New Laminate Flooring Reveal!
Laminate flooring has come a long way in the last 10 years, and after 5 years of living with old, dingy floors and 20-year-old carpet, we finally installed laminate on our first floor! These photos are just a few days after the contractors left so the house is still in cleanup mode. But we are SO in love with our new floors and wow, this project is the game changer!
We waited five years mainly because, well, life happened. Between 2 weddings, paying for college, we’ve been thrifting and saving to get to this place. We also massively downsized our excess stuff. We flipped a house recently, too, and I left my corporate job and started a business that is finally thriving. And through it all, my husband has been killing it at work. We’ve worked so hard, and it feels good to focus on home projects that we can personally enjoy.
BEFORE PHOTOS
Here are some of the listing photos of the house, you can take the full house tour here.
Foyer, before
Before, dining room (listing photo)
BEFORE: Kitchen listing photo
The laminate flooring we chose is called Earthen Chestnut, the Rare Vintage Line by Mohawk. It isn’t sold in big box stores, so you’d have to go to a local flooring dealer and haggle on price a bit. We landed on a price around $2.60/square foot for around 1200 square feet (excluding labor).
We love the natural-looking hand-hewn finish and the variation of color. Believe it or not, this wasn’t our first choice. We were on a bit of a wild goose chase looking for flooring that “wowed” us but was still in our price point. Our first choice was discontinued, so even though this flooring was our second choice, we feel like it was meant to be and are SO happy with it.
I captured a few photos during our first sunny day which shows the true colors of the floor.
Some paint and trim updates are needed, but love how this all looks.
Oliver approves. :)
A kitchen redesign is in progress and we may change the color of the cabinets. New floors were the 1st step before we build a brand new island (more on that soon!) Cove trim was installed around the base cabinets which needs to be painted at some point.
Love the natural hand hewn texture. The contractor installed 5″ baseboards. We are deciding if cove trim should be installed.
Dark floors can easily be maintained and cleaned with a Roomba, so if you’re worried about it showing dirt, that’s our recommendation. Personally I would rather see the dirt and keep a clean house, versus choosing a floor that hides dirt.
I’ve been reluctant to share anything new on my blog these last few years because our old flooring was such an eyesore and impacted all of our design decisions. The lesson is – don’t be like us. When you purchase a home that is in dire need of a flooring update, if you can, have your new floors installed immediately after you close on the house!
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Need Inspiration?
For 12+ years we have been updating our home on a truly small budget. My 14-Page guide includes:
- “6 Tips: How to Prioritize Your Projects”
- The FIRST thing I always address in every room
- What to do when you have $0 to spend
- Recognizing “good bones” in every space
- What to do when you are uninspired
Wow! What a transformation! Congratulations.
Thanks Corrie, it feels so different now. We love it.
Looks gorgeous! I agree with getting floors done after closing. We did and have no regrets.
Thank you! Yes, a massive lesson learned for us.
The floors look amazing! I love the color and the width of the planks.
May I ask, why did you choose laminate flooring over wood? We had Mohawk vinyl waterproof flooring put in around 9 years ago. I’m not happy with it because it scratches, it creates static, and it shows foot prints. I haven’t looked at laminate flooring. Can you also tell me if it has a loud or hollow sound when being walked on? I thank you in advance, for taking your time with answering these questions.
Hi Britta, good question! I admit that we shopped based on looks / overall aesthetic as a first priority. We knew what “look” we wanted. Once we found any comparable hardwood with a similar width or distressing, it was out of our budget. This very floor we purchased was also the showroom entrance flooring, it had dirt, water and salt on it from winter weather. Once cleaned up it looked beautiful. We were able to get this flooring at around 1/3 of the cost of hardwood. These are wider planks go down like a solid board, and the pattern looks very real in person. We put an underlayment down to soften any noise. This has scratch and water resistance as well. If we have any chips (none so far) it’s very easy to cover it with the Mohawk markers. I guess I’d rather do touch ups versus a full sand and refinish of hardwood. I’m thinking that’s just a personal preference type of thing. This laminate is very different than any luxury vinyl, which vinyl was never a preference of ours. Hope this explains it!