Is it too weird to have vinyl flooring in your living room?

[BooBooChicken]

We are re-flooring our whole house as it is a fixer upper with very elderly and manky pink carpets. we have just had the kitchen floor replaced with a wood effect vinyl. it is really nice quality and looks gorgeous. it looks more wood-like than my old house's laminate or bizarrely, my solid wood pine kitchen table! my friend came to by and was cooing over the floor, and very surprised when i told her it wasn't real wood.

i am considering using the same vinyl for our playroom and hall and living room (we have had a kitchen off-cut laid in the downstairs loo already). that way the flooring would be consistent throughout the downstairs, albeit broken up with rugs, runners etc.

my mum says you can't put it in a living room but it's practical with kids and big mucky dogs and cats and has a 20 yr guarantee...

ideally we would love an oak floor but its too £££££

waddya think?

We've got wood effect Karndean in the dining and sitting room (plus the hall), and it looks great and is gorgeously practical - more so than wood floors imo. So go for it

Yes, if it looks good and is practical then why not? You can make it more living roomy with rugs.

i think i am having doubts about it because my mum thinks "..its not the done thing"

what am i, 12 years old..?

it is novilon viva, i know this as i am using the sample they sent as a mouse mat!

In your shoes I'd probably try to sand the floorboards first, is that an option?

But I don't think that vinyl in the living room is a sartorial crime or anything - it's just vinyl full stop is not my personal taste.

Do it, it makes sense to you, it is practical for your family & pets. No better reason imo. Have confidence in your decisions.

thanks all for your comments.

i wish we had floorboards to sand, youngvisitor, but sadly we seem to have chipboard over concrete (or something equally rubbish, i'm not very technical...) but certainly no floorboards.

i really should have confidence in myself shouldn't i? and if i (and dh) like it and it looks good, then why not?!

i may be back at that flooring shop tomorrow to place a bulk order..!

stayfrosty sick in floorbaord cracks (dry heave) never thought of that...

Oooh - I've been looking at Karndean but the fitting costs so much. What kind of costs per sq m are you looking at if you don't mind me asking?

Yes I am also very interested in costs of this kind of flooring (we currently have very old, shabby looking laminate flooring in our hallway but cannot really afford to do anything about it for a while ).....also can you provide any links to pictures of said vinyl???

hi gentleness - mine was £17.50 p sq m, so not cheap but less than some others i looked at.

the fitting was about another 30% on top if that makes sense. i had it supplied and fitted by the same company, not the cheapest way to do it but the fitter was great.

this is the website.

www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/default.aspx?menuId=278

the photos of the rooms give a truer reflection of how the vinyl looks, the sample swatches look quite fake on the site.

best thing is to go in a flooring shop and have a good browse and feel at loads of ranges and get them to send you samples of the ones you like to take home.

Is it true though that it devalues your house when it comes to selling ?.