When you’re designing the interior of your home, choosing flooring and knowing how to choose a door to match is essential. Choosing the winning floors and doors for your home helps to complete the style and feel you want to achieve.
A common mistake we made in our early design years was to focus on flooring and completely underestimated the impact the internal doors could have too. They can also be a big job and big expense to change so you really want to take the time to make the right selection.
CHOOSING THE MAIN FLOORING
Want to know how to choose a flooring type? Here’s three questions to ask yourself before you start.
1. CLEANING
Kids and pets are messy little critters, choosing flooring that is easy to keep clean will help keep your new floors looking schmick all the time. If you’re like us and want no fuss flooring, consider options that are super durable, water resistant and low maintenance. Enough said!
2. MAINTENANCE
Do you want to be sanding and polishing your new floors every few years? Or do you want flooring that is maintenance free? Grout can require additional cleaning to keep it to looking great for many years. Some flooring types are more prone to scratching than others and although they can be sanded and polished to remove scratches, you will want to budget for these ongoing future maintenance expenses.
3. BUDGET
There are four budget considerations to remember
– Product Pricing
– Floor preparation
– Installation
– Ongoing maintenance
Everybody’s budget is different. Make sure when you’re comparing your flooring options you factor in ALL of these expenses. The last thing you want is a budget blowout.
OUR CHOICE FOR DREAM HOME 7
I have raised my little ones in multiple homes with vinyl flooring. It’s my go to when I walk into a shop to select my main flooring for any project. Here’s why:
– It’s a more affordable option than engineered or real timber
– It is easy to keep clean
– It’s scratch resistant and waterproof
– If a plank is damaged, that plank can easily be removed and replaced without unclipping multiple panels
In Dream Home 7 we chose Godfrey Hirst Moduleo Spotted Gum 22233 to bring warmth into the home against the cooler green tones that had more of a traditional farmhouse feel.
Kitchen Dream Home 7 Flooring – Godfrey Hirst Moduleo Spotted Gum 22233
HOT TIP
When choosing a timber look vinyl, we like to choose authentic looking timber grains and colours.
CHOOSING CARPET
If carpet is on your wish list than make sure you do your research. Your vision board will quickly tell you what colour will best suit your room but with so many carpets available, made with different fibres, there are some more practical considerations to keep in mind.
Like these…
– Do you keep a pet inside? Are they toilet trained?
– How old are your kids? Are they likely going to have spills?
– Does anyone in your home have asthma or allergies?
– Do you love a soft, plush carpet under foot? Or is that further down on your list of priorities?
We nearly always upgrade our carpet when building a new home even if it’s a build to sell, like Dream Home 7. The reason being is years ago we had several real estate agents tell us that buyers spot cheap carpet a mile away. They’ll then automatically deduct the cost to replace it off the asking price. It’s a big investment so if you can stretch the budget a bit further, it will only add value to your home. Most importantly, you want to make sure you are not only happy with the colour and feel of the carpet but that it suits your family’s needs.
OUR CHOICE FOR DREAM HOME 7
We wanted a premium carpet and the Carramar wool carpet from Godfrey Hirst just screamed coastal farmhouse to us. The Buckwheat colour creates a sense of warmth against the cool white walls and green feature walls in the master bedroom and lounge. This is where a vision board really helps to fine tune how each product fits in with the style. Plus, a mid-tone colour is a little more forgiving when it comes to stains.
CHOOSING INTERNAL DOORS
Here are our tips for how to choose a door for your place.
1. STYLE
The key here is your vision board! Hopefully before you get to the part where you must choose a door you have already chosen your preferred home style.
2. NATURAL LIGHT
Have a room that’s low on direct light? Feature doors can be a great way to bring in natural light, just like we did in the home office and lounge room at Dream Home 7. These rooms were downstairs on the southeast corner, so we chose Hume Doors LIN10 feature doors as an affordable way to get valuable sunlight streaming in.
3. BUDGET
Sticking to a budget involves compromise. If you have found your dream internal doors but it’s feels out of reach, make your front door a priority. Two words. ‘Street Appeal’. Your front door will add value to your home and give you the ultimate street cred.
If you’re tight on budget, another suggestion is to choose plain doors for bedroom wardrobes and go with the ones you love everywhere else. If you are in a two-storey home, you might keep the doors upstairs simple where no one sees them and splurge downstairs.
OUR CHOICE FOR DREAM HOME 7
Since we already knew we wanted to use v-groove cabinetry in the kitchen and bathrooms, we didn’t want to overdo those lines. The classic HAM1 from Hume Doors is a simple shaker profile that added a slight difference to the v-groove and the profile was similar to the wainscotting we used in the master bedroom and lounge room. It’s often about repeating patterns and shapes but keeping them balanced.
NAILING THE COLOURS
The key to getting any colour right is checking it against the colours it will be paired with.
In Dream Home 7 we checked our flooring samples against the following colour samples to nail the flooring and front door colour:
VINYL
Green kitchen cabinetry, white kitchen cabinetry and main wall colour
CARPET
Main wall colour, feature colours in the master bedroom and lounge room
FRONT DOOR COLOUR
Cladding, trims, roof colour and front porch tiles
1 thought on “HOW TO CHOOSE WINNING FLOORS AND DOORS FOR YOUR HOME”
hi there Sarah and Heather,
love the home 7 that you’ve done. i am looking to build a Hampton style home soon and will definitely use some of your ideas, tips and tricks along the way!
I was however hoping you can advise what the stair treads were in this house? I could find anything mentioning them.
thanks
Rob