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Types of living room flooring


Best Flooring Ideas for Your Living Room

Depending on how often your living room is used and what you use it for, there’s a different type of flooring that’s right for you. Typically, the neater you and your family are, the more options you’ll have. The good news is—even for the messiest, pet-filled households—there are flooring options that will stay beautiful for years to come. Here are a few living room floor ideas.

Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood floors are a classic choice for any room in your home but work especially well in living rooms. Many shades of hardwood will bring warmth to the room, and when combined with area rugs, they create an even cozier space. Consider different stains of wood to create a new look for your living room. Dark and cool-toned wood floors are popular because of their ability to match well with both warm and cool colors, so it will be easier to match your décor to them. A more traditional option, blonde-colored wood can be installed in styles varying from distressed to glossy, depending on the look you’re going for. Honey and copper-toned wood are other warm-toned options to make your living room feel like home.

Vinyl Flooring

Vinyl flooring is another great option for the living room and kitchen. With its endless design options, durability, and waterproof quality, vinyl is perfect for any room that gets a lot of use. If your dream living room consists of hardwood floors, but you’re worried about your kids spilling or your cat scratching, vinyl is your best friend. Vinyl floors can mimic wood, tile, or stone floors, so you can have the design you want without having to stress too much about it getting damaged. 

Laminate Flooring

Laminate and vinyl flooring are often confused for one another, and rightfully so. They are both durable and stain-resistant and come in a wide variety of designs that mimic more expensive flooring options. So how do you choose between them? Well, there are a few key differences to consider. Laminate flooring mimics its natural floor counterparts slightly better than vinyl, laminate flooring is thicker and therefore quieter and softer to walk on, and vinyl flooring is fully waterproof, while laminate flooring is not.

So, if you’re a spill-prone household or in the midst of training a new puppy, you might want to choose vinyl. But if you’re a neat, pet-free household and you just want comfort and quiet, go for the laminate.

Carpet

If you spend a lot of time relaxing in your living room, you might want to choose a super-soft carpet with a deep pile to cozy up the room. But if you use your living room for entertaining and not much else, choose a carpet with a lower pile so you can more easily clean up those inevitable crumbs from your next charcuterie board.

One way to add the comfort of carpet without giving up the look of your hardwood, vinyl, or laminate floors is to add a rug. A statement rug is an easy way to bring personality to a room while making it more visually interesting.

No matter what type of flooring you choose, keep cleaning in mind when choosing the color. If your kids tend to track in dirt after their soccer games, do yourself a favor and opt for a darker-colored floor. If you have a light-haired dog like a golden retriever, you’ll want a lighter-colored floor, so you don’t have to vacuum every day to keep your floor from looking like a used lint roller. 

If you’re working to find the best flooring option for your living room, your local Flooring America experts are here to answer all your questions. Ready to help with all your latest home improvement projects, start your flooring journey at Flooring America today.

Want a preview of how new floors will look in your home? Try our room visualizer, My Floor Style. Upload a photo of your room, select your style preferences, and get a virtual look at each different flooring style. With My Floor Style, there are no surprises. Only beautiful new floors.

12 Different Types of Living Room Flooring Ideas

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The sky is truly the limit when decorating your living room. With 18 popular design schematics to choose from, beautiful polished flooring options, and countless decorating accouterments, creating your dream living space is as easy as opening your web browser and letting your imagination and creative energy run free.

We show you how to create the living room you have always fantasized about. With an exhaustive library of colorfully inspiring pictures, charts, and graphs that chart the popularity of top design concepts, and countless tips and tricks, you have got everything you need to start taking the first steps to bring your design concept to life.

Read on below to see some of the top living room designs and flooring finishes available today. Featuring decors ranging from the warm and inviting rustic country aesthetic to sleekly sexy minimalist styling cues, inspiration awaits you! Check out the colorful pictures, informative graphs, and wealth of information to help you choose your living room floor finish and overall styling concept. It’s that easy!

Best Flooring for Living Rooms (by popularity)

We analyzed 246,930 living rooms and from that data set determined which are the most popular living room floor materials. Here they are from most popular to least popular.

The 12 Types of Floors for Living Rooms

Below we explain the 12 types of flooring options for living rooms. We include approximate cost, pros and cons. We also provide a link to a photo gallery showcasing examples of living rooms with that type of floor.

1.

Hardwood floors in light, medium, and dark hues

Hardwood flooring is a classic and favorite choice amongst homeowners looking to upgrade their floors. Available in hues ranging from light, medium, to dark, hardwood flooring is a wonderful way to give your home a timeless elegance and luxurious feel.

Smooth, polished, and topped with an artisan rug or carpet, hardwood floors are aesthetically appropriate in a wide range of settings and decors, from traditional to modern, and even Asian and Mediterranean styles.

Hardwood flooring is typically available in three varieties (strip, plank, and parquet) and comes with a specific size bracket (1.25-2.25 inches wide). A variety of wood types are available, including but not limited to: walnut, cherry, oak, and unfinished varieties which can be stained to your specifications.

Price $3 per square foot for unfinished oak to over $12 per square foot for exotic wood types
Product availability Walnut, cherry, oak, and unfinished varieties in strip, plank, and parquet forms
Product sizing 1. 25-2.25 inches wide

Pros

Cons

=> Click here for our massive living rooms with hardwood photo gallery

Related: Pine Flooring

2. Carpet

Carpeting, especially wall-to-wall carpeting, is the most popular choice amongst homeowners regarding floor coverings.

Available in a vast array of colors, patterns, and textures, carpeting can be effortlessly and perfectly matched to your individual tastes and unique décor.

Carpeting offers a cozy, warm, and inviting element to homes. Available in natural or synthetic forms, you can choose from wool, nylon, olefin, polyester, and acrylic.

Price $1400 – $4000 for an average sized living room
Product availability Natural and synthetic
Product sizing By the square yard

Pros

Cons

=> Click here to see living rooms with carpet flooring

Also check out our gallery of living rooms with area rugs.

3. Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tile floors are a fantastic option for those looking for water and stain resistant flooring. Highly durable, ceramic tile is constructed of a hardy material that can withstand years of use.

Ceramic tile comes in either glazed or unglazed options. When topped with protective glaze, ceramic tile becomes extremely resistant to stains or damage from water, and can stand high-humidity environments.

Easy to clean, ceramic tile flooring is perfect for those prone to allergies. Unlike carpet fibers which can harbor allergens, tile flooring is smooth and requires just a wipe to remove dust and dirt.

Price $5 – $10 per square foot
Product availability Triangle, rectangle, and plank cuts available in a variety of motifs, patterns, and simulated materials (ex. Hardwood)
Product sizing By the square foot

Pros

Cons

=> See photo gallery of living rooms with tile floor

4.

Concrete

Concrete flooring offers unparalleled durability and functionality in comparison to other flooring options. Requiring only a minimal amount of maintenance, concrete flooring only needs to be sealed once per year.

Available in an array of colors and textures, concrete offers a smooth surface that can be topped with your favorite rugs and cozy carpets for unrivaled versatility and limitless design options.

Price $2-$6 per square foot for polished gray slab concrete to $5-$8 per square foot for elaborate options
Product availability Array of colors and textures can be achieved by dye, tint, latex paint coverings, and etching or scoring
Product sizing By the square foot

Pros

Cons

5.

Porcelain Tile

Porcelain tile offers a gleaming opulence and certain regality to living room floors.

Porcelain tile is similar to ceramic tile but differs in that it is constructed from denser clays and fired at much higher temperatures.

The end result is a tile that is resistant to scratches and stains, supremely durable, and strong enough to withstand commercial applications.

Easy to clean and just requiring a simple wipe to remove dust and dirt, porcelain tile is perfect for those with allergies, or those who are just looking for a beautiful and low maintenance flooring option.

Installing porcelain tiles yourself is a particularly cumbersome task. Due to the thick, heavy, and dense material, it is difficult to cut in a precise manner. Hiring a contractor for the installation of porcelain tile flooring will be your best bet to ensure professional results.

Price $2-$25 per square foot
Product availability Unglazed, matte, or polished
Product sizing 12 x 12, 16 x 16, 6×6 sizing. Also available in rectangle, triangle, and hexagon shapes.

Pros

Cons

=> See photo gallery of living rooms with tile floor

6. Travertine

Travertine flooring is unique in its composition, natural coloring, and stylishly organic presence.

A type of limestone, Travertine comes in an earthy palette featuring softly muted colors like golds, creams, browns, tans, beiges, and rusts.

Travertine is an excellent way to add a dash of patina to your home décor; its fabulous natural coloring offers an old-world flavor and elegant opulence at the same time.

Price $3-$30 per square foot
Product availability Polished, matte, brushed, and tumbled with natural color variations
Product sizing 1×1, 1×2, 2×2, 2×4 and 4×4 with custom sizes available

Pros

Cons

7.

Marble

Marble flooring exemplifies one-of-a-kind luxury and elegance. With its inherently broad presentation of natural whorls, hues, and tonality, marble is a distinctly unique and upscale flooring option that offers gorgeous visual appeal, timeless looks, and long-lasting durability.

Price $5-$15 per square foot
Product availability Multiple colors and multicolor mixes; available in tile. Rectangle, triangle, and mosaic cuts
Product sizing By the square foot

Pros

Cons

8.

Vinyl

Vinyl has been touted for decades as the low-cost flooring material of choice for homeowners; vinyl has withstood the test of time regarding popularity and ubiquity of use.

A litany of benefits comes with vinyl flooring. Minimal maintenance, water-resistant, and scratch-resistant, it is kid-friendly and easy on the feet of older adults. Durable enough to hold up to busy foot traffic, vinyl flooring is also extremely easy to care for and clean. Dirt and dust only require a damp mop or cloth, and an entire floor can be cleaned in mere minutes.

Properly installed, a vinyl floor will last for decades. Replacing a vinyl floor is also very affordable as pricing can be as little as $.50 per square foot. Installing a vinyl floor is a DIY-friendly endeavor that homeowners can take on themselves without having to hire a contractor or professional.

With modern day advances, vinyl flooring is now available in simulated finishes that offer luxury looks at affordable prices. Wood plank-style flooring and simulated ceramic tile flooring are readily available vinyl options that won’t break the bank and can serve to transform the overall look and feel of your entire living room.

Price $.50 to $10 per square foot
Product availability Sheet vinyl and “tile” vinyl
Product sizing Sheets available in  6 or 12 feet wide, vinyl  tile flooring available in  9″x9″ or 12″x12″ sizes

Pros

Cons

9. Slate

Slate flooring is at the intersection of functionality, durability, and affordability. With the ability to last for 50 years or more, slate floors are dependable and reliable options for homeowners looking for flooring materials they can count on.

Slate’s natural durability renders it resistant to scratches, breaks, chips, stains, and cracks.

Price $4-$10 per square foot
Product availability Gauged or ungauged slate
Product sizing By the square foot

Pros

Cons

10.

Bamboo

Bamboo flooring is an eco-friendly choice due to bamboo’s sustainability, widespread availability, and its status as a rapidly renewable resource.

Top-quality bamboo is touted for its durability and is comparable to hardwood flooring. Bamboo is a perfect addition to modern or contemporary living spaces and adds instant elegance to your décor.

Different forms of bamboo are readily available for flooring purposes. Vertical bamboo is used when uniformity and straight even lines are desired, while horizontal bamboo has a natural pattern with slight variations. Strand woven bamboo mixes the grass fibers together in an interlocking mechanism for long-lasting durability and hardness.

Bamboo flooring is typically available in its natural light color profile; however carbonized bamboo that has a darker hue is also readily available.

Price $5-$8 per square foot
Product availability Vertical, horizontal, and strand woven bamboo in natural coloring and carbonized darker colors
Product sizing By the square foot

Pros

Cons

11.

Painted wood

Painted wood floors are an ingenious and creative way to freshen up dull or drab floors and add lively appeal and bold colors. Often, refinishing a hardwood floor is cost-prohibitive for homeowners. A painted wood floor provides an instant facelift to any floor and livens up the overall vibe of the entire home.

A crisp white can add an upscale and elegant look, while a boldly audacious color can add punch to an eclectic living room scheme. Stencils and contrasting paint colors, and geometric design elements can truly transform a floor from drab to fab with little monetary investment and a lot of creative energy.

Price $152.30 for an average sized floor
Product availability Paint in assorted colors, stencils
Product sizing N/A

Pros

Cons

12.

Linoleum

Valued for its long-lasting reliability, linoleum flooring can last upwards of 40 years. Available in an abundant number of colors, patterns, and simulated textures, linoleum has a versatility that will lend itself excellently to your home’s décor as well as your budgetary needs.

Linoleum comes in two basic forms; linoleum tile flooring and floating linoleum flooring. Linoleum tile flooring is water resistant, eco-friendly, and comfortable on the feet.

Similarly, floating linoleum flooring shares the same attributes as linoleum tile flooring but differs in that it is typically the go-to choice for DIY’ers due to its ease of installation and click and lock design mechanism. Simply snap the linoleum pieces into place, and apply with no adhesive, hired professionals, or mess required.

Price $2-$5 per square foot
Product availability Solid colors, flecked, marbled, and patterned
Product sizing By the square foot

Pros

Cons

Related: Should your Coffee Table Wood Match the Wood Floor in the Living Room?

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11 living room floor materials

Natalia | 03/25/2016 | Updated | Floor finishing | 39,795 views | No Comments

Contents of the article

For the living room, you need to choose a floor covering that has a pleasant appearance, but at the same time is hard-wearing, easy to clean and durable . When choosing the right material, you need to take into account the style of the interior, as well as the functions that are assigned to the living room: family gatherings, receiving guests or frequent dinners. If the repair is done by hand, then you need to take into account installation features of a particular material. Based on all these factors and 's own preferences, it is worth choosing a certain type of flooring, and there really are plenty to choose from.

#1. Wooden floors

Wood flooring refers to solid board and strip parquet . These are materials that are 100% made of natural solid wood, but differ in their parameters with the similarity of basic properties. A solid board has much larger dimensions and can reach 6 meters in length, piece parquet rarely exceeds 60 cm in length.

Natural wood flooring in the living room has many advantages :

The disadvantages of wood flooring are obvious :

There is another rather original solution for finishing the floor - the use of wood frame . In this case, all properties remain the same, but the appearance becomes original, but the installation process becomes more complicated, because you will have to work with elements that are not the same in size and shape.

#2. Parquet board

A more budgetary analogue of wooden floors is a floor using parquet board . This is a three-layer material, only the upper part of which is precious wood, and the other two are made of coniferous wood. Thus, outwardly, the material is no different from piece parquet, it has an attractive color and natural wood texture, but such a coating cannot be scraped many times, because the top layer is quite thin.

The main advantages of parquet boards include:

But, unfortunately, parquet board is also afraid of moisture , and in terms of durability, even with proper care, they are inferior to solid wood.

#3. Cork flooring

Cork flooring is another option for a natural floor in the living room, but it will look more original, because this finish is still rarely used. Cork flooring is an all-natural finish based on the bark of the cork tree. The color scheme of this floor refers to yellow and brown shades.

Benefits of cork:

But the cork floor is not an ideal flooring either, because it has some shortcomings:

#4. Laminate

Laminate is a multi-layered flooring that can very accurately imitate natural wood or any other material such as stone or tile. The laminate consists of a fiberboard board, which is covered with a protective film on top, a layer of decorative paper with a certain pattern and a layer of melamine resin. Any drawing can be applied to paper.

The main advantages of laminate:

Since the living room is a room where the floor is not exposed to excessive load, you can choose a laminate with far from the highest strength index. Good material class 22, 23 or 31, 32.

Among the disadvantages of is not the highest durability of the coating, although with proper care in the living room, the laminate can last for a dozen years. If the manufacturer is unscrupulous about the manufacture of the material, then there may be problems with locking joints, so it is better to give preference to products from trusted companies. When objects fall on the laminate, the sound will be loud and sonorous, and the surface cannot be called warm, but this can be corrected by installing a floor heating system. Of course, laminate cannot be called a natural material, but it is still great for a living room.

#5. Ceramic tiles

Tiles are an infrequent guest in living rooms, but still their competent use can create an interesting interior, because this material is presented in a huge assortment, it can be of different colors, sizes, textures, ornaments, imitate the surface of wood, stone, leather. Tiles can be used in combination with other finishing materials, which looks especially advantageous when you need to zoning a living room and highlight, for example, an area with a dining table.

Advantages of ceramic tiles :

With so many advantages, however, ceramic tiles have not found great distribution in living rooms , mainly for the following reasons :

When choosing ceramic tiles, it is important to consider not only how it fits into the interior of the living room, but also the size of the room. For a small living room, not very large tiles are better, otherwise the room will be divided into several squares.

#6. Linoleum

Linoleum is considered one of the most popular flooring today, and it is also used very often in the living room, and all because it has a significant advantage - a pleasant value for money . At a fairly low cost, you can get strong , nice and durable coating, which at the same time will also be as easy as possible to install . The range of colors, patterns and patterns of linoleum makes your eyes widen: on sale you can find any shade of , a decent imitation of parquet, tiles and a lot of other options. Linoleum is easy to care for, resistant to abrasion, withstands moisture and high temperatures, it is durable.

At the same time, also has some disadvantages of linoleum , but they cannot be called significant. So, this is an unnatural material, on which dents from heavy furniture and black marks from shoes can remain. Otherwise, this is a great budget way to create a pleasant interior in the living room.

No. 7. Marmoleum

Marmoleum is another suitable living room flooring. The material has retained many properties of its synthetic counterpart - linoleum, but at the same time has one significant advantage over it - naturalness. Even before the advent of PVC linoleum, linoleum itself was understood as a material, made from jute or cork, resin, sawdust, oil, lime . As you can see, this is an environmentally friendly natural coating, which, in addition, boasts other advantages:

  • durability . The material can last 20-30 years and retain its original appearance;
  • antibacterial properties of to help create a healthy microclimate in the home;
  • sound and heat insulation ;
  • flame retardant, moisture resistant and anti-static, which explains the ease of maintenance and long life of the coating;
  • resistance to mechanical damage and sunlight.

Among the disadvantages is the price , since we are dealing with natural material, and in terms of installation, marmoleum is inferior in terms of convenience to linoleum. Marmoleum - is very fragile , which must be taken into account during transportation and installation.

No. 8. Stone floor

The stone floor in the living room is a rather non-trivial solution that can create a sophisticated interior. Natural stone for flooring is used extremely rarely due to its high cost, and its artificial counterpart has become more widespread. porcelain tile , which is obtained using granite dust, is popular as a floor finish.

Stone floor has some advantages :

  • a beautiful appearance that emphasizes a certain character of the interior. In addition, an artificial stone can imitate any kind of natural stone, have any color and shape, so there really is plenty to choose from;
  • durability;
  • wear resistance;
  • easy care.

But stone floors are not very often used in living rooms because of their number of disadvantages:

  • cold surface, which can be compensated by a system of warm floors or a few soft fluffy rugs;
  • the surface of such a floor is noisy, and harsh sounds will be generated when almost any object comes into contact with it. Moreover, if a vase or a glass falls on a stone floor, they are unlikely to survive, although if they fall on a floor made of linoleum or carpet, there might not be any damage.

#9. Self-leveling floors

Self-leveling floors are still considered a novelty and curiosity in the flooring market. Their properties allow the use of such floors in almost any room, and the only drawback is the high cost. Self-leveling floor can have any design: any color, pattern, drawing, landscape, ornament, imitation of any other material . With such floors in the living room, right under your feet, you can create a sandy beach, a lake, outer space, use absolutely any image that will get a three-dimensional effect.

Self-leveling floor can become a highlight of the living room. In addition, this durable coating, which is distinguished by ease of care, resistance to moisture and detergents, mechanical stress. This coating without a single seam, which perfectly tolerates even temperature changes. As for the shortcomings, in addition to the price, one can also highlight the difficulties in repair and dismantling, as well as the need to use the services of professionals during installation.

#10. Carpet

Carpet is a soft and cozy material for finishing the living room floor. Its advantages include:

  • pleasant to the touch fleecy soft surface, and this not only brings comfort to the living room, but will also be an excellent option if children often play here;
  • sound and heat insulation properties;
  • easy installation;
  • variety: you can choose any color, with or without a pattern, with the required pile length.

You don't need to cover the entire area of ​​the living room with carpet, but only a part near the sofa, for example. In this case, the main flooring can be laminate, parquet, tile, stone, etc.

Among the disadvantages of such a solution:

  • the need for thorough regular maintenance, because the carpet will accumulate a lot of dust;
  • if there are people in the house who suffer from allergies or asthma, this is not the best option.

You can also find modular carpet tiles - the same carpet, but cut into square fragments with a slightly more reinforced base. Such material is actually identical in properties to carpet, but its transportation and installation can be done much easier, and as a result, less waste is generated, and ornaments can be made from tiles of different colors.

#11. Vinyl tile

Vinyl tile is PVC linoleum cut into separate pieces. The material inherited many properties from conventional linoleum: cost, durability, ease of maintenance, soundproofing . The surface of such a coating is non-slip, can withstand short-term exposure to moisture, and there are a huge number of possible color and texture options, so the living room can be made in any style.

Due to the fact that the vinyl tile is divided into fragments, it is more than easy to install , and almost anyone can handle it. The disadvantages are the same as those of linoleum: it is a synthetic material that can be squeezed under the influence of heavy furniture. If the budget is limited, then vinyl tile along with linoleum is a great solution for decorating a living room.

In conclusion

There are many different materials for arranging the floors in the living room, but before choosing, you need to have a good idea of ​​​​the scenarios for using this room. You may have to combine a couple of materials to highlight the dining or work area. You need to take into account not only the chosen interior style, color scheme and your own preferences, but also the performance of the material, as well as its cost and the cost of laying it, if any.

The article was written for remstroiblog.ru.

Tags: Living room, Flooring

Authorization

MO, Shchelkovo