When You Don’t Love Your Floors

You guys, all know this is my dream home. We’ve worked hard on this little house of ours. There’s so much I LOVE! I love the dark woodwork, I love the layout, I love the fenced in yard where the kids and dog can run around, I love the crystal knobs on all our doors. I guess I’ve focused on all these things and tried to enhance our home the best I can, but there’s something I’m still not happy with: our floors. Well, I shouldn’t say that, MOST of our floors are original to the home and are in great shape BUT there are two rooms that I don’t like the floors. Namely the kitchen and our bedroom. Today, I’m going to chat about these areas of our home and doing something about them. I’m calling this:

When You Don’t Love Your Floors

This is our kitchen and I don’t like these floors! When I was at the Haven Conference in August I had the pleasure of chatting with Shaw Floors and I was so impressed by their flooring. I got to see and feel their veneer and their hardwoods and loved so many samples. I thought it would be fun to look at their site and see what might work for these two rooms in my home.

So that is my kitchen (above) as it is right now. Last January I painted the yellow walls gray and added stick on subway tiles which made a HUGE improvement to the room, but I still don’t love these floors and I’ll tell you why:

Why I don’t love my Current Kitchen Floors

• They are Rosewood and I would prefer a more neutral color without red undertones.
• These floors look great when first cleaned but then show up imperfections.
• Our dog’s feet scratch them.
• Watermarks show.

Here’s another angle of our kitchen:

See? You can see any tiny speck on the floor. With a very busy family, two messy boys and a husband and a dog, the floor often has something on it.

In our previous home we had tile in our kitchen and I loved it! It was so easy to look after. Splashes didn’t mark and mess (when there was some) wasn’t noticeable.

Well, I was checking out Shaw Floors’ tiles and fell in love with two different lines! I love herringbone flooring in older homes and thought this tile laid in this pattern would be amazing in our historic home:

This is Olympia Tile in Ash. You can see a close up detail here:

The Olympia Tile is glazed ceramic, but wouldn’t you swear it is wood? It looks so realistic! I love the veining and texture. On their site you can zoom in to see more details of the tile.

I also really liked the Napa Plank this is also tile made to look like wood. I really love the warm and rustic surface it creates. For this flooring Shaw Floors was inspired by the vineyard’s of Napa Valley and its wine barrels. The porcelain tile evokes hand hewn floors and oak used to store wine. The Napa Plank is available in three colors. For my kitchen I think I like this one, the Estate (but laid in a herringbone pattern).

Or the Vintage which is a little lighter.

Porcelain offers strength and durability and these would be so easy to clean. This type of tile can also be used outside or on walls too.

Which one do you like better for our kitchen?

Why I’d love these floors in my kitchen

• They look like rough hewn wood giving a more natural appearance than our current wood floors.
• Durability and strength – they won’t scratch like our current floor.
• The matte finish offers a more muted look than the shiny floors we currently have.
• Light wood hues would make our kitchen look lighter and brighter by reflecting light.
• Easy clean up of spills.

Let’s move upstairs shall we? Here’s our bedroom:

I took the above photo the day we moved in and the bottom two years later. You can see we have wall to wall carpeting in this room.

Here’s another look at the rug from a few months ago:

I’m so happy with the progress we’ve made in this room, since moving in we’ve updated furniture, hung new artwork, added natural woven blinds and Luke just built this bedside table click here to see that. After all of that, though, I’m still not happy with these floors.

Why I Don’t Love My Bedroom Floors

• The color. This brown is just not a nice color. It seems to absorb light and make the room feel smaller (even though the room is pretty large).
• Hard to keep clean – Poppy, our rescue dog, sometimes (okay, often), sleeps under our bed. She sheds like crazy under there. Not to mention she was sick the other day under the bed (sigh). Don’t worry she’s okay now though.

The original hardwood floor ends at the door because this room was a new addition probably done in the 1960s so there is no hardwood under the rug. For this room, I’d love to replace the rug with Shaw Floors hardwood or Waterproof Vinyl.

I really love the Argonne Forest Oak in Drawbridge.

These wide planks look so rich! They are 7 1/2 inches wide and love the graining detail. The finish also has a European oil rubbed look to it which you all know I love! This flooring is engineered wood with DuraShield.

Shaw Floors also offers waterproof vinyl floors that looks so realistic! Wouldn’t you swear this was reclaimed barnwood?

It’s not! It’s embossed vinyl that is extremely durable. It has a 15 year warrantee and it won’t stain, wear through or fade. This is World’s Fair 12 MIL in Brisbane but it comes in 12 different colors. Their luxury vinyl is waterproof (which I like for the dog and kids) but you can also use it in high moisture areas like basements and bathrooms.

Why I’d love these Floors in Our Bedroom

• Both the engineered floors and vinyl would be easier to keep clean with Poppy’s hair.
• They would be more durable if she’s sick or has an accident on the floor.
• Both would add so much more warmth and texture with the look of rustic wood grain.

I’m so impressed by all that Shaw Floors offers. As you saw above they have tile & stone, hardwood, vinyl but they also offer LifeGuard Waterproof carpeting perfect for family rooms where spills can and will occur. They also offer Cut-a-Rug – the customer decides on rug, binding, size and shape and you can create a fully customized rug to your own design and specifications.

If your looking for more design inspiration then check out there inspiration page full of beautiful interior photography, close ups of flooring and pin-worthy inspiration.

We spend so much time on our floors – playing Lego and board games, reading, dancing, cooking, wrestling with our kids, giving belly rubs to the dog that we should really love them. They should be comfortable and easy to care for. They should be pleasing to the eye and durable. This is why I think you’ll love Shaw Floors. I would love to replace my kitchen and bedroom flooring with Shaw Floors.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Shaw Floors. The opinions and text are all mine.