Different flooring for different rooms?
Will it look awkward and mixed up if I use different flooring for different rooms?
This is for a two story townhome that I used to live in but now use it as a rental. On the first story, I have large tiles as the flooring in the kitchen and the adjoining dining room:
Then, you step down a few stairs from the dining room to the living room:
Right now, there's carpet in this living room but there's a big tear in it and I will replace it with either hardwood or vinyl planks that look like hardwood.
Then, you take the stairs from the dining room to the 2nd story where you basically have a carpeted hallway and two carpeted bedrooms.
I'm considering a couple of options and I'd appreciate some feedback about which one you think is the best option:
1) Just change the living room flooring, and keep the carpeting upstairs.
If I did that, I would avoid the cost of replacing the carpeting upstairs while its still viable. But, I'd be delaying the inevitable because I'd probably have to change the carpet whenever the new tenant moved out.
2) Change the living room flooring, the stairs, and hallway to same flooring- wood or vinyl plank. But, keep the carpeting in the bedrooms.
If I did this, I would be changing the more trafficked areas in the stairs and hallway from vulnerable carpet to a hardier substance. But, I'm afraid it would look strange to see woodish stairs and hallway leading to carpeted bedrooms when they're all on the same floor.
3) Change the living room flooring, the stairs, and the upstairs bedrooms to the same flooring, either wood or vinyl.
Carpeting has traditionally been the most popular flooring for the bedrooms, but I kind of suspect that more and more people now want wood look in the bedrooms too.
Some of the vinyl planks I'm looking at come in different sizes so I was thinking I would use larger planks in the large living room downstairs and then smaller planks in the 2 bedrooms.
4) Assuming I got vinyl, change the living room, stairs, upstairs bedrooms, and upstairs bathrooms to all vinyl planks. I've heard that vinyl is a good choice for the wet environment of the kitchens so I figure it should be a good choice for the wetter bathrooms.
I was going to try to find the most realistic vinyl possible. But, if I put in in the bathroom too, then people would know right away that it wasn't real wood even though it looked real.
Comments (12)
Annie Deighnaugh
8 years ago
User
8 years agoI actually think with the photo you posted different floorings would look great in that space. Have you considered wood looking tile? I've seen some priced very reasonably at Home Depot and it looks beautiful installed. I agree that you want to do the minimum necessary however by putting some money into the floor now (with a wood look tile) will save you down the line as it will hold much better over time and I doubt it will ever look dated.
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Comments (8)I've seen this quite a bit and don't think it's bizarre at all. It makes sense if you want plusher carpet in your bedrooms and more wearable carpet on the stairs. I really like having the texture on the stairs and in the hall. It hides spots and makes a long strip of carpeting more interesting IMO. I took a few pictures to try to show the hall/stair carpet we used and how it is near other floor surfaces. And here's my disclaimer... I just got back from a few days away for business travel, so it hasn't been vacuumed in several days! And IRL it doesn't show the foot prints / traffic pattern like it does in the photos. The hall wall rug goes by 6 rooms with different floors: 4 carpeted bedrooms (each with different carpet) and 2 tiled hall baths. It might sound weird but it works - the colors and textures all look nice together, and most important, everyone got what they wanted for bedroom carpet and bathroom tile. That yellow rug in the first room on the left is just a throw rug in DD's bathroom. (I should have moved it for the picture. The carpet looks good next to her tile.) At the end of the hall you can see DS's bedroom, which has completely different carpet than the hall -- much plusher and a different color. How it looks next to MB carpet: Stairs (not this orange IRL):...See Moredifferent color trim in different rooms?
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