It’s now been two years since we installed our laminate flooring in most of the main floor of our house and I think I love it now more than ever! It made such an immediate difference in the feel of our whole house and it’s really inspired us to do quite a bit more. There’s just something about having a house that suddenly looks like it’s a normal house with appropriate flooring for family life that makes you feel like the sky’s the limit! 🙂 I thought it might be helpful to re-share this original post about why we chose laminate instead of hardwood from a couple of years ago, just in case it might be helpful to anyone currently looking at different flooring options for their home.
Here’s the original post!
How We Decided to Choose Laminate Instead of Hardwood
We’ve been busy with lots of little home improvement projects around here already this spring and I have to admit that I feel almost giddy everyday waking up and seeing the progress we’re making. Seeing transformations happening around me in my home is definitely one of my favorite things in the world and it doesn’t hurt that these few things we’ve done so far have actually not ended up being too over-complicated, which is rare in a 120 year old house!
It all started one Saturday night a few weeks ago. I guess I had been spending a little more time than usual on Pinterest that day and Chris and I ended up having “the conversation”. In some houses, “the conversation” might mean something else, but in this house it meant that I finaly let him know that I just. couldn’t. take it. any. longer. We needed to do something about those peel n stick tiles in our living room and dining room. I mean, we’ve been here almost 6 years now, and it’s part of my job to talk about home decor and home improvements and stuff like that and I managed to do just fine with mismatched peel n stick tile. So I’d been a trooper, but I felt like I’d probably done enough trooping and it was finally time to get going on these floors. You can see two of the six-ish different types of flooring that we had on this floor of the house in this picture:
I do always pride myself on keeping my posts about our home firmly rooted in reality, but really 6 (well, I guess 7, technically) types of flooring is a bit much.
So he said he would grab some hardwood samples the next time he was out and he’d put some new flooring down if it was that important to me. And that was that! Easy-peasy!
I have to say, I’ve learned from talking to my friends that I’m pretty lucky in the home decor department. I know a lot of husbands have strong opinions on home decor and won’t “let” their wives do what they’d like in their homes. Chris definitely always has an opinion, but it just kind of ends up that most of the time we agree. And if one of us reeeallly likes something or reaaalllly doesn’t like something, then we’re always flexible. So no fights over this kind of stuff for us, ever. Like, I said, I know I’m lucky!
So Chris was out taking Kennedy to soccer practice and he went and grabbed some hardwood samples and we found one quickly that we both liked and that was a great deal and decided to go for it… Until a few days later when he had his own version of “the conversation” with me. (Whomp whomp!)
Chris Think About Going for Laminate Instead of Hardwood
He said he just couldn’t stand the idea of putting down hardwood, fitting everything perfectly and nailing it down to last until the end of time when he knew that what he really wanted to do is rip out all the walls and gut this room. He’d end up having to pull up the flooring and it would just be a giant mess when we got to the point of actually being ready to do everything we hope to do in here one day. And of course he was right. I just wanted pretty floors to make me feel happy and cozy, but not if it’s going to cause misery and despair the next time we go to do anything in here.
So we came to the perfect compromise! Laminate flooring!
This goes against basically everything I said I would ever do in here when we moved in. BUT. Laminate flooring has come a looooong way since we last really took a good look at it 10 years ago. It’s so realistic, and sturdy, and stylish now and it’s just the perfect solution for us right now.
The floor just clicks together and floats on top of our existing flooring so there was very little mess, it was quick, and best of all, we can take it out when we’re ready and everything underneath will be just as we left it!
Well, no, best of all was the price! If you’re going to be doing something semi-temporary like this, you don’t want to spend a fortune on it and this flooring was on special at The Home Depot for $1.67 per square foot! That’s Canadian funds!
The Perks of Laminate Flooring
So if you’re keeping score, this flooring is easy, realistic-looking, dirt cheap, and non-messy.
I’m also pretty relieved on a daily basis that it’s so durable, because we have a whole lot of these things racing around here lately and I’d hate for the floors to get all scratched up.
We can’t forget about these things either!
Chuckers just has the longest nails, even if we get them trimmed as short as possible, so we definitely need to keep him in mind for our flooring choices!
I chose this color totally on a whim, which I do a lot, and I’m completely over the moon about it. It’s like the flooring equivalent of my favourite “Zeppelin” paint color. It’s a bit warm, a bit cool, a bit light, but not too light, clean-looking, but full of character.
So basically, I’m very happy with our choice to go with laminate, and of course this is one of those things where I’m left wondering why we never did it sooner! It’s gone such a long way in helping our living room and dining room finally feel like home, which is obviously super important.
You can see how the flooring looks in the dining room here:
The shelves are still kind of a mess from moving all our stuff around, the trim is clearly not done, and you can see that I have my Easter stuff only kind of half set up, but you can still tell that the flooring really makes a huge difference in this room! 🙂
We bought enough flooring to do the master bedroom too, so I should have some photos of the new flooring in that room for you soon too!
If you used to turn your nose up at laminate like I did, I definitely recommend giving it another look!
Have you used laminate flooring in your home?
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.