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Flooring Design Dilemma Bathrooms

Please help! I have maple cabinets, concrete floors, and bad carpet.

6 years ago

I'm buying a new home. It has maple cabinets, concrete floors on the ground level, and the worst carpet upstairs known to man. So, I'm trying to pick new flooring for upstairs but I don't have the faintest clue what I'm doing and I could really use some help. The concrete floor is staying because the house is located in an industrial area. Please let me know your thoughts on the items that I've selected and let me know if you have any other ideas... The tile in the bathrooms are also a interesting brown colour but I cannot change them now so I need the flooring to also complement that tile too. I'm also still trying to decide between carpet and engineered hardwood... I know that I also need to tile shower soon so if you have some ideas about too, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

A picture of my entire ground floor:

Closeup of the stairs, kitchen cabinets, and concrete floors:

Upstairs landing, looks into the upstairs bath & laundry room (w/tile):

Upstairs bathroom:

Another picture of the tile, inside of the master bathroom:

The 5 engineered hardwood floors that I'm considering:

Lattice grey carpet, considering instead of hardwoods:

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Comments (3)

rfharmon
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you for your response. I have two questions for you. Do you prefer wood floors or carpet? Also, do you have preferred vendor for the African Teak wood? I see some on overstock.com and wayfair.com.
highdesertowl
6 years ago
Is it possible to slow down a bit? Live in the home for a few months while you consider what type/color of flooring your really want, and where? Do you usually buy for form, or function? Do you want softer, warmer flooring in the bedrooms? Do you have experience with hardwoods, concrete, etc. vs carpet? What kind of cleaning/upkeep are you willing to maintain? Will the upstairs be high traffic? Kids? Pets? What is your general style? Answering some of these questions might help the pros guide you better going forward.

I think the carpet you have chosen is a little too light and cool toned for the maple wood and existing tile. It is hard to judge on-screen though. Consider going a little darker, and warmer in the carpet tone if that is what you decide you want. Personally, I love carpet in bedrooms, rec rooms, hallways--anywhere you want noise dampening, warmth, softness. But that is what works for me. Others on this forum will emphatically tell you otherwise :)
rfharmon thanked highdesertowl
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SJ McCarthy
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I'm not seeing the "ugliness" in the carpet that you see. To me, the carpet you have chosen is as close to perfect match as I've seen. You would be spending money on a carpet that *appears to be a "like for like" replacement.

If that is the case, then you would probably do better with engineered hardwood. But BEWARE. Carpets hide NASTY subfloors. There could be an expensive "fix" waiting for you under the carpets. Something you weren't expecting. My suggestion is ALWAYS expect "nasty" under carpets. And nasty is expensive to fix ($2 - $5/sf just for subfloor prep....then you add in the cost of hardwood + labour to install).

Carpet replacing carpet is the lower cost way to do it. Carpets can handle "ugly nasty" subfloors. That's why there are the easiest things to swap out to achieve a "flip". Cheap. Easy.

If you can get better photos of the existing carpet and why it is so ugly to you (again, your replacement option has almost the same look as what is there now), perhaps we can help a bit more.

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