Why would you cover those lovely floors!

@Anglophilia, it's just a preference. I like the softness of carpet, especially in winter, also with kids I feel like it's safer with them falling down and running around. I absolutely love these hardwood floors and now that you mention it we might consider only carpeting some areas of the house such as the bedrooms and the kids' playroom. I am just torn with what color would look best.

Or how about area rugs?

Hardwood and area rugs are my vote.

Part of learning as one grows up is to fall a few times. I did, and I've survived to talk about it.

Keep the carpet the same, it is a easy neutral to decorate around.

Yes, I wouldn't change a thing. The one carpeted area looks brand new!

In an apartment that I rented, I put in wall to wall area rugs. I had them cut to fit the room and bound on the edges and used premium padding. You couldn't tell that it wasn't installed. I did this in the living room and our bedrooms. What was really nice is that when we moved, we had it cut to fit our new playroom and bedrooms. Would highly recommend going that route.

As for color, I got a tan wool sisal look alike for our living room, now in our playroom (only good pic I could find- night before my son's birthday).

In our bedroom, we used a Karastan off white diamond pattern carpet. Also wool.

I had hardwood floors when the children were little (birth to 5 years old. I covered them with wall to wall carpeting and was never sorry I did. The floors were warm and soft and easy to clean....I wasn't dusting the floors everyday...and their toys made marks on the hardwood floors. I would do what you want to do.

When we moved into our last house, all the bedrooms had beautiful wood floors. My dd really wanted carpeting. Her room was around 15x17.. a good size. I got a soft feel wall to wall carpet cut to fit and had the edges bound. We also put a soft felt padding underneath. It looked and wore like wall to wall. When we were getting ready to sell 7 years later, we pulled it all up and the floors underneath looked brand new. Tossed the carpet, but used the felt padding under our area rugs in the next house.

I would strongly suggest going this route so you have the option of easily going back to wood floors. Don't let installers put tacking strips on those wood floors.

Don't let installers put tacking strips on those wood floors.

Worth repeating so I did. :)