Overview:
Flooring is the single largest feature of any interior. It supports the style, look, and feel of furniture and can impact how one feels. A scratchy rug can be irritating, while a plush shag can be an opulent treat at the end of a long day. Flooring is often made from or designed to look like the earth--wood, stone, and plant fibers feature prominently in the list of popular flooring materials. This is important. Interior flooring connects people to the natural world outside and serves as a foundation on which to stand and to decorate. A person wants to feel good when she walks through her home. It is a decorator's job to make sure the flooring supports not just the style of the home, but also the lifestyle of the people who live there.
10.1 Flooring Basics
Color, pattern, and texture are all major considerations for flooring, just as they are for the overall decoration of an interior. The floor sets the tone for the entirety of the interior. Big, open rooms become cozy, intimate spaces when floors are of warm, matte tones, and smaller rooms expand when the flooring is light. When selecting flooring, consider how the tone, as well as the visual texture and tactile texture alter the interior. Remember, flooring should support the overall style, not contradict it.
Floor should create harmony, but must not be homogeneous throughout the home. The entryway is the first impression a guest has of a home. Flooring should be played up in an entryway in order to inspire "oohs and ahhs." Flooring is especially important in open plan entryways, because the flooring can be the defining feature that announces the entryway as separate from the rest of the home. Entryway flooring must not only look good, but must also be durable and long lasting, as it is likely to get the most foot traffic. Slate, tile, and wood are all great entryway options. Entryway mats outside the front door are a fixture in most homes and a wise method of maintaining flooring by keeping excess moisture and dirt outside. In bedroom, it is important to have comfortable floors that feel good underfoot. However, bedrooms typically see a lot of foot traffic, so it is recommended to use easy-to-clean flooring options, like carpet tiles, which are easily removed, washed, or replaced one at a time. Bathrooms and laundry rooms require water-resistant flooring, like natural stone and ceramic.
Flooring gets used. When selecting flooring, consider the lifestyle of the homeowner. Do the home's occupants keep their shoes on at home? Are those shoes usually heels? Are there children who track in dirt or animals with long, scratchy claws? How often will one realistically clean the flooring? Most families will want to select durable flooring that is resistant to stains and scratches. Heavy traffic areas, like the entryway and kitchen, should contain more resilient flooring like ceramic tile, vinyl, or wood. For areas that get minimal traffic, like a guest bedroom, plush carpeting can be a real luxury. A decorator can layer flooring by placing a large area rug over more durable floors. This strategy creates beautiful layered textures that energize the room and protect the floor. An area rug can also be helpful in reducing noise and absorbing odors.
Decorators should be aware that flooring is typically priced per square foot, which means flooring can get expensive very quickly. Some of the highest quality hardwood flooring can cost as much as an astounding $150 per square foot. In contrast, some of the least expensive low-grade vinyl flooring mimicking hardwood costs just $0.59 per square inch. In a medium-sized living room of 18 x 12 square feet, the lux hardwood cost 250 times the price of the vinyl copy! (The hardwood costs $32,400 while the vinyl is under $130.) Most hardwood floors fall on the lower end of this range, around $3 to $8 per square foot and up to $14 for more exotic varieties. Therefor, the average material cost of a hardwood floor for a 216 square foot living room is $1,188. When choosing a hardware floor, think not only of budget, but also of quality. A high-grade floor may be more expensive initially, but is likely to last longer and save money in the long term. When budgeting for flooring, one must also factor things like pads for carpeting, grout for tile, and a subfloor for hardwood. Labor costs are yet another essential budgeting item. Installing flooring can be a complicated job that if not done properly, can result in damage and further costs. While many home decorating projects can be DIY, flooring should be left to a professional. The average cost for installation is between $5 and $12 per square foot.
10.2 Materials
The materials available for flooring are endless. In this section, you will learn about some of the most commonly used materials. Each of these materials has a wide range of applications and can be adapted to fit the style of nearly any home.
Hardwood
Hardwood floors are very durable and a beautiful option for any style interior. They create harmony and can even make a rooms appear larger. Hardwood floors are an especially good choice to create harmony and unity in an open plan home. Hardwood flooring comes in strips thinner than 3 inches or planks 3 inches and wider. Board width has a strong effect on the overall look of the room. Wide planks, for example, make a statement in a larger space, but can overwhelm a smaller room. Boards can be made from oak, hickory, maple, and walnut, as well as more exotic varieties like cherry, birch, tigerwood, teak, and even ebony in the case of the aforementioned $150 per square foot flooring.
An alternative to solid wood is engineered wood, which is made from layers of plywood topped with a veneer of solid wood. Engineered wood can be less expensive than solid wood, and is always more stable and less vulnerable to changes in temperature and humidity, which causes wood to shrink and expand. It is therefor a smart option for humid environments and basements that can become damp. Some brands of engineered wood come as planks or parquet squares that simply click into place over a cushioned pad, without the hassle of glue or nails. This is a smart decorating decision, as it makes individual pieces easy to replace, should they ever become damaged.
Wood is an exciting material because it has so many varieties in nature. Planks made from the same oak tree will invariably have differences in color and grain. The degree of variation depends on the species of tree. Decorators should be aware of these differences. It is a personal preference whether one likes the planks to look more or less the same, or if one finds the slight variations in each plank dynamic. Lighting also plays a role in the way wood is perceived in a home. A good decorator always tries out samples of hardwood in the particular home environment. She is often surprised that what looked like a cherry-tint in the hardware store appears a deep brown in natural light and orange under accent lighting.
Bamboo
Bamboo flooring is a strong, durable flooring option resembling hardwood flooring. It comes as fairly inexpensive solid strips or engineered planks of glued-together bamboo strands. The average cost per square foot ranges from $5 to $8. Un-carbonized, strand woven bamboo is recommended because, like low-grade hardwood, low-grade bamboo is softer and more prone to dents and scratches. Bamboo is equally susceptible to humidity as is wood. Decorators working in high humidity or extremely dry environments should consider the possibility that bamboo can split under these not-so-ideal conditions.
The grain of bamboo flooring can be flat with intermittent growth nodes characteristic of the grass, vertical and fine-grained, or woven with sinewy patterns. The colors are as varied as the grain of bamboo. Tones range from light, yellowy beige to deep black-brown. The reputation of bamboo as a highly sustainable material adds to its appeal. It is also easy to clean and does not require any special cleaning treatment aside from soap and water.
Cork
Made from the bark of European and North African cork trees, cork is a sustainable material used to make comfy, cushioned flooring. Cork is flexible and both sound- and shock-absorbent, making it an excellent choice for kitchens, where people tend to stand for longer stretches of time. It is also a favorite flooring choice for home gyms. Cork is also known to resist dust, mold, mildew, and pests. Therefore, anyone who suffers from allergies can benefit greatly from cork flooring. However, decorators should be aware that cork requires weekly sweeping or vacuuming to prevent pileup of crumbs and dirt, as well as re-sealing every few years. A decorator must also take care to place furniture over protective coasters to prevent deep, permanent dents. Cork has a variety of natural tones and textures, but can also be dyed or stained to transform to any color desired. The price of cork is relatively inexpensive, costing anywhere from $2 to $12 per square foot, although the more expensive varieties are usually the most durable.
Stone
There are endless ways to incorporate natural stone flooring in a home interior. A favorite for warm climates, stone naturally cools a room. It does not retain dust or allergens and can be moisture- and stain-resistant depending on the hardness of the stone. Sandstone, limestone, marble, and travertine, for example, are softer, more porous stones that need to be re-sealed every few years and are prone to staining. In contrast, hard, dense stone like granite and slate have small pores that retain limited moisture. They will hold up in bathrooms and high-traffic areas like the kitchen and mudroom.
Like wood, the natural variants of the earth make each stone tile unique. Color and veining will vary based on the type of stone and the location of the quarry. This quality makes stone flooring lively. One way to use stone flooring is to install it throughout an open floor plan. Start at the entryway and mudroom, and continue through the kitchen, living room, and into the bathrooms. (Stop at the bedrooms.) Position area rugs in each room to add texture, warm feet, and delineate specific spaces as separate from one another, while retaining harmonious continuity with the stone flooring.
Ceramic Tile
Ceramic tile made from baked clay and shale is one of the most versatile flooring options. Ceramic tiles come in a range of tones and can be customized to make any type of pattern.
Glazed ceramic tile has a shiny, glasslike coating that makes the tile easy to clean and maintain. In contrast, quarry tile is unglazed and a bit rough. The traction of quarry tile makes it slip-resistant and ideal for bathrooms. Porcelain is fired at very high temperatures. This unique process makes the tile especially hard, durable, and resistant to staining. Porcelain tiles come with or without glaze and are strong enough to be used outdoors. Terracotta is unglazed and rustic.
Ceramic tile is a great choice for both bathrooms and kitchens because the material is easy to maintain, as well as germ- and water-resistant. When selecting tile, check how it is rated for hardness. Tile is rated on a scale of 0 to 5. Three is adequate for home flooring, though 4 and 5 are better. Ceramic tile can also be used on walls and as countertops.
Laminate
This inexpensive, low-maintenance material comes in a number of styles and patterns. It is made using the same method as engineered wood, in which a top veneer is backed by stable layers of plywood or compressed fiber. In laminate flooring, the top layer is a plastic coating applied over a photograph. There are no rules or limits for the pattern on the photograph. Often, the photograph is a rendering of wood, stone, tile, or concrete that is so realistic, most people think it is the real thing. Laminate is available as planks or tiles at a range for prices from $1 to $7 per square foot. It is water-, sun- and scratch-resistant, and unlike hardwood, is unaffected by moisture in the air. It is therefore a good material for all rooms, including bathrooms.
Carpet
Carpeting comes in a range of textures, colors, and materials. It is made by pulling fibers through a woven backing, which is glued to a cushioned carpet pad for strength and longevity. It is either tufted--meaning made from rows of machine-punched yarns held together by an adhesive and backing--or woven on a loom. Both methods are used for all sorts of natural and synthetic materials.
When decorators talk about "pile," they are referring to the style of the yarn and weave. Pile can be sheared ("cut pile") or left intact ("loop pile"). Cut pile can be short or long, as can loop pile. Generally, longer pile feels more luxurious, while shorter pile is easier to maintain. When selecting carpeting, it is imperative to touch as many carpet samples as possible. A decorator must be sure she likes not just the look, but also the feel of a particular carpet.
Carpet is made from a wide variety of materials, nylon being the most durable synthetic material and wool the hardiest natural fiber. Both nylon and wool are easy to clean, fade-resistant, and can last for many years.
There are a wide variety of natural plant fibers used to make carpeting, from sea grass to paper. Silk is often blended with wool to make a dye-ready, durable carpet that is stain-resistant and flame-retardant. Another strong natural fiber is sisal, which comes from the agave plant and is used to make flat, coarse carpeting. Sisal can be woven into beautiful patterns, and like jute, which is used to make burlap and twine, adds rich texture to any interior. Decorators should be aware however, that both sisal and jute fade in direct sunlight. Some decorators will be surprised that paper carpeting is some of the strongest. It is also more water-resistant than most other plant-fibers and is often resistant to dust and dirt.
Polyester, acrylic, and polypropylene olefin are some of the other common synthetic materials used to make carpeting. Polyester is an inexpensive carpeting solution that is moisture-resistant, but quickly becomes matted and stained. In contrast, acrylic and polypropylene olefin are durable materials resistant to water and mildew. Acrylic is also known to repel insets and appears most similar to wool. On the other hand, polypropylene olefin is especially resistant to stains and best fitted to outdoor carpeting. Not all carpet is created equal. Just as in all other flooring, carpet can be low-grade or high-grade. Low-grade carpets are cheap, but may only last 3 to 5 years.
Carpeting can be installed using wall-to-wall rolls or individual carpet tiles. Carpet can also be customized with bound edges to be used as an area rug. Wall-to-wall rolls were the longtime preferred option for carpet installation. But more and more, carpet manufacturers are making carpet tiles that do not require special padding to install, and can in many cases, go straight over an existing floor. Carpet tiles are most well liked for their easy maintenance. Individual carpet tiles can be removed, cleaned, and put back into place. This is especially helpful when a cup of coffee is dropped or a pet makes a mess on just one tile. And if the tile seems damaged beyond repair, one can simply replace the tile. (It is always recommended to buy a few extras to replace when necessary.) Carpet tiles also give a decorator flexibility. Different colors, textures, and styles can be used to customize a unique pattern. They can be used to create an entryway in an open plan home or an area rug to contain furniture in a living room. They can also be used to carpet an entire room, as one would with a traditional carpet roll. In short, they have an endless array of uses and can be used in any room.
