After a year and half in our house, we are getting new flooring! Granted I “sold” my hubby on the idea of this outdated house on the promise of “imagine it with new floors” in order to look past the very 1980s pink, floral, and orangey-beige carpets.
Many hours were spent daydreaming and researching what the new floors should be. I was dead set on wood/wood-look in our main living areas and bedroom. We discovered that he did not like materials that had the wood-look that weren’t wood. So all tile, vinyl and laminates were off the table. The engineered woods have many benefits, but something about the splice of layers and how thin the actual wood layer was didn’t give me much hope that they could ever be refinished after our zoofull of pets had their way with them.
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What did we decide on?
So here we are, getting solid hardwood – which I dreamt about all along. Our friends were skeptical when I said we were getting hardwood floors. “Do you mean laminate?” “Do you mean engineered?” “Like actual planks that are nailed down?” No, No and Yes!!
I will say the laminate and luxury vinyl tiles withstood our at-home “pet destruction tests” (basically us dropping various dog toys and bones on the samples to see how easily they dinged) better than real hard wood. But hardwood has the advantage of being refinishable and we believe better for resale value should we ever sell this house.
Given that we want to protect the new wood floors as best as possible, we set out to now cover lots of it in area rugs. But seriously, in our research and working with the flooring company we identified areas that are “must have area rug” zones in order to keep the floor in as best shape as possible.
So here goes my list of “must have area rug” zones:
- Kitchen
- Front entrance
- Patio entrance
- Living Room
- Dining Room
- Master bedroom
- Dog kennel
- Cat litter box area
In theory, once we get these rugs in place, we will move on to the lesser traveled areas such as offices and the rumpus room.
A few of my favorite area rugs
Love this purple runner.
This saffron patterned rug is what we purchased for our living room and loved it so much, got the matching one for our entrance and the navy blue one for our dining room!
Neutral yet stylish, this off-white and gray rug would be perfect for a bedroom or office.
Playful but somewhat neutral, a lovely option for a family room or play room.
