yes, we have 2 1/2 inch planks in the kitchen. I think I like the look of the wider planks, so that was one of the questions that I posted earlier about hardwoods. Do you have a photo of your master bedroom with your rug? How big is your rug and is it placed under the bed. Heres a photo of the kitchen hardwoods that were trying to decide to match or not???

We have HW in our master without a rug. Only because we have not started to decorate it yet. It's 3 yrs since we moved into our home and we have been through 3 winters. Not finding them partciularly cold and I walk around barefoot all the time.

My vote is for HW.

I ripped out all of my carpeting and replaced with hardwood, finished-on-site floors nearly 5 years ago. Best decision I ever made. I have scattered some Oriental rugs around the entire house, but there are many walk areas where there is just the floor to walk on.

After nearly 5 years of living with all wood floors (except for bathrooms), I've learned that I have far less dust in the house, the floors are warm in the winter and cool in the summer on bare feet, and I love, love, love the wooden floors. Much more so than any wall-to-wall carpet.

I also put hardwood floors in all of the closets....again to minimize dust, keep floors simple and clean. Another great decision.

Go for it!

Dino- your house is beautiful-

What brand is your kitchen table/stools? I have been searching for a kitchen table- its amazing how costly they have become- i still have little children so i'm having a hard time committing to $3K for a kitchen table! lol

Thanks love hearing that everyone seems happy with all hardwoods. I've always had carpet, but do like HW in the kitchen.

suzie..Thanks. I bought the kitchen table from Pier one imports about 11 years ago. Wasn't expensive, but has held up very well. Intend to keep it for years to come.

The barstools also came from Pier one about 4 years ago.

I just went thru the same decision but stuck with carpet. We upgraded in quality from the grade the builder installed 7 1/2 yrs ago and are loving it.

I debated on HW but since the hallway leading to the BR is HW it would have needed to be refinished to get a good match. I like to walk around in socks and have slipped many times on my HW floors, so I'm more comfortable with carpet in the MBR when I make those nightly treks to the bathroom!

Oh sorry I am just checking back...I don't have a pic on file but I can take one in the AM. The rug mostly fills the area between the foot of the bed and the dresser...runs long ways and doesn't go under the bed. Unusual placement but it has grown on me over the years and I loved the rug so much that I compromised so I could have it in there . Pic forthcoming... c

We've had hardwoods for the past 25 years, including all the bedrooms. I have rugs in them, but none of the rugs are room size or right next to the bed. I know some have said they don't like "stepping onto a cold floor," but they don't feel cold to me and we don't mind.

I can pretty much ditto everything Beth4 said! We started out in this house with carpet in the bedrooms, took it up and now all hardwood (other than baths and kitchen). LOVE IT and would not go back to anything else.

I am not a big rug person, although I have added a very few. At this time, no rug in the master bedroom. We have a basement and insulated floors, so our floors are never really cold. We also have pretty mild winters.

tina

We pulled out all our carpeting several years ago, and have hardwood nearly everywhere, including the kitchen. Tile in the master bath, but hardwood in the foyer bath. Our master is downstairs, and our house is on a pier foundation. The tile is cool in the winter, but not the hardwood, and I love having it! I don't find it cold at all. We have area rugs in the living and dining, and very small rugs beside the bed, but they aren't needed for warmth.

Here you go,I just took these a minute ago and the sun is streaming in the windows. I love that we added the 2 windows, one on each side to match the center one, after we bought this 1890 home. We had them made to match. I added the lace curtains a few years ago. I love the patterns that they make on the floor . The room color is different depending on the time of day. You can see why I didn't want to cover up the whole floor...I love the honey color of the heartpine. Hope this helps in your decision. Your home is absolutely beautiful. I love all of your windows too and that gorgeous floor.Caroline

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here is the entrance to the suite, it is off of the kitchen and sunroom area...

another view:

All hardwood house with the exception of DD's BR. Love, love, love it. The first thing I wanted to do in my home after buying it was get rid of the carpet. Best decision I ever made in the house.

We are a family that has dogs that shed. Their hair would embed itself in the carpet, so I never felt like I was getting it clean. I am not a neat freak, but the dog hair did bother me. We also have friends and family who do bring their dogs as we have the pool open when its warmer. Everyone congregates so we needed to have our home be friendly to all 2 and 4 legged friends.

I have not found my MB to be colder due to the hardwood and even if it were, I would welcome that. Hate sleeping with heat on!

Go for the hardwood, you won't regret it!

Allison, tina, nanny, workin..Thanks for the input. Love hearing your thoughts and experience with wood floors. I knew I could count on this board to give me knowledge and peace in the decision on Hardwood's I'd love to see photos of how everyone's used rugs in the rooms with their hardwood floors.

Trail..Wow, Beautiful! I love seeing how it all flows from room to room, how you've used rugs and how the light colored bedroom furniture looks with your hardwoods. Ours will be the same and I like it, but was wondering about that before I saw photos.

Thanks!!!

Glad to be of help. Thank you ! I know I always find a picture is worth a 1000 words. There are tons of them in my photobucket so look at anything that strikes your fancy :) c

We just ripped up the carpet in our room and replaced it with hardwood about two months ago. We were faced with the same decision you're facing. I am SO happy with the wood floors. Our bedroom seems so new and fresh, yet everything else is the same except for the floors! DH also has allergies so hardwood is healthier for him.

Trailrunner--sorry to interrupt this thread, but wanted to ask what the paint color is in the photos of your kitchen. Love your house and your floors! Thanks.

Your wood does not need to match the wood adjacent to it. Our master suite in Alaska is done in honey bamboo on a diagonal (pointing towards the view) which butts into our hall landing in ebony oak. The stairs are treads, ebony oak on risers which are honey maple. The floor on the next level down is red birch with a walnut edging, walnut walls. you drop from that level down to the ebony stained oak again, then down another ebony and ivory staircase to tigerwood.

Each room transitions within a door frame, and it flows well. Bamboo on your feet is HEAVEN (like walking on silk) and much more suited to the mastr suite than it is elsewhere in a house.

In our victorian the master suite is parquet (oak, walnut and maple) and the halls are oak and pine depending on the room, again, though they're different the floors don't "match" from room to room and yet tend to flow well..most woods do :)

I'd do something entirely differnt rather than trying to match an adjoining room if you want to make changes in size etc.

sis2two: no problem...I get a LOT of requests for the color. I have sent samples out to folks as far away as CN to let them see it. It is Thyme a color from the Olympic paint selections at Lowes.They have paint groupings in the display and it is in the Nature selections. I have it made up in BM Regal Matte . I wanted a scrubbable paint in the kitchen since I have a painted backsplash. Let me know if I can help with anything else. c

Last year we replaced all of our carpet throughout our house with hardwood floors, except bathrooms & laundry room. I just purchased this rug a couple of months ago to put in our MBR. I've still got to accessorize in there, but you get the idea. We are pleased with our hardwood floors.

Believe it or not, I've never lived in a house with wall to wall carpet-- we've always had all hardwoods upstairs and down, in the various houses we've lived in over the years.

Maybe it's because I've never known any different (or just don't know any better!), but I love the hardwoods, ESPECIALLY in the bedroom. I've never found them to be particularly cold, and they are so easy to clean. I tend to have minor dust allergies, and carpet would kill me in the bedroom with all the dust and stuff it traps, no matter how much you vacuum.

Plus, we renovate houses, and I've pulled up a LOT of carpet in my time. Even in immaculately well kept homes, what you find when you tear up carpet will make make you faintly ill. . .

Yes, I know it'll be scary when we do rip out this carpet. It's been down a long time and had mulitple dogs on it. It looks pretty good and I keep it nice and spot cleaned, but know it's probably scarier than I think.

kden..I really love your room and the placement of your rug.. I have a small rug already in our room over the carpet in our sitting area., but would eventually like a bigger one under the bed. We'll see, need the hardwoods first.

I just put hardwood in my upstairs master bedroom and I love it. I had carpet down for 21 years. I feel like this is so much cleaner and very easy to maintain. I put in a prefinished floor, and to be honest, if I were starting from scratch I would put prefinished through out the entire house rather than site finished. ( I have site finished hardwood on the first floor.) I don't think you will regret putting hardwood in your bedroom.

I love hardwood in the bedroom, especially with scatter rugs. We removed carpet from all of the bedrooms and replaced with hardwood and we are much happier. Now I just need to invest in more rugs . . . it all takes time and money, especially with 5 bedrooms!

love seeing the photos of the hardwoods. Definitely makes the decision alot easier.

gardengal..Why do you prefer prefinished over on site finished. That's probably what we'll end up doing mainly out of convience at this point.

Thanks everyone for the input in the 3 different hardwood post that I made recently. We made our decisions and now just waiting for the wood to arrive and to be installed. We decided to go with prefinished. We picked out a color and kept the same width HW's. We also decided to add hardwoods in the bedroom. Can't wait, but hoping color matches existing hardwoods in kitchen. Of course after the floors go in, I"ll need help deciding what color to paint the great room, etc. Never ending fun !!