Which flooring?

[Pumpkinstace]

I'm redecorating my living room, it's a small house. The room is only 3.8x 4.5m and I have no hallway so it is a wakthrough too. The front door opens directly onto the street although I do have a small internal porch.

I've ordered a new sofa in taupe, my walls will be off white in Egyptian cotton or natural hessian.

I've picked a very pale sage green wallpaper for my chimney breast and have a tan leather contrast armchair.

My furniture is wood, white with pine tops and some wicker baskets. Natural fabrics and tones throughout.

My fireplace is brushed steel, cream surround, black insert. My picture frames, clock etc is black.

The current flooring is cheap shiny beech/pine effect laminate and needs changing but I don't know what flooring to get.

I'm open to lino, laminate, carpet, whatever really but I don't know what colour or what will go best in the room.

Wood. Carpet will get too much dirt tracked over it. If you have different woods already I’d go a bit darker. I’d also get a natural coir or other natural rug or you could go darker green than the wallpaper.

I never thought of a green rug.

I said I furniture is pine, it's not, it's so oak. Lots of light oak.

I wanted a darker wood for but wasn't sure if it would go.

Engineered oak is wonderful. Ours is in hallway through to kitchen and gets lots of traffic. It's lasted us 16 years with many more years left in it.

I should probably add my budget isn't huge.

No more than £12 a sq mtr.

I can't really change the fire surround I don't think.

It's a sort of boxy mdf. Modern but plain.

In think it would go with anything really

With your budget and it being a high traffic area, I'd definitely stick with laminate. Rather than go dark, I'd personally try to find an oak colour that most closely matches/tones with the oak mix furniture you already have, whilst not being too shiny (fake) looking - which will unfortunately likely mean schlepping around lots of flooring shops as I think you really need to see and feel the boards in person. But the benefit of "oak" flooring is that it pretty much goes with everything as there are often lots of different tones in it and it's also classic enough not to date too badly imo.

I wouldn't even consider carpet. It's horrible anyway, but in a high traffic room it will just get filthy.

we put some aged oak karndean down on a floor like that and it was lovely. Incredibly hard wearing - never gave us a day's bother in decades!
(it's KP98 on here I think)
www.karndean.com/en-gb/floors/look/wood/tone/dark-toned-wood

ah sorry just saw your budget - I would definitely stick to a type of wood like flooring. You can also get dark oak laminate that looks really nice (we had it in one of the other rooms upstairs and it was lovely!)

Your colours are very like ours, one thing I would say is go with the Egyptian cotton as it has a green undertone which will match your wallpaper better than the hessian which has a slightly pink undertone (my walls are Egyptian cotton and friends are Hessian)

We have oak based furniture and I’m just redoing the flooring with LVPF in a grey brown tone which works well with the colours

I would go for oak engineered, but it doesn't sound like you have the budget for that so it would have to be a laminate. I would also have a large coir mat set into the flooring at the front door (you can buy it as a large roll online). It will help to stop water and grit from being tracked onto and damaging the flooring, without constantly needing repositioning.

How about something like this - a bit different to traditional laminate parquet.

Ooh, Thanks for the paint tip!

Engineered wood flooring is ideal if you are planning a home renovation. It can lend elegance and add warmth to your house. It is a budget friendly option as compared to the solid wood flooring. The best thing about it is that you get the wood look without spending extra

Hi @SkankingMopoke. I would say stick to laminate too.

In my previous house we had this floor which was a laminate from a brand called Elka. We bought it from and had it fitted by a local flooring shop, it was a similar kind of price per msq as your budget IIRC. Elka is made by the same people who make Quik Step so it was good quality and took a good battering from 3 kids and a dog and still looked new 2 years on.

You'd need to check with your doors/other furniture which one would work best but it might help to narrow your search if you have a brand in mind.

Laminate isn't terribly hard wearing if you are going right in off the street. Solid wood is beyond budget, could you stretch to engineered wood? If not, pop a mat/washable rug just in at the door to take the worst of the grit. There are some good ones out there these days. We got some from a garden centre that take up mud and grit well and are machine washable; they look like carpet and not at all 'industrial' + also have rubber backing so don't slide about.