3 different flooring materials throughout the house?

12 years ago

I have a question regarding flooring options. Will it be odd that we have 3 different materials throughout the house?

Our main floor (living areas and hallways) will be 3 1/4 (Cape Cod Gray) Maple. The top floors hallways will be 3 1/4 (Cape Cod Gray) Red Oak. The staircase will be the builders standard red oak but stained to match. The bedrooms will come with carpet but we plan to replace them once we get possession of the house. We decided to upgrade the bedroom flooring after because it would be expensive to do it through the builder. There are 5x rooms measuring 12x12

The question is, what should be put in the bedrooms? Should we go with the same Red Oak Cape Cod hardwood? or our other option is maybe a different color larger plank 5"+ laminate to compliment?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (5)

JJ
Original Author
12 years ago
Here is the example of the hardwood - has both the red oak and maple

http://www.pgmodel.com/collections/model-classic/CC/ER/
Carol Singletary
12 years ago
I am no pro, but if having different flooring in different rooms is wrong, then I don't want to be right!

Seriously, my upstairs is old yellow pine, my downstairs is mostly old oak, but my kitchen is cork and my bathrooms are tile.

Put what you like in the bedrooms. You may want something that unifies the entire house (trim/moldings for one) but I don't think it has to be the flooring.
JJ thanked Carol Singletary
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JJ
Original Author
12 years ago
I'm not a huge fan of red oak. I would have picked maple throughout the entire house but the stairs from the builder only came with red oak unfortunately.

The compromise was maple on the main floor so the transition to the staircase wouldn't be as bad. All the stairs landings would be red oak as well, so once you reached the top floors, it would transition to red oak again.
PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
12 years ago
It is always best (resale wise) to have the same flooring used throughout a "level". That is to say the "upstairs" should be in the same as the hallway. The one way out of this is "different material" such as carpet...which is what you are getting rid of in the first place.

Even though it sounds like you have three different materials, you only have 1 look = Cape Cod Gray. Be aware the Maple and the Oak will take the stain differently...but the "look" should remain the same.

Kitchens and baths are considered "outside" the "Single Flooring choice" rule. Carol's description for 2 different floors plus kitchen/bath being different is very common and is considered "the norm" or very acceptable to N. American tastes.
JJ thanked Cancork Floor Inc.
aFloridianInTheDeepSouth
12 years ago
It all depends on the flow of and size of your floorplan. You don't want a patchwork look, and the above advise sounds good, but there will be exceptions to the norm. In my place I have three different floor surfaces but they worked out great because they where each naturally sectioned off within the floor plan. It had also with proportions. So consider that and try to picture your different options. It sound like you have that "Cape Cod Gray" color in the hallway leading to the bedrooms, so maybe use that color and consider how the different grains will look with the hallway. Is the hallway large or small? Maybe the same grain as the hallway if they are connected. Just some thoughts to consider.
JJ thanked aFloridianInTheDeepSouth