We tend to buy new-build houses. Well, our last three moves have been to new-builds. There are pros and cons of course. You rarely get a good-sized garden and the neighbouring houses may be a little closer than is comfortable. But the pros outweigh these, in our experience. A new-build means that everything is brand new, and under warranty. You can negotiate carpets into a final deal, along with your chosen style of kitchen, and tiles on the walls and floors in the bathrooms. It’s a blank canvas, ready for you to make it your home.
If, like us, you have children and pets, the first item that will undoubtedly need replacing is the carpet. When we first moved in, every room except the bathrooms and kitchen were carpeted. The carpet didn’t stay lovely for long. Dirty feet on children and dogs, cats that want to use the stair carpet for claw sharpening … it just wasn’t practical. So, Huw taught himself how to lay laminate flooring. With the help of a friend, over the course of a weekend, they managed to replace all the carpet in the office, dining room, lounge and home office. They even managed to lay laminate flooring in the hall. We chose a mid-grey colour, heavy duty laminate flooring. And it looked (and still looks) fantastic.
Tips for laying laminate flooring
If you are attempting to lay flooring for the first time, please do watch some of the brilliant demonstrations you’ll find online. In addition, here’s 5 top tips from Huw.
- Use a good quality underlay
- Use a scrap piece of flooring to bang on when fitting planks together, as this protects the edges
- Always use wedges to maintain an expansion gap around the edge
- Use specific laminate blades to cut the planks as these give the best finish
- If you can get some, wear knee pads, as you quickly get very sore knees
Practicality
Laminate flooring is so easy to look after. We buy lemon-scented laminate floor wipes to wipe over the floor every now and again after vacuuming. It always looks new, even the heavy use areas like the hallway. Whereas before we were worried about shoes and dirty dog feet on carpets, now it’s not an issue.
We still have carpet on the stairs and upstairs landing, and in two of the four bedrooms. This is a work in progress. This year we will be renovating the much-neglected spare room, and also redecorating the main bedroom. Once the walls are painted/papered, both rooms will have laminate floor laid.
Decorating rooms with laminate flooring
Some people believe that wood or laminate flooring is ‘cold’. To us, the practicalities outweigh any negatives, but it is easy to ‘warm up’ wooden floor with some well-chosen rugs. Our hallway is really wide – it almost looks silly without a large mat filling some of the floor space. The same in the bedrooms – nice mats either side of the bed help balance the room as well as giving your feet a nice soft landing first thing in the morning.
We are definitely laminate flooring converts. No more worrying over carpet being used as a cat scratch post! Over the summer, as we tackle our decorating projects, I will post our ‘before and afters’ so come back and take a look 😊
Practical, stylish and easy to fit – will always be my first choice too! Plus you can buy lots of pretty rugs to decorate it!
We love new- builds too – we are about to move into our second! We have laminate too and you’re right, it is super easy to look after. In our next house, we’re braving carpet in the lounge…wish us luck!
It’s very practical isn’t it, we have 3 kids and a dog and we have laminate flooring throughout the downstairs!
Your lounge looks lovely! Totally agree on the practical side of things. Also like you said a rug can be added ontop for some warm. Carpets hide the filth where as at least with the flooring you can spot the dirt and clean it
Laminate flooring has been our choice for a good few years now. Now the kids are getting older, I kind of feel like I would love a good, thick, carpet, however, then there’s a spillage of some kind and I’m like ‘Thank goodness for the laminate.’ It’s clean, hardwearing, and certainly practical for a carpet.
Great post and tips!
I couldn’t agree more: laminate flooring is perfect when you have kids and pets! I love my wood floor a lot more than my carpets at the moment!
We have laminate throughout, it is so practical and looks neater than carpet. Also great for spillages and pets – easier to keep clean and fresh too.
As a mother and a wheelchair-user laminate flooring is the actual best, ha!
That was an incredible floor design, I never considered a laminate flooring but this gives me so many ideas. Thanks for hsairng
We’ve never had carpeted floors, even in our rentals, as my husband has a dust allergy and they are so hard to clean. Right now we have wooden floors, but they are so sensitive to everything – they accumulate scrapes and dents in no time. One of our previous rentals had laminate, and that was by far the most compatible with kids.
We have laminate flooring downstairs and I can’t imagine not having it now!
Your flooring looks incredible! I have carpets everywhere except for the kitchen and bathroom, and they are constantly dirty. With a toddler and a super furry cat, I spend 30 minutes everyday vacuuming and dealing with the stains. Nightmare.
Laminate flooring can look really stylish! I love all the different effects you can get with it. I’d really like something like this in our kitchen instead of the tiled floor we have.
We love laminate flooring! It’s so good when you’ve got kids and animals – – we have both! It makes cleaning up so much easier.
it is also easy to maintain and clean in a long run when owning a house for the first time.