When it comes to floor renovation, there are several flooring designs available that you can choose from. While some of them are quite versatile, some only are suited for specific requirements and themes. In this article, we’ll discuss major flooring designs and how they can be designed to match your interior theme and style.
- Choose Materials According to the Theme
A number of flooring options including tiles, stones, wood, and artificial materials are available to suit each customer. Therefore, you’re only limited by your imagination and the interior theme when it comes to flooring options.
For instance, if you’ll be replacing your wall tiles with hardwood, consider replacing the floor tiles with vinyl to suit the theme better.
- Consider Your Requirements
Do you have pets?
Do you have flat feet?
Do you have a home-based business?
Consider what your requirements are and choose the flooring accordingly. We’ve discussed it in detail for each flooring option separately.
- Budget
Don’t have an unlimited budget, even if you can afford it. Set a budget per sq ft and consider only the options that satisfy it. By not having a budget, you get presented with hundreds of options which may become overwhelming.
- Access to Professional Help
Most of the flooring options mentioned here need professional intervention to effectively use them. However, for whatever reason, if you don’t have access to professional help, consider the flooring options that can be done by yourself. Tiles and natural stones are the two most common floorings that need professional intervention.
- Humidity
Interior flooring materials are developed with different climates in mind. If you’re from a hot and humid area, consider keeping the floors cool with natural stones or tiles. For sub-zero climates, wooden or bamboo floors are a better fit.
Ceramic & Porcelain Tiles
Most common interior design flooring option today is ceramic and porcelain tiles. Although these two differ in both physical properties and pricing, they look and feel the same from the outside until water absorption is involved.
In general, porcelain tiles are:
- More expensive
- Durable
- Less water absorptive than ceramic tiles.
The superior feature, although making it optimum to be used in outside walls, makes them more brittle than ceramic tiles.
For interior designing purposes, porcelain tiles are preferred because they can resemble different materials like natural stones and hardwood, while glazed ceramic tiles come in solid colors or simple patterns.
Natural Stone Flooring
Arguing over natural stone flooring and tiles is futile. If you can afford to renovate your home with natural stone flooring, you should do so. Despite all of them being sourced from the earth, natural stone flooring offers a number of options like marble, granite, and slates that you may choose from.
Marble flooring offers a classic luxury look with a high-gloss finish that’s preferred by many households. Although white marble is the most popular, you can choose from a variety of colors and textures that mother earth offers. However, as marble is prone to scratching and etching, it should be avoided in bathrooms and kitchens where acidic materials are used.
When durability and hardness are considered, nothing can beat granite flooring. It’s harder than marble flooring and much more durable than tiles. Moreover, granite offers the most texture and color patterns than any other natural stone. It’s also easier to clean and maintain. Consider consulting your tile store to choose patterns that aren’t too busy for flooring.
Luxury Vinyl Flooring
Typically manufactured with PVC, luxury vinyl flooring now can resemble any natural materials like hardwood, marbles, and granites. Although more popular in commercial areas, if carefully chosen, luxury vinyl floors can be quite classy.
Three types of vinyl flooring patterns are mostly used:
- Vinyl sheets
- Vinyl planks
- Vinyl tiles
Vinyl sheets are the most common carpeting material for office spaces and households. Despite their resemblance to natural wood and stones, they can feel cheaper. These sheets can be cut and spread across the flooring for a more natural finish.
Vinyl planks are manufactured with hard foam cores that give them durability and rigidity. If you’re after a luxury wooden finish, vinyl planks are the best choice. The maintenance that wooden floors require is minimized with vinyl planks without compromising on the luxury finish.
Terrazzo Flooring
Terrazzo floorings are here for a long time and seem to be finding their place in modern housing too. Made of composite materials like marble chips and stones, terrazzo flooring gives a busy look to your floors without being too pushy about it.
You can design your terrazzo flooring with epoxy resing or concrete, but for households focusing on a modern outlook, epoxy is a wise choice. The benefits of terrazzo flooring include customization options, durability, and anti-slip characteristics.
Furthermore, if you don’t want your floors to reflect light due to the shiny outlook, you may choose cementitious terrazzo for a matte finish.
Patterned Wood Flooring
A wide word, “patterned wood flooring” primarily refers to any flooring that deviates from the conventional plank style and is composed of different kinds of woods.
The wood pattern formats like chevron, herringbone, design panel, and square may all add a ton of personality and originality to any project. While some of these patterns date back hundreds of years, others, like sapphire, are more recent inventions.
Although vinyl has gained significant popularity all over the world as a replacement, hardwoods are still common and popular in the US. Due to the more expensive nature of hardwoods—milled from a single piece of timber—wooden floors are still considered a luxury.
Floor Carpeting
Wall-to-wall carpeting is favored by many individuals. With so many possibilities for hues, designs, and patterns, you may utilize these floorings to coordinate them with your individual decorating style. The insulation that carpets offer in the summer and winter also is effective in reducing noise.
Several carpeting options are available in the market for you to choose from. However, if you must go with carpeting and live in a location where it gets very humid in summer, it’s best to go with something very lightweight.
Bamboo Flooring
An environmentally friendly flooring option, bamboo is renowned for being as elegant and long-lasting as hardwood. Bamboo flooring with a proper polish is simple to keep clean. You may also target a modern appearance by using a lighter color.
Moreover, as heat is more evenly distributed in bamboo strips, bamboo flooring options are better than hardwood and tiles, if you desire floor heating. It also is more moisture resistant than hardwoods, making them more stable in humid weather conditions.
Concrete Flooring
A concrete floor generally has a flat slab of concrete that was either constructed in a plant or poured in place. A Rebar is a steel bar or mesh of steel wires that are frequently used to strengthen concrete. It is also known as reinforcing bars and strengthening steel. Rebar is required to make up for the fact that cement is comparatively weak under tension even if it is strong during compression.
In comparison to other flooring options, concrete flooring is renowned for its unrivaled practicality and durability. It requires little upkeep, and there are countless design variations available.
The Bottom Line
Hopefully, we could give you a brief into what goes into the style of floorings. If you want something easy to install and have a luxury feel, go for vinyl floorings or carpeting. However, choose natural stones or porcelain tiles if you seek a more subtle and durable finish. Although concrete floorings are comparatively cheaper, they don’t compare to hardwood or bamboo flooring designs.
