Our basement has a little natural light from 2 small windows. Had leveling compound poured and then installed laminate flooring (a very light natural oak color) over the concrete. Huge difference. Huge. Made the room much seem much brighter and twice as spacious.

We have the same situation (oversanded floors) with our 1916 home. It has standard oak floors so we don't have your issue. We're also doing a small addition--half of which is kitchen--and we need to specify our floors (in the new part) next week. (We'll do the old part later, so we have a place to move our stuff into!) A question: Is Tung Oil usable/advisable in a kitchen? Or should we stick with poly? (We have little kids and really use our kitchen!) And does Tung Oil always yield a dark floor? We'd like it fairly light. What we don't want to end up with is one of those really shiny finishes -- but can good floor guys yield a more traditional finish with poly? Any other ideas? Thoughts please! I know that some people say that pre-finished floors are the best for a kitchen, but we really don't like that beveled-edge look.

OK, floors are in and I am happy for the most part. In some areas I love the look. But in our main living space it looks a bit sterile, and it is certainly louder in there with so many hard surfaces. I knew I would need rugs, but right now am at a loss about what to do next. Part of me really misses the "pop" that the blue and white floor had, but having one continuous floor connecting the living areas really does make the whole house look bigger. I brought home a neutral rug from home goods; not a keeper. IRL it needs more contrast. Trying a few sample boards but am totally confused at this point. The floor actually has more brown in it than I thought so wondering about pulling that out a bit more. I couldn't get a good shot of the seating area since DH was putting his tools away most of the afternoon! I hesitate to post this because it looks better IRL than this. Light wasn't great this morning when I took this but just an idea....definitely a rug here under the table and yeah, I think I'll be painting the table and chairs in the spring. Probably a separate thread just for that topic, LOL Bathrooms are much improved! One more shot of the kitchen early this morning with lights on. I'm happy to have the carpet gone, but I need to get everything to look like it belongs together. The floor looks great with anything white, like the cabinets, and with blue, like most of our furniture, which has bold, clear colors like the ones in the painting. But I don't want white rugs. And with so much going on with the open floor plan, I don't want them to be too busy because there is a lot going on in one large space. I've been staring at this too long so some fresh eyes would really help. I will need three rugs I think; one under the table, another in the TV area where we have two couches, and another in the entryway where the painting is. Thanks so much for your thoughts.

Jan, maybe I am using the term border inaccurately? The way my walls and vanities flow, the "border" I speak of will serve as a backsplash, continue (same wall) to the tub area, freestanding, and hence the wainscot height (with wall tile under it). That area flows to the shower with 45 degree angles (3 windows), where I want to continue the "border" and tiles. The tile does NOT look like it goes with the slab in my above pics, but it does very well, as dos the hex tile. Think your underlying idea is shower and floors should match? Or maybe I AM using the term border correctly, in which case you don't like. :-) If so, trim ideas? TY!