter color. I am not a fan of wood, when we pulled out all the carpet in our house we choose tile. I really would like cork in my kitchen though.
Did you check out the Allure plank flooring at Home Depot? It’s like a cross between the snap to gether laminate floors and linolum. We are redoing out whole townhouse in it (minus kitchen & baths, just because I don’t want to pull out tile). We did the first room last weekend & it looks great. It was easy to put down & $1.80 a sq foot. You can lay it directly over concreate or subflooring & no adhesive needed (it adheres to itself. It was super eady to install and we love it. Once you put the seal coat on it it’s easy to dry mop or vaccume and all the reviews I ready say it is very durab;e for kids and pets. We did ours in Brazillian Cherry but they have multiple color options. Good Luck!
I like the lighter color. Darker seems to show scratches worse.
For looks – dark wood; for practicality – probably the lighter, but you won’t always have 6 kids at home, and your floor should last longer than that.
Definitely get all the flooring at once if you are planning on doing the other room later.
We went with a laminate that looks like wood. Soooo much cheaper than actual wood, no grooves to clean. It’s been in for 6 years now and nearly everyone that stops by thinks it’s real wood at first and comments on how lovely the floors are. So, that’s something to consider, too.
That said, I wouldn’t choose the lighter color ONLY because of the cleaning issues with the darker wood. If that’s the only opposition you have to the darker color, and it’s what your husband prefers…well, I’d go with what he wanted and hand him a mop. Both of you have to live in the space and so you both need to be happy with it. If you strongly prefer the lighter color, then that’s a different story (and I’d consider mixing the two, then!), but overall if you like both and he has a distinct preference, I’d go with that. But I am blessed with a husband who does most of my mopping. š
Definitely the lighter tone. Although very dark wood floors are trendy right now, in the long term, a mid tone is a better choice. Remember when ultra light or “bleached” floors were really popular 10-15 year ago? Now they look very dated and everyone is ripping them out. I think the same thing will happen with the very dark floors popular now. The style pendulum swings back and forth, but I think it’s always better to stay in the middle for a choice with long term appeal. Good luck!
DARK!
We have a very large area in our home with dark wood floors. It was a great selling point when we were house shopping – just gorgeous! However, after living here for about 10 months, let me tell you…they are a pain to keep clean. Even a speck of dust is noticeable. I have invested in a Swiffer sweeper with a little vacuum that helps somewhat (because a regular ole broom is no match for the floors at all) and the floors are mopped at least once every two weeks, but I really wish my floors were a lighter shade like my old house had. Good luck with your decision!!!
definitely the mid-tone – and then use a stick vac to keep it dusted (got my corded one for $10 and love it) or get one of those 24″ wide microfiber swiffers (got mine at Sams but I am sure you can get them elsewhere) to keep it dusted. The dark floors will show everything. Oh, and if you can get it on sale then get it all at once – just be sure to get enough for error –
I vote for the lighter color. I think it will look clean longer and open the space up more. Dark colors make spaces look small and dark! The lighter color will reflect more light!
When we reno’d our kitchen/livingroom, I wanted a lighter laminate because I know dark shows everything. My hubby wanted dark( what is the deal with these men?) and his reasoning is because we opened up a bunch of walls and now the house has a lot of light. Our kitchen is all white cabinets and light pine colored counters. It needed the dark floors to ground the space. Now that we have a German Shedder (German shepherd lol) I vacuum nearly everyday. But if you have a norwex mop with a dry and wet mop head it probably wouldn’t take long to do a quick sweep or mop everyday. Even my 7 year old vacuums sometimes and if nothing else, its good exercise for me! I learned with major renovations – ie. I had no kitchen for the kids first week of school, that compromise and a sense of humour will save your marriage!
Keira’s are dark. And she has yellow labs. Total mess. All. the. time.
Sorry Darren š
Also, I’d wait on living room… my experience has shown that it never works like I plan. Of course, you might plan better!!
I vote lighter and get all you need now. Matching flooring a few years down the line is impossible.
When we bought our house we found awesome wood floors underneath the carpet. We ripped up the carpet, re-did the wood floors (yes a lot of work, but worth it to save on money) and poly’ed the floor so it looks like honey. So, go with light. If you don’t have that lovely secret underneath the carpet, then buy all the wood now as I agree with other posters that the dye lot may not be the same. Now, if you buy unstained pine or oak, then you can buy that whenever and poly it when you install it.
I just put down 65 yards of Shaw Maple VINYL. Looks like plank, very easy to keep clean and makes my small condo LOOK larger, I purchased a really nice rug for the lvig room, red around the boarder and oatmeal in the middle with tiny red flecks into the weave. $39.00 on sale at Target. Vinyl is the new and inexpensive Linoleum and it comes in different qualities. You can make your house/room look line anything you want – TILE, BRICK, BAMBOO. If you purchased a thin quality vinyl you could put it on a wall giving you a very different look, if you are creative. Good Luck.
Shirley j
Shirley, I’m not a fan of linoleum, but you are right about the new vinyl plank floors. I’m trying to convince my husband to do that in our basement since it would do well if we ever flooded again.
Angela, you are right. Buy all the supplies now including glue or whatever you need then when you’re ready to install you will feel really good you make a smart move. Be sure the excess is stored in a clean DRY place. On my previous comment on Vinyl. I somehow came up with way too much
(got cheater by the installer who wanted to make more money) but I kept it for about a year and put the xtra down in my kitchen and entry way all by myself. It looked great for about 4 years until I recently re-did the entire condo.. Vinyl is so versatile and it can be cut with scissors.
Try ALWAYS to purchase vinyl ON THE ROLL, not in squares. My installer I used recently is brilliant and did some xtras he didn’t charge me for. He works in L.A/O.C/RIVERSIDE COUNTIES, California.