Design Ideas for Flooring E-Book

Roy Barnhart

• Herausgeber: Creative Homeowner
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Design Ideas Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 136

Beschreibung

Design Ideas for Flooring is the ultimate guide to the latest materials, products, and styles in flooring. With 450 color photographs, Design Ideas for Flooring amply illustrates every choice in flooring--wood, stone, ceramic tile, decorative concrete, carpeting and rugs, laminate, and resilient vinyl in sheet and tile versions. The book is also loaded with special tips and advice for the kind of floor, from both a design and a durability perspective, to use in various areas around the home--high-traffic areas, kitchens & baths, comfortable living & sleeping areas, utility areas, and more. It also covers special effects in floors, such as mosaic treatments, inlays, painted designs, and more.

Leseprobe

Dedication

To MaryAnn, who helped make this bookpossible in countless ways.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Jill Schoff for her invaluable contributions as both copyeditor and layout artist, and to editorial assistant Briana Porco for handling myriad assignments with competence and efficiency beyond her years. Thanks, too, to Bob La Pointe for his beautiful illustrations, to Carl Weese for making the book’s photography look its best, and to the many flooring manufacturers who contributed photos and expertise, especially to Shaw Industries and Mannington Mills. Finally, thanks to Floors Unlimited of Bridgeport, Connecticut, for suffering our many questions and allowing us to photograph various types of flooring in its showroom.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Define Your Goals

practically speaking

design basics

taking measure

safety and health

building a budget

Chapter 2

The Naturals

engineered & solid wood

bamboo

linoleum

cork

wool

other natural fibers

Chapter 3

Stone & Tile

stone

decorative concrete

ceramic and porcelain tile

Chapter 4

Synthetic Flooring

laminates

sheet vinyl

vinyl tiles

rubber and polypropylene

wall-to-wall carpeting

Chapter 5

Where It Gets Wet

kitchens

baths

laundries

Chapter 6

Get Personal

living and dining rooms

bedrooms

family rooms

recreation rooms

hobby and craft rooms

Chapter 7

Heavy-Duty Floors

foyers and mudrooms

hallways and stairways

garages and basements

Chapter 8

Special Effects

custom designs

borders

medallions

mosaics

painted floors and floor cloths

Resource Guide

Glossary

Index

Photo Credits

Introduction

Flooring has had its high and low points throughout history. About 2,000 years ago, Romans were popularizing tile as flooring throughout much of Europe. Egyptians were using stone millennia before that. In homes of the Middle Ages, however, floors were more likely to be hard-packed dirt and dung. Even 300 years ago, many American colonists walked on sand layered over dirt.

Flooring today, however, has entered a golden age. We can still use ancient materials, such as stone, tile, and mosaic, but we have hundreds of other choices as well. Some may surprise you: renewable “green” floors such as cork and bamboo, wood with exotic veneers, porcelain tile that needs no adhesive, laminates that come ever so close to nature, durable carpets made of leaf fiber and seagrass, and fiberglass-reinforced vinyl that you could pull up and hose down in the driveway if you had a mind to. Modern flooring is also much easier to install and maintain, thanks to higher manufacturing standards and incredibly durable finishes. We hope Design Ideas for Flooring will inspire you with examples of beautiful floors. And we hope our advice and resource listings will help you realize the perfect floors for your home.

Vinyl sheet in small mosaic is subtle and supremely functional.

Linoleum, first popularized over 100 years ago, is now available with premade borders.

Bamboo, an ecologically sound alternative to wood, performs as well and often costs less.

There are many choices when it comes to flooring, just as there are when designing the rest of your personal space. What to choose depends largely upon discovering what you want.

1

Define Your Goals

practically speaking

design basics

taking measure

safety and health

building a budget

Flooring is what you might call an intimate building product. You’re almost always in contact with it. Consequently, you ask a lot from it. Flooring has to be comfortable and safe underfoot, spill- and moisture-resistant, easily cleaned, and durable. But that’s not all: flooring is also a vital element of successful interior design. While rarely the focal point of a room, it is almost always in view. The right flooring choice can enhance your furnishings, cabinetry, and color scheme. The wrong choice can cheapen and detract from an otherwise beautifully decorated room.

practically speaking

Begin the design process by asking a series of questions that will help you define your goals. Doing so will eliminate some choices and suggest others you haven’t yet considered. For example, will the floor be subject to moisture, such as high humidity or spills and splashes? If so, a vinyl or tile floor is probably your best choice. If the moisture is not severe, laminate flooring or engineered-wood flooring may be okay as well.

How much traffic do you expect, and will it sometimes be wearing dirty shoes? Heavy traffic and dirt (because it’s abrasive) require tough flooring, such as ceramic, stone, or vinyl tile. Less-trafficked areas are ideal for organics, such as wood, cork, laminate, and carpeting.

Other questions relate to health and comfort. Does anyone in your family suffer from allergies? Some flooring, such as cork, has natural antimicrobial properties. Hardwood floors are easy to keep dust free. You may want to avoid wall-to-wall carpeting. Are cold floors an issue? If so, you may want to rule out masonry products, such as tile—unless, of course, you opt for a radiant-floor-heating system as well. Is the floor in an area where you’d like to minimize noise? Carpeting and cork are quieter than wood or tile and good choices for rooms where kids play. Rubber flooring and other resilient floorings are also relatively quiet.

Convenience is a high priority with many busy homeowners. How important is low maintenance to you? In general, synthetic floors are easier to care for than natural floors—but not always. New finishes make it possible to put wood floors in nearly every room. And textured vinyl products, such as patterned tile with realistic grout lines, may be just as difficult to clean as natural flooring.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you will have narrowed your flooring options. Then the fun begins—because regardless of how many practical restrictions apply, you will still have countless flooring styles from which to choose.

Top-quality laminate flooring, such as this plank style, is extremely durable and better suited to areas subject to moisture than real wood. No glue is required.

This engineered 3-in.-wide maple plank floor has a real maple veneer with a 25-year finish warranty. Only ⅜ in. thick overall, it installs with adhesive.

The designer of this interior chose hard-wearing ceramic tile for the busy and messy kitchen zones, as well as the entry. Wood strips were used elsewhere.

Dirt can eventually grind its way through floor finishes. For dirt-prone areas, use a throw rug to catch abrasive particles. Shake out and vacuum the rug, clean it regularly.

Installing vinyl tiles and planks—such as this mudroom’s realistic distressed oak—is relatively easy but requires a perfectly smooth substrate. Otherwise, bumps will “telegraph” to the finished surface.

Ceramic and stone tile are among the most difficult flooring materials to install. Rent a wet saw and blade to ease the job.

to diy or not

Successfully installing flooring yourself depends on two things: the product you choose and your skill level. Some materials, such as laminate and many vinyl products, require nothing more than careful measuring and the ability to cut a straight line with a utility knife or light-duty saw. Others demand more advanced skills, such as being able to use a circular saw to rip planks, a wet saw to cut ceramics, a power nailer to fasten solid wood flooring to a subfloor, or a notched trowel to apply just the correct amount of adhesive. The toughest floors require adding plywood, backer board, or a mortar bed prior to installation and solving flooring height problems that may arise at threshold and transitions. The latter should only be tackled by advanced do-it-yourselfers.

Aside from laying down an area rug, the easiest floor to install is fiberglass-reinforced vinyl. It only needs to be cut to fit with a utility knife. In high traffic spots, manufacturers recommend securing it with double-faced tape.

To minimize noise, use carpeting, which is quieter than wood or tile and a good choice for rooms where kids play. Rubber, cork, and other resilient floorings are relatively quiet as well.

design basics

Aside from being functional, flooring must complement the decor of your room. If your style is Old World, hand-scraped wood flooring set off by substantial baseboard moldings may be the ticket. If your taste leans to contemporary, a simple design in solid vinyl tile or bamboo may appeal to you. Or, bring a country look to life with a quilt-inspired area rug.

Regardless of your preferred style, determine the dominant room element before making your selection. Perhaps it’s the cabinetry in your kitchen, the poster bed you don’t intend to let go or the sleek leather sofa for which you’ve just begun to make payments. The flooring you choose should complement, though not necessarily match, it. In fact, contrast is what often gives a room its visual appeal. In a kitchen, for example, cabinets are often the dominant element. You may want to choose a contrasting flooring color or shade to help show off their beauty.

Choosing the right-scale flooring is also critical to a room’s success. Most of us wouldn’t stuff a small room with an oversized sofa and large armchairs. Similarly, stay away from using a large-scale flooring pattern in a small space. Conversely, don’t cover an expansive living room or family room with a small, intricate pattern.

You can, however, tweak perceptions about room size with lines, patterns, and textures. Run linear patterns parallel with the longest dimension of a room, and it will appear longer. Run them perpendicular, and it will appear shorter. Change how a space is perceived with other patterns as well. Using a large checkerboard flooring in one section of a kitchen, for example, and a smaller checker-board in a breakfast nook will make the nook look farther away. Strong textures and patterns can also “bring” flooring closer to the viewer, thereby making a room feel a bit more intimate. Solids, especially in light tones and neutral colors, can make flooring surfaces recede.

The curtains, a dominant room element, provided the inspiration for this lively painted hallway floor.

bright idea

play checkers

Choose flooring that mirrors patterns in cabinetry, such as the way the vinyl floor in this kitchen reflects the wine cabinet.

The wide planks on this be droom floor are scaled to suit the bed’s hefty posts and rails. They offer a nice contrast to the nightstand and bead-board panel in the fo otboard.

make flooring your common denominator

This dark-stained plank floor anchors a kitchen filled with mid- and light-toned elements. It also helps keep the kitchen from feeling too big.

In an open plan, a mid-tone floor is a good compromise. It integrates the dark appliances and countertop with the lighter cabinetry and nearby flooring.

Mid-tone planks ground this living room and dining room, while an area rug differentiates the spaces.

floors as design anchors

Dark- and mid-toned floors are the easiest to make work in most room settings. That’s because they provide a visual anchor or foundation that “frames” rooms and defines spaces. Dark floors can hold disparate elements together. White or very light-colored flooring, on the other hand, often makes dark furnishings and cabinets look as though they’re floating. It can also be a source of glare in a brightly lit room. That said, a light-colored floor can be stunning in a room with lots of white, off-whites, and pale colors. The rule of thumb is: go with a light-colored floor if most of your furnishings and cabinetry are light, too. Feel free to disregard the rule if you’re decorating a room that’s small or has little natural light. In such spaces, light-colored floors can be used to make rooms feel bigger and more airy.

bright idea

go light

Use white, off-whites, and natural wood-look floors (this one is a laminate) to give small rooms a roomier feeling.

Give a small space a roomier feel by using flooring—in this case, porcelain tile—to create diagonal lines. The diagonal lines lead the eye along a longer path than do lines in a grid. Using tile of varying sizes and orientation will also help to make a small room feel larger.

bright idea

set the stage

Use contrasts to create drama. The light floors and sofa in this family room are in perfect balance with the dark furniture, walls, and deep-colored area rug.

In a long, narrow room, run flooring perpendicular to the long dimension to make the room look less like a corridor.

Floors can unify or divide. The large sisal rug joins the living and dining areas (below), while the contrasting tile and wood clearly show where the kitchen ends and the breakfast nook begins (bottom).

Strong related colors, such as the copper of this vinyl sheet floor and the red accents, create a warm and secure feeling for many people.

If you plan to sell in the future, select materials and colors that are neutral and timeless so as to appeal to the largest percentage of potential buyers.

color & pattern

Bold geometric patterns have a vastly different effect than swirls and contours. They make the space feel more structured and organized. Variegated and speckled patterns create a softer feel than solids because they visually break up the surface plane. Monochromatic schemes, whether done in a light or deep tone, tend to be restful and calming. So are schemes created with analogous (closely related) colors, such as blue and green. Complementary color schemes (colors opposite one another on a color wheel) add movement and are often upbeat. Colors themselves affect people in different ways. Keep this in mind when selecting your flooring—but in the end go with what resonates with you.

make color work

Complementary blues and oranges, such as in this room, make a strong statement and draw your attention.

Warm reflected light from the floor will enhance skin tones, especially with the aqua walls as a backdrop.

Slate often displays many colors on its surface. Choose the one you want to emphasize, and find a paint to match for your walls.

taking measure

Estimating the amount of flooring material you will need is not as simple as width times length, even when your room is rectangular or square. You must also consider the type of flooring, the standard sizes, pattern (if any), and how much waste (cutoffs you won’t be able to use) you’ll have. When in doubt, make an accurate diagram and bring it to the home center or flooring store for help with your estimate.

For most floors, including wood, laminate, and tile of all types, multiply the length of the room by its width to get the area. If the room has an irregular footprint, such as an L-shape, divide the space into square or rectangular areas and then calculate the area of each section separately. Add the areas together to get the total area. Next, figure out how much square footage a carton of your flooring material will cover. (It’s often given on the carton.) For example, 15 12 12-inch tiles per carton would come to 15 square feet. Divide the room’s square footage by the carton’s square footage to determine the number of cartons you’ll need. Add about 10 percent for waste and the extra material you may need to make repairs in the future.

Estimating sheet flooring is a little different. If your room is less than 12 feet wide, look for a product that comes in 12-foot widths. You’ll avoid the need for a seam, speed the installation, and save material. If your floor is wider than 12 feet, you will have to know the “repeat” measure for the pattern you’ve selected. The repeat is the length of extra material required to reach the start of the pattern. (See the drawing at the bottom of the opposite page.) If you don’t account for the repeat, the pattern won’t match up at the seam. If cabinets or a fireplace jut into the room, ignore them when figuring your square footage.

When planning the installation of a new floor, you will have to measure carefully, allow for waste, ensure proper preparation, and decide how to handle stairs, thresholds, transitions, and moldings.

estimating flooring needs

When measuring for tiles and boards, divide the floor into rectilinear sections (A, B, C, D) as shown in the illustration below, measure the area of each, and add them up to get floor area. With sheet flooring (bottom illustration), determine the roll width that will minimize seams. Then order enough lineal feet of sheet flooring roll to cover all of the areas wall to wall and to account for any extra you may need so that patterns align.

Baseboard moldings hide the expansion gap that many flooring products require. The gap allows the flooring to expand and contract with changes in heat and humidity. When installing baseboard moldings, drive nails into the studs and plates as shown—not into the subfloor.

flooring preparation

When adding a new floor