In a word "YES" not everybody likes hard floors. If people weren't doing it the mills would all be out of business.

Well it's the carpet mills vs. the lumber mills.

It seems like they are both busy. ;-)

Yes, your're right, hardwood floors do require rugs!

All wood floors (except the bathrooms). Instead of lounging in front of the TV, how about for the kids to be reading.

Ed--All three of my kids have earned the top accelerated reader spot in our very demanding school. School record has been shattered by each one! (They compete with one another !) Our kids get 2-3 hours of screen time each week. I defy anyone to find that in this day and age in most American homes! Sorry to rant...I know this is a design blog. Pertinently, I designed two bench seat style reading nooks adjacent to a fireplace, and we have another window seat on our second floor that our kids will spend a tremendous amount of time in when our home is renovated. When they are allowed screen time, we try to spend time together as a family watching a movie and many times they will lie down on the floor in front of the couch. It just feels comforting to feel joy of plush carpeting beneath your feet after we all work hard all week. Thank you Interiors International, Inc. for chiming in with another point of view.

Then get the carpet who care what others think.

Well, if its really cold and summers are cool to warm, I am talking Scotland here, I would go for carpet. I have three teenage boys, two German Shepherd dogs and a husband, who likes nothing better than to spend time on his motorbike. I have a 80% wool 20% nylon pale beige carpet and its been down for over a year, still spotless.

It is personal taste- if you like carpet go for it. Yes, wood floors are gorgeous, but the new carpets are wonderful. Another option- see image below- you could put the carpet where you need and have wood elsewhere- like the hallway, dining room etc.

If given a choice, I'll take hardwood with good area rugs any day of the week. I'm fickle ;-) and like to change the look of my rug from time to time. For me too, it's a clean factor. When you pull up a rug and pad that have been there for a number of years and see what's underneath, it ain't pretty.

My vote would be hardwood, beautiful area rugs and ginormous bean bags for the kids that they can lounge in to read OR watch TV!

Next house ALL WOOD FLOORS, we did carpet in the Family Room and Bedrooms because if the "kid" argument! I wish we had wood in every room! you can always do plush area rugs for the "rug rats"!

You could also try cork flooring in the family room.

I have wood everywhere ... but the bedrooms. For me, I like the coziness of w2w in the bedrooms. DO you what you like: it is your house.

donkey2, That's great! Congrats! :)

That's an interesting observation from a corner we don't hear from often, soozmacrae, in Scotland. Thanks for adding a different point of view, sooz!

@donkey2, thanks so much for letting us know that there are families out there whose lives are not built around TV watching, tho they occasionally find it fun!

I vote for hardwood and a plush rug.

Hi all! I vote for wood plus rugs though I do like Kelly's idea too.

Lyvonne
www.essentialsinside.com

One last thing to consider donkey - I took a look at your ideabook. It looks like you're really drawn to the idea of area rugs!

Hardwood with area rugs. Carpet is tough for allergies and with carpet, even though it looks spotlessly clean, it isn't.

What did you end up doing, wood or carpet? I have the same dilemma right now. The bid for the floors was 20,000, carpet would probably be half that. We have carpet now, and allergies, and pet evidence.

We did wood floors everywhere but the living room. Love to spend the weekends with the softness under our feet. Only regret is that we adopted a rescue dog that isn't house trained and the carpet is not cleaning up as well as I would like but we are happy.

I am remodeling my old house and I thought I wanted hardwood with area rugs, because I have dogs, but now I'm wondering if wall-to-wall carpet might be better. I am getting older and occasionally have falls. I worry that the area rugs and slicker hardwood floors might cause me to fall more often.

I just redid my house with all carpet- but I will admit that they sellers and layers both acted like I was putting down a fluorescent green floor (it was beige, they just thought i should have at least SOME areas in hardwood/LVT)

I'm struggling with flooring decisions too. We love the cozy, quiet softness of our wall-to-wall carpet and will definitely be keeping it in the living room and bedrooms. In the kitchen, we will be installing luxury vinyl plank. My dilemma is whether to continue the LVP into the den and hallway. I am only considering it because it would flow better and look much more up to date. However, I don't like cold, hard, noisy floors so I would probably really miss the carpet. I realize that rugs can be used over LVP but they're expensive and I'm afraid the rugs would become a tripping hazard. Rugs also don't have padding so they are still hard. I wish I didn't have to choose between beauty and comfort. If we could afford it, I might put in carpet for now but purchase enough extra LVP to do the den and hallway later (in case we decide to sell).

I have my bedroom carpeted. I live in a condo building so I need it to tamp down any noise.