I can't stand carpet so you can guess my suggestion:) wood floor throughout the house. If you want something soft, you can always have a rug or small rugs on the side of the bed.

The first thing I did when I bought my current house, before I would move in, is rip out all the carpet on the second floor and put down hardwood.

We replaced the carpet in our bedroom with wood, and love it!!!! I will never have carpet again!

Hardwood throughout and then a large area rug for toe/foot comfort if you feel you need it. Hardwoods are quite warm. They have a quick "cool" sensation but then they warm quickly under foot. That's what makes them a semi-conductor. They are semi insulating and semi conducting (the quick "cool" sensation is the 'conducting' and then the warm sensation is the insulating).

Wood is much more valuable flooring option than carpet. Area rugs can meet your needs if you need them to.

I saw this thread and I had the same question (and a dog too). Are people installing solid hardwood or laminate?

We yanked up carpet when we moved in and couldn't believe the filth. Never again.

Hardwood! We have it in all the bedrooms and love it. For that first step out of bed, we have a few small rugs. Plus, it's much easier to clean, even under the bed. Dust bunnies have no where to hide. We have pets and it hasn't been a problem.

another vote for hardwood, carpet is your house's filter and it is disgusting. our 12 year old has breathing issues and would snore at night, once we got rid of the carpet, no snoring, he's a different kid with better sleep!! A lot of hardwood can be installed over radiant heat. I personally love the feel of oil finished hardwood

Dissenting opinion here. I hate hardwood in bedrooms. Area rugs in bedrooms are a pain and, if you have a "normal" sized room and not the palatial Houzz rooms, the rug always looks the wrong size for the room. And I don't get the difference between wall-to-wall and area rugs that take up practically the whole room anyhow. Pond-hopping from rug to rug using smaller rugs doesn't work, either. Toes get froze. We have carpet only in bedrooms and hardwood or tile in the rest of the rooms, and you can ask hubby how cold my feet are if I walk barefoot on hardwood. They don't get warm after a minute, as another poster suggested. Also with little ones, carpet is much easier for lying and rolling and crawling on. Our elderly kitty will only play in our carpeted rooms - hardwood is too hard on the old bones and joints. Mostly, I like soft to walk around at bed, after shower, etc., and don't want to hop from rug to rug. Just not the same. This is very much a personal preference issue, I think.

@carlisa, depends on budget, house, and neighborhood. For example, a dear friend and hubby replaced all carpet (destroyed by ex's cats) and put in laminate. It's a starter-quality house and real wood would have been over-improving given the house and neighborhood and their timeline for hopefully moving up in house. DBro and DSIL, on the other hand, have a larger house in a more expensive area and put in real wood.

I grew up with hardwood in our bedrooms, so I like that. My husband doesn't. So we have nice soft carpet in the bedrooms and wood floors every where else(except bathrooms, laundry room and mud room which have tile.)

I think it's a personal opinion of someone's comfort level. My design firm is in Florida and we mostly do engineered and laminates instead of real wood. You get the same look and it is much less expensive. I actually just did a laminate right over oorcelain tiles. Alot of my clients like plush carpeting in their bedroom. They feel it is cozier and more romantic!

The advantages to hardwoods are these: A unified flooring on a second floor, allowing individual area rugs, generous in size for each room, without creating the much dreaded patchwork effect. Also an easy change when a room gets get grungy, less expensive than rip outs and replacements, and far less disruptive.. How many times have I needed to replace one room, and the carpet has long since been discontinued, ir the dye lot significantly "off"?. Resale is also an advantage, nobody really wants wall to wall carpeting, allergies just one of the issues which are many. They certainly don't want yours, no matter how clean. Another plus is children's rooms, age and gender differences are simple to solve decoratively/inexpensively, and crawling on an appropriately, nearly room sized area rug with pad, is no different than crawling on a wall to wall broadloom. Rare is the broadloom carpet today, that you want kids barfing or crafting on, as virtually all the very lovely carpets are wool $$$$. Many of those become very affordable in room sized area rugs, but would be out of reach in rooms edge to edge, especially those requiring a seam. Carpet mills have recognized very well, the trend to hardwood. Thus, the basics have been relegated to the back burner of boredom, the nylon category has suffered most, and patterns abound in lush wool as well as in earthy, organic, chunky textures! All these, meant to be considered as custom bound area rugs in virtually any size! The entire broadloom industry would be in total free fall if not for that "adjustment" to mirror current tastes in flooring which are most definitely hardwood. As to frozen toes, for heavens sake buy some slippers or make the area rugs large enough!! There is virtually no argument against hardwood , and a great many against wall to wall in almost any time frame. The bedrooms are the dustiest rooms in the house, ( dust is mostly skin!! ) and it is virtually impossible to maintain carpet without developing significant traffic grunge in the obvious areas, paths to baths, closets etc.....without several times a week vacuuming, and that is a rare occurrence indeed.

Engineered v. solid hardwood really depends on the value of the house and what's typical in the area, as was said. Mine are solid oak, which makes sense for a brick Victorian surrounded by other old houses. Engineered wood would be a liability here. My sisters are engineered, which makes sense for a new home in a subdivision where exactly 0 of the houses were built with solid hardwood. If she'd paid for solid, she would never recover the cost when she sold.

I love carpet! I love how it feels to walk on it and to me, it's so much warmer and much more comfortable to walk on, especially getting out of bed on a cold winter day! It also helps muffle the sounds of people walking across it unlike wood floors. When you buy a very good quality carpet, you do not see a path in the carpet!

Another minority vote here for carpet in bedrooms only, assuming allergies not a factor. I just love the softness under my feet. I vacuum frequently and shampoo carpet in master bedroom about once every 3 months.

Huge fan of carpet in bedrooms. We are building a new home and plan to put carpet in our bedrooms and our basement recroom. It feels soft and cozy to us.

Does anyone realize your "soft squishy toes on soft squishy carpet" can be an area rug with a pad? When I say area rug, I mean a thing leaving a perimeter of wood no more than 9 to 15 inches of the hard surface? Now......you may think that's totally insane. But the "soft" in your rug is also the carpets' built in obsolescence and you may NOT think I am quite so completely insane, when faced with the tear out and replacement of several rooms at the same time.

In fact, having master minded these upstair replacements for clients who want to be "away!!!!" for the entire rip out project?/ I have now refused to do it/monitor it/ arrange it/ supervise all the clutter removal lamp removal, (and don't get me started on kids rooms), floor of the closet clean out/ furniture moving, bed put back togethers and ALL!!!! . Because due to the nature of the soft and fuzzy thing 'neath your feet, this happens before you know it.......particularly with children and pets in the home. And it is as large a pain in the rear end as MOVING!!! Done, I know you're all happy for that : ) lol

Jan we have three kids and a golden retriever. No issues with carpet.

Carpeting for bedrooms is my choice. Why spend so much money on hardwood only to cover them up with area rugs? And one area rug is never enough. What you end up having is various area rugs with peeks of hardwood. Carpeting is warmer and more inviting in a bedroom.

The great benefit about hardwood is if it is installed correctly and is well maintained hardwood can last a lifetime. That's a huge advantage for any homeowner and a very good value to a home. Yes the properties of carpet and hardwood flooring are much different but you will find that hardwood flooring has some major benefits upon being installed.