What type of flooring do you have in your hallway and on your stairs?

[DancingDolly]

Hello there, in need of advice as this conundrum has been going round in my head for too long!

We live in a little terrace where the front door opens onto the street. We've had carpet in the hall and up the stairs from previous owners for last 7 years! I hate it so much now as its worn and stained, and I really feel I want to get the floors right before anything else.

My preference would be for floorboards (possibly painted white or grey) and a runner going up the stairs. Partner keeps saying the floorboards in the hall would need to be completely replaced, as he had the carpet up a few years ago to get to water pipes, and they are in very poor condition. Does it cost an awful lot to source old floorboards?

My other thought is tiles (black?) of some sort, but then what with the stairs? Also our living room and dining room have wooden floors, so would that not flow?!

So what do you have in your hall and stairs?

What about wood effect Lino? You might think yuck, but it is really fantastic these days. Could be a good solution for your halfway, then carpet on the stairs (I'm not keen on runners and they're quite expensive).

Walnut flooring (which we have through all downstairs except stone floor in kitchen)
Stripy carpet on stairs and landings
We had a long thin rug made out of the carpet which we have in the hallway

Yes, maybe I should have another look at lino, but partner is very prejudiced against it!
Walnut flooring sounds gorgeous, but probably out of my price range unfortunately.
Anyone else?

Dark wood laminate in the hall and stripy carpet up the stairs. Hides a multitude of sins especially grey undercoat paint that DH managed to spill all over the sodding landing

If you want old floorboards do you have a room which is lino/carpet you could take some boards from? We've taken boards from a bathroom (which were replaced with modern ones) to repair one of our exposed wooden floores

in our old house we had laminate which i hated and replaced it with carpet which we continued up the stairs
in this house we have carpet but want to replace it with recycled parquet flooring to match the stairs which is an open wooden staircase

We have put karndean (Austrian oak ) in hall - was totally unconvinced as really wanted wood. However most peolpe assume its is wood, and has so far survived quite a daily insult (dogs, buggies, small children) and still l

We have put karndean (Austrian oak ) in hall - was totally unconvinced as really wanted wood. However most peolpe assume its is wood, and has so far survived quite a daily insult (dogs, buggies, small children) and still looks amazing. We however have horrid carpet on stairs - tempted to take it out and paint floor boards. Any one who has done this - how long can you walk on floor after painted??? Just trying to work out how to do it with a 1 and 3 year old around!

I live in the exact same kind of house as you (terrace with door opening into street) You don't say, but I'm guessing your stairs are straight in front of the front door?
In my old house with the same layout, this led to the cream (rental, not my choice!) carpets becoming very soiled. In this house, however, the stairs are of a dark wood with a dark red, patterned runner going up them. A bit dated perhaps, but the only cleaning i need to do is the odd hoover.

We live in a semi with a door that opens onto the street. We have QuickStep laminate in the hallway which continues through into the living room.

Our stairs have a cream carpet which is looking a little discoloured 2.5 years after being laid.

We have tiles from front to back door. The dining room and living room are wood effect laminate and the stairs have carpet. We need to replace the carpet as its worn and stained but its been down for 7.5 years so not too bad. It flows fine IMO but maybe not for everyone.

We have wood in the hall, it's mahogany and is like squares made up of strips going in alternate directions IYKWIM. Apparently very 1970s and considered naff by parquet floor connoisseurs but I think it looks good and is very practical.
Bright red patterned carpet up stairs, very traditional but it suits the house and we like it.

terracotta tiles in hall and carpet up the stairs.

We also have wooden floors in our home, and carpet within the bedrooms. Along the hallways i think it looks very smart and I don't really believe it can look dated...! We used this company called Bespoke Oak Limited to have the floors designed, it may have been slightly more expensive however it is far more durable and will last a lot longer. We had carpet and the amount of stains and dirt that gathered over time just led us to going with wooden floors!

We also have wooden floors in our home, and carpet within the bedrooms. Along the hallways i think it looks very smart and I don't really believe it can look dated...! We used this company called Bespoke Oak Limited to have the floors designed, it may have been slightly more expensive however it is far more durable and will last a lot longer. We had carpet and the amount of stains and dirt that gathered over time just led us to going with wooden floors!

oops i apologise, my message appears to have sent twice.

We've left our house as it was when we moved in last May - dark wood effect laminate (in hall, lounge and diner), tiled floors in downstairs loo and kitchen - kitchen has lovely black slate but it's cold !

Stairs, landing and all bedrooms are beige carpet. Stair really needs replacing but will have to wait! I do like the idea of stripy carpet on the stairs!

Is your house Victorian? My sister used to live in a Victorial Terrace and it had the original tiled floor in the hallway, it looked stunning!!! It was <a class="break-all" href="http://images.google.com/imgres?q=original+victorian+tiled+hallway+floor&num=10&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1280&bih=738&tbm=isch&tbnid=60KqkKoOnZt3RM:&imgrefurl=www.londonmosaic.com/gallery-victorian-and-modern-mosiac-tiling.htm%3F_escaped_fragment_%3Dgallery7&docid=1-W8HhXYfoIBoM&imgurl=www.londonmosaic.com/gal_img/victorian-tiled-hall-2.jpg&w=640&h=360&ei=BKH-UKnNKdC4hAfz84DgCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=817&vpy=4&dur=122&hovh=168&hovw=300&tx=153&ty=98&sig=104782310307888897256&page=2&tbnh=138&tbnw=257&start=31&ndsp=36&ved=1t:429,r:65,s:0,i:285" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">something like this and blended in beautifully with the original wooden floors in the other downstair areas! I am sure you can get companies who will replicate this for you! (but i wouldn't like to imagine how much it costs!) Maybe you could then strip the stairs and then put a runner up them to compliment the tiles? HTH!!!

Black and cream chessboard tiles, they are very easy to look after and they get a lot of traffic in our house

We are looking at 'kardean' flooring for our kitchen and hall. It's like a cheaper amtico. They have lots of different stone/wood effects. It's like a hard lino which looks much more realistic and is more durable. FWIW the range we are looking at costs about £25 per m 2 .

Another vote for Karndean or Amtico. Warm, looks great, easy to clean. Of the two, I prefer Karndean - our Amtico has scratched a bit over the past 6 years, but the Karndean still scrubs up perfectly.

We have an Edwardian semi and are fortunate to have the original Minton tiles in superb condition running the length of the hall. Up the stairs we have a striped sisal runner from Kersaint Cobbs range, the colours match the tiles really well. The carpet really adds a wow when you walk in or at least i think it does!