Carpet

Colors are very much in demand with decorators this year. Shaw Carpets has reworked their carpet line with bright bold colors suitable for any room. In addition to color, look for texture – sculpted carpets in contemporary patterns and shaggy shags with multi color threads. WOW!

Retro colors are making a big come back for those of you who prefer dark warm floors. Look for carpets in delicious colors like chocolate and kiwi.

Look for low profile flat weaves or cable knits that give light airy feeling to any room. The colors home decorators prefer tend to be off-white, wheat, ecru, dusty grays and pastels.

Cork Flooring

Cork floors are taking the flooring market by storm; discover why Europeans have been using cork as a floor covering for years and why North Americans are falling in love with this environmentally friendly flooring alternative. Anti-microbial and cushiony soft, cork is an ideal choice for homeowners who want to keep their homes free of allergens and also enjoy a tranquil existence by diminishing noise. Cork floors are made from the harvested bark of the cork oak tree which is grown in the forests of the Mediterranean. Because the tree is not cut down to make the flooring, and the bark is a renewable resource, it is desirable flooring for environmentally aware consumers.

Hardwood flooring has been around for centuries and yet, it never goes out of style.

Now, more than ever, homeowners are returning to the timeless beauty of real hardwood floors.

For 2012 hardwood flooring trends include wider planks with deeper richer colors. Hardwood floors have a comforting, solid sound that most laminates can’t equal, and they can be refinished over and over again, creating a floor that can last for decades. Hardwood floors add elegance and beauty to any decorating style and the latest trend in wood floors is hand-scraped hardwood flooring. This old world appearance is in demand with homeowners looking for a rustic finish. The timeless classics include – Oak, Cherry, Pine, Maple Hickory, Pecan, Beech, Birch, and Walnut.

No matter which floor covering you choose, it should be serviceable for your lifestyle, and if you are building a new house or renovating an older one, your choices in floorings are endless.

Flooring sets the tone of the room – the look and feel of a room – but beyond appearance, the ultimate decision on which flooring material will be installed should be based on how a room is used.

For example, a room in which there is heavy foot traffic needs a hard wearing floor whereas a bedroom floor needs to be soft and cozy on the feet.

Ethical Floor Coverings – Now more than ever, it’s easy for the average homeowner to make environmentally friendly choices when it comes to home flooring products.

Laminate Flooring – Originally from Europe, laminate floors have taken over the floor covering market with the practical benefits of being durable, hard wearing, and beautiful. Laminates are replicating stone, and granite for endless decorating possibilities.

Hardwood Floors – Today’s hardwood floors are adding old world elegance with a new twist, moving more toward distressed planks, wider widths, and the introduction of exotic woods.

Linoleum – The original environmentally friendly floor covering, linoleum is available in a wide selection of colors and patterns, suitable for any decorating solution.

Carpet – The most practical home flooring, carpet brings color and warmth into every room. Endless patterns, colors and textures still make carpet the number one selling floor covering today.

Cork Flooring – Comfortable to walk on, incredibly warm underfoot, and discover the beauty of cork flooring and what it can do for your home.

Bamboo Floors – An environmentally friendly hardwood, bamboo is fast becoming one of the most popular flooring trends.

Floor Tile – A decorators dream come true, ceramic floor tiles offer timeless beauty and durability. Travertine tile is also another flooring option becoming more and more popular this year.

Area Rugs – These versatile splashes of color ground a room, giving it personality and function. This year, luxurious shag rugs are a big hit with decorators.

Vinyl Flooring – Offering the look of stone, ceramic tiles and hardwood – sheet vinyl and vinyl tiles are a natural solution for today’s homeowner looking for quality and design.

The Best Flooring and Hottest Styles for Every Room, Including Kitchens
As homeowners search for new hardwood flooring, it’s clear what is uppermost in their minds: Authenticity. An appealing look or style is not enough. While consumers are certainly concerned about a floor’s durability and value, they want something of substance even more. They choose hardwood because it reveals much about their taste, values, and what is important to them. They want something authentic.
All that from flooring? Yes.
These Top 10 hardwood flooring trends are not driven by mere fashion or some longing to keep up with the next-door neighbors. Instead, this Top 10 reflects the desire of homeowner to bring the art of nature into their homes so they can enjoy authentic natural beauty.

1. Authenticity
This is the Big Kahuna of flooring trends today—and for good reason. In this era of smarter and smarter phones, reality TV “stars,” and constant change, where do we find equilibrium and calm? Many of us look to nature and the appeal of slower times.
Authenticity is behind a desire for floors that take inspiration from the past, charms us, or help us live lives more attuned to nature. It leads to these choices in flooring showrooms:
• Wide-plank, handscraped, distressed floors. These replicate historical flooring, going back to early America.
• Exotics. These are unusual tree species from all over the world.
• Bamboo and cork. Though not hardwoods, these are also products of nature. No trees need to cut down to produce these sustainable products.
Each tells a story about you and your values. Your most cherished value is history, rare beauty, or the environment.

2. Handscrape Hardwood Flooring
Through the 1800s, finish surfaces for hardwood floors were commonly worked by hand with draw knives. These were simple flat blades attached to two handles. By pulling toward him or herself, the crafter could scrape thin layers of wood off a piece of lumber, slowly smoothing the top surface. Inevitable, scraping marks were left behind, proving for generations to come that a piece of wood had been worked by hand.
Handscrape marks are commonly seen in flooring reclaimed from old structures. These signs from another time tell a story about craftsmanship that is now replicated by today’s flooring manufacturers who have planks handscraped in a similar manner to get the look and feel of salvaged historical lumber.
These beauty marks authentically reproduce a genuine look from the past. Today’s handscraped floors are also distinctive to walk on barefoot. With each step, homeowners will feel slight variations in the surface—their feet feeling the evidence of a crafter’s skills.

3. Wide-Width Wood Planks
The next time you are walking through a building from the 1800s, look at how wide the floor planks are. Instead of the 2-inch to 3-inch widths common today, earlier floors were 5 to 8 inches wide—and more—depending on the species of wood.
The reason is easy to understand. Trees were much more mature when cut in earlier times, which meant they were also thicker. Most of the old-growth trees are gone or protected from harvest now. So trees for flooring are thinner and wide planks rarer.
However, 4- to 5-inch planks offer more authentic beauty than thinner slices. So manufacturers are finding ways to offer this wider lumber. These create a look that is more leisurely and languid. This is a hat-tip to less-hurried time.

4. Distressed Wood Flooring
Those who lived through the distressed-wood trend of the 1970s can relax. Today’s distressed doesn’t go overboard; it merely replicates the look seen from use and age of authentic, reclaimed flooring.
This second coming of distressed wood actually has its roots in the early 1990s when reclaiming flooring from old warehouses and commercial buildings emerged as a hot niche market. Those structures, built in the 1800s and early 1900s, offered a wealth of old-growth lumber, marked by decades of rough use. The gouges, nail holes, stains, slices, and saw marks were scars of authenticity.
By their interest in authentic distinguishing features that had pounded earlier flooring, homeowners today are showing their admiration for an era when skill rather than electronic technology was king.

5. Exotic Hardwood Floors
Exotic hardwoods appeal to a different sense of authenticity. What wins the heart here is the art of nature. How is it that trees can offer such elegance in form and still function so well as flooring? What a marvel.
There is the bold striping of tigerwood, the depth of Brazilian cherry, the rich beauty of teak. There are looks for every taste.
In addition to these authentic woods, manufacturers are also inventing ways to cut, bake and dye woods to mimic many of the exotics. This allows homeowners to obtain the look they want without endangering wood species in this country or abroad.

6. Harder Finishes
Admiring a new hardwood floor, you gaze at its natural beauty, alluring color, intricate graining and depth of shine. It’s so good to walk on wood—except you are not really walking on wood. The work surface that you tread is actually a clear finish that’s been formulated for toughness, sprayed on wood and baked to a hard-as-nails finish.
State-of-the-art factory finish clear urethane finishes are salted with aluminum oxide—microscopic metal crystals—to increase durability. Several coats are sprayed on and dried under ultraviolet lighting. The finish is about 10 times harder than is possible with a site-finished floor. With prefinished, you’ll also avoid the odorous off-gassing, labor and the time required for finishing a floor in place.
The moment after prefinished flooring is installed, it can be walked on. Instant gratification.

7. Engineered Wood Floors
Conventional wisdom promotes solid wood flooring because it can be sanded and refinished repeatedly. Sounds impressive, but when was the last time you sanded and refinished a floor? Safe bet that the answer is, “Never, with no plans to start.”
Unless you plan on living in the same house for 10 to 15 years or more, engineered wood is usually a better answer. Engineered floors are constructed of 3 or more thin sheets or “plies” of wood cross laminated together to form a single stable plank. Each plank is made like a sandwich, with stable, low-cost woods providing the foundation and the prettiest, more costly showpiece woods as the top surface.
Most engineered flooring comes pre-finished and goes down with relative ease. Fix it in place with nails, staples or glue. It can even be installed as a “floating” floor, a very quick way to put a floor in place. Regardless of the method for holding it down, these floors offer the beauty of solid wood without the price. They are more likely to be replaced than refinished (though many can be sanded and re-coated)—emphasizing their use as a design element in your house rather than a feature you may feel you have to endure. Plus, because they are dimensionally stable, engineered wood, unlike solid wood, can be installed below grade.

8. Sustainability: Cork, Bamboo and Others
Concern for the environment shapes the way we live, the laws we follow, and what we value. Hardwood flooring is a big part of this discussion for homeowners who want to play a part in preserving the world’s natural beauty.
The days of clear-cutting forests to produce lumber are fading as manufacturers turn to managed forests, tree farms, engineered flooring and different woods for the supply of raw material. If you want a hardwood exotic, you may wind up with a sustainable domestic species—probably oak—that has been finished to mimic the look of an exotic. Or you might choose bamboo or cork, which offer performance similar to hardwood, but without the need to cut down even a farmed tree. Instead, bamboo is a grass that regrows after it is cut. Cork is made from tree bark, which regenerates.
Concern for forests and the environment are making an impact on how wood flooring is produced. Governments, environmental groups and industry leaders are adopting certification programs and tracking systems to validate the sustainability of wood supplies.

9. Color
Hardwood flooring doesn’t have to be a sea of brown. Widely available finish colors include an amazing array of whites, browns, blacks, greys, and reds. Not enough? Purchase unfinished flooring and stain it with in any of a rainbow of colors.
Color choices allow floors to better serve interior style as a full partner. Why should colors be limited to walls? Colorful flooring, in turn, allows for rooms that authentically express the desires, style sense, personality and idiosyncrasies of the homeowner or designer.
This trend can be summed up as “I want it the way I want it.” You can certainly have it.

10. Value
To some manufacturers, retailers, and even customers, value means getting flooring at the lowest price possible. But that misses the mark. You may save a few dollars on the purchase, but that will prove foolish savings if you are constantly spending on maintenance, repair and replacement over time.
Value is getting the highest quality product at the best price. To do that, look for manufacturers who are committed to product performance. Look for brand names from companies who aggressively improve their product and back their products with warranties. Real value comes at a cost—but so does buying strictly on price.

Courtesy of our Friends at WFCA

Love this, talk about warm and inviting.

I am asked often about wide plank hardwood flooring. This is a beautiful option to consider when considering new hardwood flooring. Standard traditional hardwood flooring is 2 1/4″ wide. This is a great look and works well with any decor. Plank hardwood flooring is 3″ and wider, often times 7″-10″ wide. This provides a very dramatic look! Depending on the finishing technique used (sheen, color, etc), the style of the floor can range from extreme rustic all the way to sleek contemporary.

Character much?

A bit more modern, classy

this floor is so beautiful!!!

A place in timeVaried plank widths are great looking too!!I see a lot of floors like this in boutiques and restaurants

 I hope you enjoyed some of these pictures. Please let me know if you have any questions about these floors.

I love hardwood flooring because of the custom look you can provide. It is a inherently unique and every piece of wood is different. So apart from the type (species of wood) and the stain color, what can you do to make the floor more custom? Well, the answer is the finish. We use two types of finishes here at Textures, Polyurethane and Oil. The Oil finish is a more traditional finish that really provides a nice petina to the wood. Polyurethane is a topical protection that sits on the surface of the wood and is applied in layers.

An Example of Semi Gloss on a Poly'd floor

WHY AN OIL FINISH? 

A natural oil finish cannot be compared with today’s more popular acrylic, polyurethane, and aluminum oxide finishes. These finishes protect the floor by forming a wear layer, in fact a plastic film on the surface of the floor. They scratch and get dull over time and cannot be spot repaired. Only a costly re-coating of the entire floor is necessary every so often for complete rejuvenation. An oil finish penetrates the wood fibers to harden them while not altering the natural beauty of the wood. With no visual film on the surface, oiled floors are distinguishable by their elegant patina. They are easy to care for and are repairable. An oiled floor never need to be sanded, only regular applications of a Maintenance Oil are necessary to nourish the wood and bring the luster back. 

An Oil rubbed floor-- notice a more soft look

Natural-Oiled Floors vs. Polyurethanes 

Natural oils have been used to finish wood for hundreds of years. Our natural oil finishes are made with linseed oils, an old standby for finishing wood. Polyurethane is the new kid on the block, developed about 50 years ago and its primary design purpose is to make furniture shiny. 

Polyurethane is a plastic made from petroleum, a flammable liquid often used in chemical energy sources such as gasoline and diesel, and which gives polyurethane its distinct “chemical” scent.

 Zero VOC vs. Low VOCs 

Rejuvenating a 325 sq. ft of a Navarre floor project will require approximately 1/5 of a liter of Woca Refresher maintenance oil, which will emit zero VOCs and leave you without that harsh chemical scent. A typical polyurethane floor will require three gallons of finish, one gallon for the sealer coat and two more gallons of the top wear layers. VOCs from polyurethane evaporate into your home at the rate of about 4 lbs. per gallon, which means that 3 gallons of poly used to coat 325 sq.ft equals 12 pounds of VOCs floating around in your home for your family to enjoy. 

Bond and Strengthen vs. Surface Coatings 

The natural oil used to finish  oiled floors is not a surface coating, but is designed to become part of the wood by penetrating, bonding and hardening with the first layer of wood. 

When wood is finished with natural oil, it will dent, it will scratch, and it may be repaired. To bring your Navarre floor back to a fresh state: first, lightly sand the desired area of the floor, then apply a coat of Woca Refresher maintenance oil. It is not necessary to treat the entire floor, only the effected area. Typically, only spot sanding on extreme wear marks and scratches would be necessary, and a total wall-to-wall sanding is normally avoided. 

It’s a much more laborious and disruptive process with cured surface coatings such as polyurethane. Polyurethane is a plastic coating that sits on top of your wood, and acts as surface coating. The purpose of a surface coating is to separate wear and tear from the wood, which polyurethane can achieve, however, a polyurethane floor will never look better then the day of the final finish application. Immediately polyurethane finishes begin picking up small and large scratches – abrasions that defuse the light and pick up dirt – and quickly become visible from all angles. The end of the life of a polyurethane floor is not because it is worn out – it just becomes ugly. This process is accelerated when the floor is damaged by scratches that penetrate the surface coating and expose wood, which happens when dents penetrate the soft wood (NOTE: all wood is soft enough to dent and scratch). Unfortunately, all too often polyurethane floors must be maintained by sanding again and again, eventually exposing nails that hold the floor in place. 

Re coating a polyurethane floor is the recommended maintenance option. When should this be done? It has to be a joint effort, as soon as you have a scar that penetrates the surface coating, or when the floor looks dirty after you wash the floor. This “dirty” look means there is an abundance of surface scratches holding dirt. Scuffing and recoating will remove most of the dirt and provide a smooth cleanable surface. 

Living With vs. Living On 

The vast majority of my polyurethane customers live on their floors. They take off their shoes at the door, they have floor protectors under all furniture, and care to have nothing foul left on the surface. A normal expectation of a polyurethane floor is that it is maintenance free. Homeowners with natural oil finished floors live with their floors. They seem to recognize that wood expands and contracts with the seasons. Some believe this movement is a sign the wood still thinks of itself as being a tree. Feeding wood natural oils supports the notion that you are living with your wood and in turn, the wood responds to appropriate care that’s given. 

Reparability vs. Durability 

Wood is very durable on its own. Natural oils enhance the durable nature of wood, and allow the floor to be easily repaired if damaged. While polyurethanes provide a durable barrier, this barrier also consumes a layer of wood each and every time it is applied. At best there are three to four sandings in a floor’s life before the floor must be replaced. Over time, reparability is more important than durability.

Polyurethane finishes are a more modern approach to finishing a floor and probably the biggest benefit is that you can control sheen. Oil does not allow for this.

Special Thanks to US Floors for some great research.

With  beautiful names and  exciting origins, the use of exotic hardwood flooring has continued to grow. Exotic hardwood is a very interesting alternative to traditional domestic hardwoods for several reasons, but most noticeable is the way it looks. Typically, exotic hardwood flooring is only sealed and not stained, so the color variation is the natural color and shading of the wood. Exotic hardwood is also typically a more dense wood than typical domestic species.

Beautiful and sleek

I love the color variation

Maybe a tad more contemporary

Really cool Parquet

I love the fact that the natural tones are present with the exotic flooring, but be weary if you do not like variation.

I love the brown and red tones in merbau

Tigerwood!!!

Rosewood, heavily dominated by the reds

A few of the names these woods are sometimes sold underare Jatoba, Merbau, Zebrawood, andIPE but more Americanized names have been created including Brazilian Cherry, Brazilian Maple, African Walnut, and Patagonian Pecan.

Enjoy these beautiful floors, but make sure if you are interested in having one of these that you know the history of the wood. Responsible forestry is very important and some of the manufactures may not be as reputable as others.

If you are considering remodeling your home and adding hardwood flooring, you may be wondering how much money you are going to have to spend? First off, you need to answer some simple questions.

• Will you be installing raw lumber and finishing on site?

Sand and Finish on site

•        Or will you be installing prefinished hardwood flooring?

All you have to do is install

This article will focus on the site finished wood, or sand and finish wood installation. That said, I will give you a breakdown for pre-finished flooring as well.

Sand on site hardwood flooring has several components that should be considered and thought about when you are considering expense involved with this project. Lets walk thru the different elements and costs.

• What is your current flooring? Who is going to remove it? If the installer will be removing it figure $.30 per square foot.

Out with the old!!

• Is your subfloor in good shape, or does it need some repair? If it needs repair you are looking at isolated charges that will be about $60.00 per 4×8 plywood section. This is something that will probably not come up, but is relatively common.

• OK, so you have decided you want a beautiful new Oak floor. How much is this? Lets assume that you are going to install a 3" Wide plank and that you will need about 600 sqft for the project. You also want some character, so a #1 grade of lumber is what you select. Expect to pay about $2.40 per square foot plus tax. This price fluctuates but that is an average for 5/2011.

Very Pretty

• How is this 600 feet of wood getting to your home? Well, you can always pick it up, or the installer should deliver it for about $.10 per square foot.

Need a big truck, and lots of muscle-- hard hard work!!

• OK, ready for install– this is where the rubber meets the road. A quality installer should charge you between $1.75 and $2.50 per square foot for the installation. If someone is out of this range I would question it, because to cheap usually means poor quality and to expensive, well you know what that means– you are getting taken advantage of.

You want a pro that knows what they are doing.

• Next is the finishing, this involves sanding the floor and applying stain, then finish. It also includes puttying and making sure the installs imperfections are resolved. This is truly where a professional can shine– this is the bread and butter of the job. The range you should expect to pay is $1.50 and $3.00 per square foot. Depending on how many coats of finish and what materials are being used this is a fair estimate. 2 coats is standard.

This is such a critical step

• How about the trim? After hardwood flooring is installed it will need to be trimmed out at the base boards using Quarter round. Expect to pay$1.50 per linear foot for this including material. The installer will not paint the trim, but will stain it to match the floor if you like that.

This is a must

Of course additional costs may be necessary, but essentially that should cover it. You will end up with your beautiful new hardwood floor!!

I know, its Walnut-- very pretty

Site finished Oak hardwood flooring should cost somewhere in the range of $6.75-$8.50 per square foot. Of course be weary of companies that are very inexpensive. I could share some real life nightmare stories that ended up costing customers double because the floor had to be replaced.

Prefinished flooring varies in price, that said it is an easier installation process and provides a beautiful look. Expect to pay $5.25-$10.00 per square foot.

Your floors are one of the most important components to a beautiful home.

Show off your beautiful floor even more!!

Selecting the right register vents can make yours floors and home even more gorgeous.  You can have custom made flush-mounted register wood vents like the ones here to match this heart pine floor. They cost anywhere from $25-50 depending on the size and wood species, but add much more in value.  

Beautiful addition and very custom, but not custom priced

Our experience is that you can buy standard sizes online, but often they require a bit of fitting. Make sure you have this discussion with your installer before he starts your wood floors so he knows it is part of the project up front.

Standard builder-grade vents only run $5-10, but do little to upgrade the look of your home.

Standard, not so nice??

You can do the same for tile floors. Popular today is oil-rob bronze for kitchen and bathroom hardware.  Check out these oil-rubbed bronze vents on tile floors.

Adds a lot for a little

These vents usually run $15-25 each. Like their wood cousins, it is important that your tile installer knows this will be part of the deal.

If you are a DIY person wanting to upgrade your vents on an existing floor, make sure you take good measurements and be ready to make slight adjustments to get the perfect fit.

Need more information? Call the Textures team at 615-228-2922 or send an email to andrew@texturesflooring.com.

Hardwood flooring is a beautiful and natural flooring that looks great and lasts a long time. As durable as hardwood flooring is, it does need to be refinished about every 7-10 years depending on use and traffic. When installing new hardwood flooring or refinishing the existing flooring in your home, you should prepare yourself for a time consuming, smelly,  labor intensive process and understand what to expect during this process.

Does your floor look like this? Time to refinish!!

First off, this is a much easier process if you are not living in the work zone, so I am going to concentrate on “tips” that apply to those of you are refinishing your existing hardwood, or adding hardwood to a recently finished room or  adding hardwood where carpet was. Lets walk thru the basic process from start to finish of what the installers (or for you DIY folks–NOT RECOMMENDED) should expect as far as time.  These times may vary depending on the size of job.

1. If adding hardwood to an area, this will usually need to be delivered the week before work begins, and be set in the home for acclimation. This is not always needed but a good rule of thumb.

2. Day 1- Installers will arrive, tape of doorways, floor vents, curtains, appliances and so forth. They will then install the hardwood flooring in the areas needed. They will also remove old trim molding, and prep areas as they go. If you are just adding  a room or two this process will take 1 day. The stain color should be decided on at this stage in the process. The installer will review a color chart with you, or make a sample. However if there is furniture, carpet pull up and “lacing in” of new hardwood to existing hardwood the process could take 2 days.

3. Day 2- The installers will sand the hardwood (old and new) to get to raw wood. They should use dustless equipment that is hooked to vacuum’s and captures the dust adequately. They will use 2 machines for this. A large sander and an Edger sander for getting in tight spots. These are loud and will be disruptive.

Tight spots like around walls and stairs require this machine.

This is a very powerful machine that requires an expert.

4. After the sanding is complete, the installers will take a lot of time cleaning and vacuuming the floor to remove as much dust and debris as possible. Keep in mind that this is not a controlled environment, so debris will be in the air and will settle into the finish. They will then apply the stain color, you should have selected the stain color before the installers started. This will take about 1 day.

Stain is applied by hand or brush, and it is a tough job

5. Day 2-4–After stain is applied, it is time to coat the floor with a urethane finish. This material is the protective coat that protects the floor and makes it durable. Typically 2-3 coats of urethane are applied, and these coats take 12-24 hours to dry before the next coat can be applied. After the first coat and before the 2nd, the installer will usually install the base trim, either shoe molding or quarter round.

Finish is applied using a roller

This buffer abrades the surface in a circular motion. This will cause some swirling in the finished product.

At this point your floor should be done and look great!! Give the finish as much time to cure as possible and maybe be in just socks for the first few days.

When inspecting the floor at the end of the project, remember the things and have reasonable expectations.

1. There will be debris and dust in the floor. This is totally impossible to prevent in site finishing, but every attempt to limit this will be made. Of course there are different degrees of this, use your judgement and be reasonable.

2. There will be swirl marks from the buffer. It moves in a circular motion, this should be very limited and if it is very noticeable it is a bad job.

3. The boards will have some gaps between them. This is natural and is to be expected. Wood is always living and reacts to moisture.

4. There will be slight height differences at transition points. Every attempt will be made to make these areas flush, but sometimes special mill work may be required.

5. Baseboards will need some touch up paint and the house will need to be cleaned. Even with a dustless system there will still be some dust.

Enjoy, the dust has settled and we are all done!!

I hope you love your new floors!!

There are so many great color choices when it comes to hardwood flooring . Options will vary from natural wood to dark browns and black. There is a stain color that will work for all spaces and just remember these tips as you go through the process.

• Always have your floor finisher put sample options on the floor. It is important that you see your stain choice on the floor and wood itself.

These are the basic colors offered, but blending is a great way to go custom

• A custom blend is easy to do. If you can’t decide on one color have your finisher mix some different stains together for a custom look. You should not be charged extra for this. Special Walnut and Jacobean mixed 50/50 looks great!!

Great Special Walnut/ Jacobean blend on a 4″ White Oak

• Are you going to have a more traditional design, if so think about the colors Early American, Special Walnut and Gun-stock- these are all  really great looking and timeless.

• Dark wood is in!! 7 out of 10 of our new hardwood floors are dark and people love the look it offers. Some great colors are Dark Walnut, Royal Mahogany and Jacobean.

Variation is a great feature of your floor, stain will effect this aspect.

• Remember that scratches and dust  show extra with on darker stained floors. Maintenance is more difficult with darker colors.

Love my floors, but they are hard to keep looking good.

• Don’t be afraid of a semi-gloss finish. This will be more hard than a satin finish and will “dull” out over time.

Remember you don't have to stain the wood, sometimes the natural beauty is all you need.

• Use a premium stain, such as Minwax. You will also want to use a very high grade finish such as Polo-plaz.

Great look on a semi gloss floor, plus increased durability.

• A dark stain will need an extra day of finishing time to allow for the stain to really soak into the wood and no bleeding occurs through the finish.

Timeless and warm, the hearth is nice too!!

• When matching existing flooring, go a shade darker and this will make for a better match.

• Species of wood effects the way the floor will take stain—this goes back to having a sample made. Oak stained Gun-stock will appear much different than Walnut stained the same color.

This will go with any decor or style

• Be consistent and have one color—unless areas are separated visually, but even then I would recommend consistency.

As always try to make the color and floor be a reflection of you.

I was recently out shopping, and an idea hit me like a ton of bricks. If you’re looking to remodel your house and need design ideas, “just look around.”

Sound easy?  Well it is!!!

Ladies, have you seen floors like this when you been out shopping for a new outfit?

A great place to start getting ideas for designing your home is basically all around you. Places like restaurants, upscale hotels, shops in a mall or the mall open areas are filled with design ideas. Think about it for a second.

Many hotel lobbies use beautiful tile or stone patterns in their lobbies. Similar looks are quite popular in many custom homes.

Sure they are businesses driven with a purpose of selling a product or service. But businesses have to have an element of design to attract possible clientele. They want their area to be welcoming and comfortable so customers will be interested in coming in. It’s not just the product that brings in the customer, it is also the atmosphere.

Look how this restaurant used the hardwood in its design element to make the area comfortable for the customer.

From a flooring perspective, a lot of businesses have invested in mosaic tile designs or exotic hardwoods to furnish their space and make it feel like a home, or a home away from home. Designer carpets also are prevalent in these areas.

A majority office carpet patterns are available in residential carpet and go great in home office spaces.

Now these may or may not be the products you were considering for your home. But the key is that you can build off of ideas that you see in your everyday life. Maybe you see a color you like or a pattern of carpet or tile you like.

Larger spaces can show how beautiful pattern carpets can be in bonus and media rooms.

So next time you’re out running errands, or just going out for dinner, take a moment and gather in the atmosphere around you. You just never know how something is going to strike you and give you the best idea for you.