Hard flooring in living room

[Pepperwand]

We're in the process of buying a house which needs fully redecorating, including ripping up carpets. The living room has patio doors onto the garden and is currently carpeted. I've always preferred (and always had) carpet in living rooms as I feel it's cozier but am thinking that with young DC and access to garden being from the living room hard flooring of some description (wood or wood effect) would be better.

If you have wooden/laminate floors in your living room how do you find them? Do you have rugs etc? Would love to hear the pros and cons.

Wood will get worn and marked next to French doors. We have this in a bedroom and it’s not easy to keep it looking good. You could try a wood lookalike - Karndean or Amtico. These will be far easier to look after and stay looking good. I think you are right to avoid carpets but use a big rug to soften the look.

I've just bought and renovated a similar sounding property, although my living area leads to a conservatory rather than the garden (sadly). It's carpeted at the moment and is the only floor I haven't replaced - I was going to put bamboo flooring down, but I'm now questioning whether it would feel cold as the room is already a cold one (thanks to the bloody conservatory). I'll keep the carpet for now and get large rugs I think. Sorry, that didn't really answer your question!

Yes I was thinking maybe karndean or similar. My in laws have a house where the living room has hard flooring and it always feels cold, which I think is what's putting me off. That said they don't have any rugs down so maybe that makes a difference.

Go for carpet. It's cheap and simple to replace after a few years!

We have engineered bamboo flooring throughout and it's lovely. Perhaps a little more effort than carpet as we do a treatment on it every 6m or so but I would have carpets shampooed annually so I think it balances out.

Hard floor + rug. Looks better and is more practical. Carpets are only nice when brand new and not great for high traffic areas, especially with young children.

I only have carpet in the bedroom and rugs everywhere else. I find the carpet a pain to keep clean; the amount the hoover picks up each time always surprises me.

I really wouldn’t want to be treating floors every 6 months. Karndean or similar will totally avoid that. It’s not cold if you put a big rug down. I have wood in both my sitting rooms and large rugs. Plenty of people have this in the magazines such as Homes and Gardens. Never have wood or Karndean without a rug! Just not a finished room.

My parents have wood effect tile and they look great.

We have parquet and just have a big IKEA rug and it feels cosy with that. I agree without a rug it lacks warmth. I like rugs because you can have something bold and change it when you get sick of it.

Tiles with under floor heating and a small rug in the middle of the room.

We have bamboo throughout our downstairs. We've added a rug in the living room.

After a renovation I have a living room/kitchen, with a door to outside from the living room end. I have Amtico flooring throughout. Its not cold underfoot, but we have a log burner which is on most nights. Its as hot as hell in here sometimes! Rest of the downstairs is carpeted.

I’m quite surprised at how much crumbs/muck I see on the floor - I sweep or hoover it daily. But it does look good. The plan was to get a rug, but we can’t agree on the size so it hasn’t hasn’t happened yet.

Whether its a good idea or not It depends on the colour of your carpet, the condition of the floor underneath, the muckiness of your kids and your good housekeeping tendencies. I did have a pale carpet once but realise now I am not that kind of person.

Have you considered engineered wood? Not as difficult to maintain as real wood, but still get benefit of being able to sand down and re-oil if you get bored of it in a few years (can’t do that with karndean or amtico). Also, unlike karndean/amtico, the engineered wood still looks real and has soul. I think wood can feel cosy, it’s like a warm cottage feel. Adding a rug helps too.

We have exposed original oak floorboards thoughout our downstairs, we had them sanded and varnished and the varnish is industrial, and they used four thin coats so it’s indestructible. A quick hoover and mop does it.

We have a massive rug down in the living room though. Because it’s cold and hard without it. I think I put up with the bare floor boards for about a day before I realised it just wasn’t comfortable.

We have a playroom which has french doors out on the patio and that goes into the garden. The room is carpeted and has a mat (made out of the same carpet) at the doors to wipe feet on.

We are replacing he carpet with amtico, but I still think we will have a mat to wipe feet on. Much as I will be saying to the Dc to take their shoes off when they come in, they still have to stand somewhere (or sit on the floor somewhere I suppose) to step in and take them off. We are also having a big rug in the centre.

An alternative for you - in our hallway, we have a recessed doormat as you walk in. Our hall is carpeted (inherited from previous owners) and we are having amtico in the hall soon. But I am keeping the recessed doormat, and actually having it made wider and a bit deeper. So that’s another option for you.

Maybe consider other implications, too? Is this your forever home?

I’d go engineered wood or high quality LVT (so, karndean or amtico) if it’s a high footfall area. Lasts longer and can still feel cosy. It may also add more value to your new home too...

“The best floor to invest in is a wooden floor - which is better than carpet - as it provides “extra equity” in your home.

“Plus, a high quality floor will last for much longer than a carpet, giving you life time value, as well as increasing house worth.

“Hardwood flooring is ideal, as it’s a luxury that many people associate with money and class.

But if real wood flooring is out of your price range, you can get high quality laminates.”

Source

Engineered wood is what we have next to the French doors. The top finish/lacquer wears with use and wet feet coming in. Karndean does look like wood. If we had used it, I don’t think anyone would have noticed the difference. It’s an effort to refurbish a floor all the time. A deep Mat well in a lounge isn’t a great look! I have one in my hall but not in my lounge.

Thanks all, sounds like Karndean and a big rug by the sofa may be the way to go. We aim to stay there for the long term, 10 years plus so want to get it right.

You can have the recessed doormat indoors next to your back door/entrance too.

I have a hard wood floor and soft area rug by sofa. It’s easiest to keep clean and the room is still cosy and warm. I do have a thick underlay rug protector under my rug too. It’s basically a blanket you put under there for warmth, to prevent skids and to protect the rug.

If you could include underfloor heating then hard floors are better. I have wood & it's difficult to maintain. But looks lovely. I've had Karndean and it's zero maintenance but not sure how it would look for a large space? I had it in a hallway and it worked really well.

Do you have any pets or just young children? Are the children old enough to know to take their shoes off when they come in?
I lived in a house like previously and it always felt cold, even with a rug.

Personally I'd get carpet and get a rug doctor every 6 months or so. I love carpet in a lounge though!

Much prefer hard flooring downstairs, much, much easier to keep clean. We've recently put in solid wood parquet in our living room, large rug in the seating area, so much better than the sisal carpet there before (and we've got a grape vine by our back door, so if any grapes dropped off near the doors, they were so easy to accidentally traipse in, not easy getting out of a woven carpet!).

We had similar in our last house, and the new owners immediately carpeted it, so it's horses for courses!!

@Baxdream children are 3 and 1. It's tricky as they spend so much time playing on the floor I like having the living room carpeted as it's softer...but that said they're constantly spilling things, trying to walk through the living room with wellies on etc etc