Flooring is just like furniture, it’s very personal and can really help reflect your style and personality. Again, as with furniture, there are lots of things to consider when thinking about a new floor for any room in your home. With that in mind, I’ve teamed up with Amtico who produce stunning luxury vinyl tiles to highlight some of the areas you should consider when planning and designing a new flooring pattern for your home.
Colour match with furniture and walls
Choosing the right design type for your new floor can be really challenging. With each different flooring material comes a different range of colours and with vinyl flooring there are a range of options including wood, stone and abstract designs which all have their own colour palette. Once you decide on the material, you really need to feel comfortable with the colour you choose because you’re likely going to be looking at it for years to come. Not only do you need to like and feel like you can live with the colour palette you choose, but you need to keep in mind how it’s going to look with the other colours in your home. For any room, this means thinking about how the colour of the floor will match with the walls and any furniture you have. This is often why people go for a more neutral coloured floor, so that it won’t clash with furniture.
There are two areas where you can often be a little bit more expressive with the flooring design style you choose, the kitchen and living spaces. Because so many kitchens have a fairly neutral colour scheme with the appliances, surfaces and cupboards, your floor can stand out a little more. If you do choose vinyl flooring, not only is there a huge range of colour palettes but the tiles are perfect for kitchens as they are water resistant, highly durable and very easy to clean.
In living areas, where most people spend the majority of their time at home, getting creative with your flooring can really help showcase your style. No matter if it’s carpet, wood or vinyl, there will be a design which reflects your personality and helps enhance the aesthetic your looking to achieve in your home, be that minimalist or a bold patterns and colours.
Highlight features of a room
One of the great things with flooring, that often goes overlooked, is its ability use patterns in specifically designed ways to highlight areas of a room. Not only can you highlight features of your room like a bathtub or the edges of a room, but you can help make a space look bigger. In hallways, in particular, having a design which draws the eye down the hallway can help make the space appear longer just by changing the flooring. If you have space restrictions at home, this could be a great option to consider.
Big or small tiles
When looking at a new floor, particularly for a room like the bathroom or kitchen, you will likely consider vinyl flooring for the benefits mentioned above. When doing so, you’ll also need to consider how large you want the tiles to be. The looks which you can achieve with large tiles are very different from those which use small tiles, so it often comes down to personal preference and the style you have in mind. One thing you shouldn’t rule out, however, is a mixture of the two sizes. If you’re going for a modern look, having a strong geometric design can work really well, and using two or more sizes of tiles and multiple colours is an excellent way of achieving this bold look.
Laying patterns
While it is possible to create a modern look with your flooring, traditional styles still work really well. If you are looking to create a traditional wood flooring style, you’ll need to look into the different laying patterns. There are lots of patterns available for wood or wood style flooring, with Parquet and French Weave being two of the most popular. Taking the time to consider which patterns could work well with your existing furniture and overall style is really useful.
How to integrate with existing flooring between rooms
For most of us, when we tackle home renovation, it’s done one room at a time. With things like adding furniture or painting a wall this is ok, but with flooring, it can lead to complications. From a design point of view, it’s important you get the joins between rooms and hallways looking as seamless as possible. This can be hard when trying to match vinyl tiles or hardwood up against carpet between a hallway and a living room for example. One thing you can do to help the process is try and find a common colour scheme for your flooring between rooms. Also, just having a small divider between rooms such as a carpet cover strip can help differentiate rooms and not create such contrast between flooring.
While getting new flooring in your home might seem like a daunting task, and even more so when you want to go for a new design, spending the time to consider the points above is always helpful. Not only can this help you work out the style and flooring material which is best for you, but from a design point of view, any time you spend considering the options above will help you create a floor which you will love and can enjoy for years to come.
