I need help with floor transitions!

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

My husband and I recently purchased a home and it has hardwood floors on the main level (yay!) ... everywhere except the very open living room (nooooo!). We haven’t moved in yet and I’d like to replace the old carpet in the living room before we do. I’m not a fan of carpet because we have kids and pets.

The problem is that I’m at a loss as to what type of flooring to do so that the transition looks good. I originally thought we could do a large tile pattern laid diagonally to make it clear we did a different floor “on purpose“, but all the pictures I see of living rooms done in tile when the rest of the house is wood look odd. Then I thought - hey, maybe I can find the exact wood that’s in the rest of the house and put it in the living room! I did find it, but the problem is that the wood in the house has been there for 10+ years and is very sun faded, so it wouldn’t match. Then I thought about doing a different color wood that is clearly contrasting and laying it in the opposite direction (again, to seem purposeful), but all the pictures I see of contrasting wood (light meeting dark) make me cringe! Maybe I just haven’t found the right contrast color yet.

Any ideas? Pictures are included. Unfortunately replacing all of the wood is not an option - it would be over $20K, and we have several other home improvement projects that come first.

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Comments (3)

PRO
Brickwood Builders, Inc.
6 years ago
Are you sure that the existing floor is prefinished instead of site finished? If it is site finished, then you just install unfinished oak flooring and then have it stained to match. Use a perpendicular transition piece between the rooms.
PRO
Brickwood Builders, Inc.
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
If your floor is a prefinished floor, I think I would do something like the attached. A border of a color that blends but is darker and have the center of the flooring in the new room installed as unfinished. They can finish it on site to match the existing adjacent floors. I would keep the flooring running in the same direction as the other rooms.
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miss lindsey (She/Her)
6 years ago
To my eye two different wood floors as shown above always looks like an addition or an afterthought.

"the problem is that the wood in the house has been there for 10+ years and is very sun faded"

This isn't a problem! This is a great opportunity to redo your floors, since that will need to happen soon anyway. :-)

Lay new flooring in the living room (of the same species as the rest of the house) and stain it whatever colour you want. Either refinish the rest of the house at the same time, or if your budget doesn't allow for that plan to do it in a couple of years. It will still be possible to match the new living room floor at that point. Alternatively you could endure the carpet until you can afford to do the whole house.

You might have to live with a mismatch for a while, but in my opinion that is better than planning for a mismatch! Especially considering your floor is nearly ready to be redone.