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Family Room: New Flooring Installation

by | Mar 8, 2017 | Decorating Inspiration, My Basement, My Seattle House

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Family Room: New Flooring Installation

Find the reveal post here!

O ne of the things we really liked when we looked at our house for the first time was that it had a bright and light-filled finished basement. Usually the houses in our price range in Seattle were super small, dark, cramped or had too low of ceilings to feel like actual rooms. While this is a modest house, a light-filled lower level was a big plus in making the house feel more spacious and functional overall.

Family Room: New Flooring Installation

When I last shared an update on this space late last summer, we were just building a wall to create an office in the big room. Well, to be clear, WE weren’t building the wall. Contractors were. :) The open space downstairs was quite large, but we decided it was almost too large to be useful. Open floor plans can be great sometimes, but other times they just aren’t as practical. Since we needed another room, we decided to divide the one open area into two separate spaces.

Family Room: New Flooring Installation

I’ll share more about these rooms in future posts. But we are very glad we divided up the space! It’s made a big difference in the functionality of the entire lower level and it almost feels bigger now than it did before.

So after the walls were painted (we don’t necessarily have a long term plan for the wall colors in our lower level, but fresh paint helped clean things up for us in the meantime), we were excited to move on to some new flooring. The carpet in this room had seen better days.

The carpet was actually covering up old asbestos linoleum tiles. Our inspector let us know when we bought the house that it was important that we not tear the original flooring out or leave it exposed. It needed to be left undisturbed but could be covered safely with the new flooring.

If you’ve been following the blog for awhile you might remember that a few years ago I partnered with Mohawk to install pre-finished Hickory wood floors in our old house. We absolutely loved our Mohawk flooring, so we were pretty excited when the opportunity came up to partner again in this house!

Family Room: New Flooring Installation

When we bought the house, we started dreaming of the type of flooring we’d want. We knew this needed to be a super dog friendly space (now that we have FOUR dogs who would be playing in this room! Leo and Bella live with my daughter Kylee, but often visit Jack and Lily for doodle playdates). It needed to be able to be installed over the old flooring, too, so that was another deciding factor.

After exploring our options, we decided a quality laminate flooring would suit our needs the best. We looked at quite a few samples trying to determine just the right wood tone and feel for our home. We brought samples all over the house to make sure they felt right with existing flooring (as well as any future plans for refinishing existing floors or new floors elsewhere).

Family Room: New Flooring Installation

While they were not going to be installed next to any other flooring (except the lower level tile in the hall and on the hearth), it was still helpful to think about how these floors would fit into the overall design of our home. All of the samples we tried were beautiful, but we fell in love with the Concertina flooring in Smokey Chestnut. We were so impressed by this flooring. It has a matte finish, texture and coloring that feels really natural and realistic.

Family Room: New Flooring Installation

About a week before Christmas the installers came to remove our carpet and the next day they started and completed the installation process. Yes, it was completed in ONE DAY! I was thrilled. Fortunately they were very accommodating in helping us move our furniture around, since we weren’t able to move it completely out during the install! Pre-finished flooring (like we had at our old house and now this new flooring) doesn’t create as much mess or disruption to life as flooring that has to be finished on site.

Family Room: New Flooring Installation

I have to say, the flooring completely transformed the downstairs in so many ways. It feels cleaner, warmer, and makes our whole house feel larger and much more updated.

Click to see the full reveal of our new flooring here (and then stay tuned for the upcoming reveal of our office flooring, too)!

Family Room: New Flooring Installation

I wrote this blog post while participating in the Mohawk Flooring Blogger Campaign and received flooring for my family room to facilitate my review.

24 Comments

  1. Cathy

    We are currently installing laminate flooring in our house, too! Ours is not going down as quickly as yours, because my husband is putting down a few pieces after work each evening. It is a great option for not disrupting the entire area at one time. I’m looking forward to seeing your finished floor tomorrow!

  2. Sandy

    It looks great. I can’t wait to see more. The house is really coming together.

  3. Tina

    Melissa, We are AT THIS VERY SECOND installing laminate flooring in a basement bedroom in our home. Thanks for this post as I think laminate gets a bad rap from some “designers” as cheap-looking when really it can be so realistic and lovely AND affordable and a great option for the basement for sure!

    • Diane Cummings

      They have really improved greatly on laminate flooring since first coming out!! Looks awesome and so sturdy and scratch resistant with those GoldenDoodles of ours :)

  4. Jo Jo

    I love the look of your new flooring! Beautiful. You’re so smart to be thinking ‘ big, over- all picture’ while choosing materials & colors. It’ll save you time & money later. Master planning ( keeping in mind for future reno’s of other spaces to be done) is so important. Also, I agree with you regarding open concept…it can be wonderful, but sometimes the room area can be too large and open to function well and for furniture placement. How many seating areas does one room need? I’ve seen homes with such large open spaces furnished with 3 sets of softas, chairs, etc. and they don’t use the room! Their everyday is in a smaller den for tv viewing. People, I think, crave cozy spaces. Anyway, I am very excited to see you very bright and light lower level reveal! ?

  5. Gail

    LOVE the color you selected !!!

  6. Debra Holley

    Can’t wait to see the whole room….this post is of particular interest to me since we are debating on new flooring for our living room. Love your choice.

  7. Diane Cummings

    LOVE the downstairs flooring Melissa!! And, of course the picture of Jack is pretty awesome too :)

  8. Deanna Rabe

    It looks great!

  9. Debbie - Mountain Mama

    Lucky you getting that flooring in return for your review! I had to install new flooring just before Christmas in my lower level as well and the project cost quite a bit of money….but the end result is fantastic, I couldn’t be happier. Well, that’s not entirely true, I could be happier if my daughters actually kept the lower level clean!

  10. Karen on Bainbridge Island

    Laminate has come a long long way. Yours looks great. Good choice

  11. Laurie

    LOVE this flooring! It looks beautiful. We are getting ready to replace our hardwoods and carpeted areas with laminate and I will definitely check out Mohawk!

  12. Pam Cates

    The new flooring is beautiful! I can’t think of an adjective good enough for your new kitchen though! Wow!
    BUT I LOVE your dogs! They are so cute. Can’t let my 2 Schnauzer sisters hear that though! Keep revealing please (at a faster pace). I’m impatient.

  13. Barbara

    Your floor is beautiful! Is this engineered wood? It looks like real wood in the photo; does it look real in person? We will be doing some updating in the near future so I am very interested in this product. Thank you!

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Yes, it looks very real! We just love it. It is super durable and worked out great for installing it in our lower level over our old flooring!

  14. Jeri

    I think I’m sold on laminate now. I would love to know manufacturers and colors of the furniture in this room. And the rug, too! And ❤ your pup!!

  15. judith

    The dog is my favorite part. But the floors are lovely as well. Please reveal the source of that beautiful rug. Thanks, Judith

  16. Diana

    The flooring makes all the difference! I love your choice. It looks stunning!

  17. Ana

    Love the look of this room! I noticed the tile that surrounds the fireplace. Since it was part of the existing room, what type of tile is that? I’m looking for some tile like that but not sure what to ask for or where to search.

  18. Sharon Forward

    Your use of plants and textiles just adds to another beautiful room and the fact that you use what you already own too ahh one clever lady and of course the floor is beautiful too.x

  19. Inalco

    Looks great!

  20. Elizabeth

    I actually like the painted brick. I’ve been considering painting ours but been hesitant. With white being such a popular decor color I’m thinking I can do this :-)

  21. What Mum Loves

    what a dreamy room! and the flooring is just beautiful x

 

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