Carpet or vinyl in family room?

[Jinglesplodge]

A fascinating topic for a Sunday evening: I obviously know how to live it up...

We're replacing the carpet in our living room/play room and I can't make up my mind whether I want the comfort of carpet or the easy-clean of wood effect vinyl.

It seems like carpet would be softer underfoot and would be bleach-cleanable but I guess it would inevitably attract crumbs, dust, glitter etc. Vinyl would be more practical with a 1 and a 4 year-old but maybe not so comfortable for kneeling on. But I could always add a rug or two...

Basically I'm overthinking this and need to make a decision. If you've got one or the other, tell me if you recommend it. I need a grown up to tell me what to do!

We have karndean flooring throughout the downstairs with rugs on it - it's great; durable and easily cleaned and looks brilliant (I think!).

I know carpets aren’t always popular, but I would always go for a carpet. It’s much cosier and more homely in my opinion.

We have carpet throughout with the exception of the porch, kitchen and bathrooms.

Oh that does look nice! Is it cold underfoot? Does it show every bit of dust and fluff? Do you have small children?

Vinyl, vinyl, vinyl! Amtico or Karndean ideally.

Another vote for vinyl, it’s an absolute dream with little ones around! Easy to clean, warm enough and quite comfy to kneel/sit/play on, and hides a surprising amount of fluff and pet hair.

My DTs are 13 months, and my vinyl is a dark wooden floor effect - weirdly, people think it’s actually wood.

I desperately want vinyl in our living room - a decent cushioned version with wood plank type appearance. DH said that it would be weird having vinyl in the living room, so I am delighted to see that other sensible people are on the same page as me There are some cushioned vinyls which are really thick and squashy, much nicer to kneel on than laminate or wooden floorboards and probably not far off carpet squishiness.

We have a large rug on our existing carpet which has proved reasonably easy to clean, our dc is older than yours but still tending to spillage, plus there's the cat... so something that looks nice, is softish underfoot and easy to clean is a winner in my opinion. Our carpet is badly stained (and was when we moved in) and looks matted and flat in places, I'd love to get rid of it.