Our clients that opt for darker floors do include more lighting in those areas of the house.

More lighting is the answer for a dark hall not an odd ball floor thrown in. I am wondering about the choice of white tile with dark laminate . There are so many nice colors of porcelain tile that IMO would work better than white .

Patricia Colwell Consulting , agreed! I wish people could find Houzz earlier in their projects. :-)

How about a photo of the laminate and the tile you are thinking about.

Continue the laminate. The "fun" part of the tile will be the stairs. Why the stairs, you ask? Because tile, once laid, can sit 3/4" high (19mm). That is MUCH thicker than 99.99% of all laminate on the market today.

The stair treads must meet code...which means they are allowed MINIMAL height variation between each tread AND between the landing/floor and the first/last tread. Hmmmm. If you have a THIN laminate (7mm is considered thin, 10mm is considered regular and 15mm is considered very thick).

Worst case scenario, you could have a tread that is sitting 8mm higher than the subfloor of the tread (8mm laminate) verses a 19 mm thick tile at the bottom of the stairs (sitting 19mm above the subfloor). That's a difference of MORE than 10mm....ouch.

That means the laminate on the treads may not meet code (when compared to the tile on the landing/floor). Please be VERY aware of what is needed to maintain code for the stairs. Once you touch them you are responsible for them. If you replace "like with like" (eg. remove old carpet and replace with new carpet) you are fine. But once you change the material, you run into some interesting (and expensive) concerns.

Because of this, I would recommend running laminate THROUGHOUT. If you want a different/lighter colour downstairs, then go ahead and pick another colour for the laminate. Just keep the THICKNESSES the same and you will be fine (for code).

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the feedback.

We put in the dark LVP in the craft room and love the rich look. We were planning on doing the same to the office, directly facing the craft room.

I hate carpet, our house has carpet all over.

Clarification: We have a lot of recessed lighting in the hallway upstairs. The lack of light I was referring to is that the hallway is void of a lot of 'natural' light.

The pictures below are of our current upstairs hallway.

The last picture is of the flooring in the craft room, and will be the same exact flooring that we are considering putting into the office (directly facing the craft room - with French doors), and the remainder three bedrooms upstairs.

We def. do not want LVP or wood downstairs, and will most likely get some sort of light (white family) tiling....

Below is what I imagine the hallway will look similar to with the dark flooring.

Please note that once flooring is decided/complete, we will be trim/mould, and replace the baseboards.

SJ, I appreciate the feedback and important info. you shared.

I came on here because I want to make the right choices prior to moving forward.

Shamelessly bumping up....

If you like the dark flooring, use the dark flooring. You can improve the lighting and paint afterwards. Use an excellent, experienced flooring team, and think through all the comments here, and make sure you adjust your expectations and your team has smart solutions for the issues like the difference in height of the flooring types.

That is a gorgeous photo of a dark floor with the fancy white molding down a hallway. Nice inspiration.

I like the dark flooring you chose. Don’t forget to show us an after.

Here is one of my favorites from Houzz. The tall baseboards make the look. A creamy travertine-look porcelain tile looks elegant with dark floors.

Thank you for the responses.

Mrs. S. We actually just painted the hallway/s Cloud White, and we have a lot of recessed lighting there, so neither is an issue. I greatly appreciate the height consideration you recommended, as it's not something I had thought about until you mentioned! :) Thank you again.

tqtqtbw - Thank you for the suggestion on the creamy travertine look tiles...it's actually on our list of likes! We will be replacing all baseboards with decorative 6/6 1/2 inch ones, and will add trim and frame molding on the walls. :) :)

My questions:

1. Should we carry the dark wood flooring from the bedrooms/office/craft room in which we are planning on installing throughout the upstairs hallway and down the stairs?

2. Should we install the dark flooring in all the rooms, and go for a drastic contrast (with tile) in the hallway? And if so, what should we do with the stairs?

3. Should we just do dark flooring in the office facing the craft room (they both have door enclosures), and something else with the rest (3) bedrooms, and hallway? Stairs?

Thank you for all the suggestions/recommendations.

Carry the dark floor throughout the upstairs rooms and hall and on the stair treads. With the moldings you describe, I would do white risers for a traditional/transitional look. Creamy porcelain tile downstairs, after considering SJ Macarthy’s warning above about the flooring thicknesses.

tqtqtbw

Thank you for the response/suggestion/recommendation.

Should we carry the dark floor throughout the upstairs and hall, we will def. be doing a mix of dark stairs with white risers (am obsessed with that clean look).

Do you have any recommendations for the tile downstairs? The entry way, living room, dinning room, family room, and kitchen + a long hallway leading to, and separating, the rooms.

We will not be doing the downstairs until all of upstairs, and stairs are competed, but would like to have ideas in advance.

THANK YOU again! :)

BTW: The entry way, leading to the stairs going up, is currently tile.

Why aren't you doing the dark laminate everywhere if you love it so much? I think it is nice with the white.

I wouldn't do tile in a family room or dining room. But then I installed the same hardwoods in my whole house (other than the laundry room and 2 full baths, they got tile).

SJ McCarthy -

Thank you for the very informative and detailed explanation.

The LVP we are considering is 12mm in thickness, and we currently have tile in the entry way, where it meets with the carpeted stairs. Will this be an issue, or ....?

I greatly appreciate any additional insight you can provide.

@ Robin - I want the LVP upstairs because, although in excellent and very very clean condition, it's currently all carpeted and I prefer no carpets.

I do not want real wood because 'been there' and don't want the tip toeing around real wood floors, and this LVP is nice in color, and fairly thick (12mm), and affordable.

I don't love the LVP so much that I would also want it all of downstairs. Not to mention that I want a more formal area downstairs (how I was raised), and LVP/real wood/etc. just isn't it.

So, thought that I'd keep all of upstairs one, and shift all of downstairs to the other.

I'm open to suggestions to flooring for downstairs, but right now we are thinking of doing the upstairs (and then moving down), so all input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I was hoping the photo links carry over this time, but they didn’t. The designer for my photo above is Jane Lockhart Interior Design, her on Houzz. I like the creamy travertine/limestone look in this entryway. Unfortunately, the designer did not list the name of the tile used.

This is a different but similar look.

Would love to know the brand and color of the dark flooring you are installing - i love the color and I would do the upstairs and stairs in the dark.

Hi Meg - Pergo Timbercraft Gatehouse Oak. :)