Modern Home Decorating

Have you gotten bored with how your home looks, how it feels, has it lost the luster in your heart that it first had when you moved in. Does it feel like it might be time for a change, for a new venue? A great number of people feel the same way, in fact quite often. But rather then moving you might consider replacing some or all of the flooring in your home.

Replacing flooring along with minor changes in furnishings from time to time can keep that feeling of newness ingrained in your home. Adding a special touch with just the right flooring can make even the most commonplace room décor into something special. Carpets once were king, now hardwoods and custom style tiling have come into their own. Not to say that carpeting has gone out of style, it hasn’t. But more and more where once a home was wall to wall carpet, people are experiencing the magnificence and select beauty that contrasts in flooring materials can make in a home.

One methods of home decorating use to be to visualize a room with all the furnishings, then furnishing the room with the flooring only being thought of in a functional manner or by virtue of color coordination. But today it is not uncommon for the floor itself to be the center piece of the room, with everything else being selected only to compliment the beauty of the floor itself.

Interior design today will view a space and visualize a period or a texture that matches the space. With the texture in mind the very first thing to be concentrated on is what type of flooring to use. It becomes the single most important element of the space because everything else in the room, by design will compliment that particular flooring material color, texture and design, everything! You might think that the concept is hard to follow but it really isn’t. Because flooring is usually the largest single element in a room, it stands to reason that it needs to be considered very highly when its time to make the decision to put it in place.

To make my point, the next time you are at the supermarket or discount store, pick up a copy of your favorite home magazine, and when you get a moment, sit down and study it. I don’t mean read it, but study the pictures. If you do you will find the essence of what I have just said is true. You will discover that in fine homes, homes that continually get photographed for these types of magazines, more often then not, the floor is the center piece of the room.

How can you know? Looking at the pictures, do the room spaces seem to be full? Do they seem cluttered or furnished too heavily? Usually not, and if they do, how memorable was the flooring material? Do the individual pieces fit well with the flooring, are they arranged in s manner that cover most of the floor, or are there lots of throw rugs about? Sometimes possibly but more often the room are sparsely furnished to allow the viewer to take in all of the room. You might notice that each furnishing fits into a well molded scheme that accents the beauty of a floor. Bedrooms if any might be an exception to this type of design, but they too are often floor orientated in design.

You might argue that what you are seeing is a perspective from someone who has a passion for fine flooring, and you would be right. Most great interior designers have a passion for the finest of flooring materials. But you don’t have to be filthy rich or an interior designer to share in that passion for fine flooring. With the cost effective, durable and beautiful choices availed to homeowners like us today; we too can have those magazine picturesque type spaces in our homes.

I found that when I started thinking about what type of flooring best fit a space in our home, the better job we did in the entire design project of each room. The best way I can tell you to begin is to visualize your rooms empty with no flooring, no wall paint or coverings, all neutral or white, then from the floor up, decide how you want the room to feel. Consider the light, the time of day the light is natural, when will it be used, how will it be used, then think about the feel of the flooring, how do you want it to feel.

Too many people get bogged down with the ideas of ease of installation, ease of maintenance, and durability. All admirable qualities to consider, but they shouldn’t be your driving motivation for selecting the right floor. If I had to put them in order these would be the criteria for selecting the perfect floor.

? Could the flooring stand alone? Would the space have beauty with nothing but the flooring material in place?

? Will the flooring give voice to the way I want to feel about the room. Will the flooring match or compliment the particular type of energy I want this room to have?

? Will changes in light (natural to artificial) change negatively or positively the aspect of the space? Sometimes flooring material that is too dark or light will tend to be less appealing during specific times of light. Be warned though that is not always true, so it is important to understand how the room will be used and when that use will take place if possible.

? Then decide what type of furnishings you might want or need that will rest directly on the flooring. Those furnishings might be ones you want to obtain, or ones that you already have. In either case, the flooring needs to fulfill its task of melding the contents of the room, how ever furnished into an esthetically pleasing as well as applicably functional space.

Then if you so choose, you can hold your choice up to the general considerations usually taken into account about flooring, which would be durability, ease of maintenance and then ease of installation. I put ease of installation last on the list, because a great floor is worth some extra effort if need be.

If you can conquer these criteria in selecting your flooring material, I can almost guarantee that the rest of the room will fall into place and make for that picture perfect room that deserves to be showcased in the next issue of your favorite home magazine.

So the next time the walls of your home seem to want to close in on you and moving comes to mind just because, you might want to consider a change in flooring. It’s usually a lot cheaper then moving, and has the advantage of adding value to your existing home.

Scott Best
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