Flooring Trends in 2014

Flooring Trends in 2014

Home flooring trends in 2014 show luxury vinyl tile, sheet vinyl, and carpet being the most popular. Vinyl flooring comes in elegant wood plan, ceramic and stone, and for only a fraction of the cost it makes for a wonderful and durable product. Even though in recent years there seems to have been a trend in home flooring to install hard floor surfaces, carpet is making a comeback. Carpet known for its warmth and comfort and wide range of colors, patterns, and style.

Despite flooring trend fluctuations through out generations, carpet still is by far the most popular of all floor coverings. Carpet is easy to maintain, durable, and sold by the yard. When it comes to selecting carpet it generally depends upon your budget. High grade carpets are not necessary for low traffic areas such as hall ways and main living areas.

Overall when selecting carpet for your living space, practicality should guide your decision. Carpet is generally best suited for bedrooms, family rooms, and living areas. Generally, carpets that go wall to wall are not recommended for areas that will be in contact with moisture like kitchens and bathrooms or entrance ways.

There are many different styles of carpets from wool, Acrylic, Nylon, Modacrylic, and Olefin (polypropylene)  as well as many different  carpet underlay or padding: felt, sponge rubber, foam rubber, and urethane foam. Carpet is made in three methods: weaving, tufting, and fusion bond. Also, there is other quality factors in carpet such as: face weight, pile height, and density.

One popular flooring style where you can have the best of both worlds is to have a harder flooring surface with area rugs. Having an area rugs can let you add color and comfort to any room. Area rugs also come in many different styles and sizes. They can define a room, protect flooring underneath, and add warmth and space. Area carpets can be cleaned like most carpets can and come in infinite patterns and colors.

Area rugs come in types like carved rugs, natural fibre rugs, flokatis, rya, oriental rugs, kilim, dhurrie, and serape. Again when picking an area rug make sure the area rug fits your budget and the style and format will suit the room. Try taking a photo of the area rug and taking it home to see if it goes with your room colors.

When picking vinyl flooring, the three main flooring types are vinyl plank flooring, vinyl sheet, and vinyl tile flooring. Vinyl plank flooring is an innovative vinyl that looks and feels like real wood floor and is essentially water proof. Vinyl plank is quiet, warm, and relatively easy to install. Vinyl sheet flooring comes in large rolls that come in either felt backed or vinyl backed. With different types of install methods. Vinyl tile is usually available in 12″x12″ squares with adhesive backing and usually comes in square or some form of pattern. There are also different vinyl finishes such as vinyl no wax, urethane,  and enhanced urethane.

When you deciding on what flooring to install go get samples, bring them home, and put them up to your walls, near windows and away from windows. Look to see what different light in the day looks like with your flooring samples. Touch the flooring, get references of people who installed that flooring and do some flooring comparison. Have fun with the shopping experience and remember you are the one that has to live with the flooring in your home.