SO - I'm turning to you - I need suggestions and help deciding what to do. Here are the 'before' pictures... before we've decided, bought, or done anything.
Let me tell you a little about our dining room, now that you're looking at it...First - the flooring. This is the bain of my existence. Well, maybe not really, but I really, really hate it. It's a commercial grade, super-low pile carpet. I hate it. First, you should not have carpet in the dining room (IMO), especially with kids. Second, you should not put 'office' carpet in your house.
Second - you can see we have a lot of wood stuff... the dining room table and the china cabinet are both very dark (as is the shelf on the wall and the mirror in the hall that you can't see). We 'inherited' this stuff with the house basically. Then, all the wood doors - to the office, the bedrooms, the bathroom, the closets, and the laundry area.
So, what do you think we should do? Mainly about the floors, but if you have other suggestions, I would welcome them. I have a huge list of projects, but they're just not getting done right now.
Not to sway you in any way, but I've been thinking about a higher quality, medium colored wood-looking laminate (the snap together kind) that would run throughout most of the house - the entry way, the dining room, the kitchen, the hallway and perhaps the bathrooms (we can't agree on this). What I'm worried about is whether this will be a crazy overload of wood in the dining room. I've thought about maybe painting some/all of the doors when we repaint if it's too much wood. I need other people's suggestions.
This is our 'beautiful' bathroom (ignore our clutter). MAN you can tell our house was built in the 70's.
Ok, notice the super dark cabinet under the sink? What do we do about them? And the counter top is this white-ish with yellow flecks in it... The yellow matches the yellow tile in the shower. Beautiful, eh?
That weird half of a shower curtain is there b/c there is actually a window in the shower... that is not frosted or anything. I realize the shower curtain and the valence (which we didn't have anything to do with, FYI) may be the the ugliest ever.
Oh, I almost forgot... the floors in here are actually the commercial carpet too!!!!! AAACCCCKKK. Aaron and I can't agree whether the flooring that runs throughout the rest of the house should be the same as in the bathrooms. (Personally, I think it should, he thinks it should be tile-looking.)
I guess I should say that I'm looking for 'big' change ideas (your opinion on the floors, etc), but I'm also looking for little, quick ideas that would help in changing the rooms and updating them. Like I said, I have a ton of ideas... my 'to do home project list' is quite lengthy, but I want all of your takes on them too. THANKS!
So, you cute, crafty, home-decorating friends of mine - what do I do? I need ALL your suggestions!
5 comments:
We just finished laying engineered wood floorng throughout the whole basement. It was a lot of work, but if you want, I can send pictures. This wood is about 3/4" real wood on the top, so it is real wood, but not solid all the way through, so it is much cheaper. The engineered part is also wood, but it is layered to make the pieces thick and sturdy. They snap or "lock" together (even though my dad will tell you snapping them together was not as easy as they say!)Ours is a floating floor (not nailed or glued down) since it is in the basement on concrete, but you should be able to do something like that and have it actually attached to the floor. We thought it may be too dark and make the room dark, but now that it's finished (as of today, YAY!) it's beautiful. It doesn't look like too much at all. I wouldn't suggest it for a bathroom though, since the moisture may make it warp or so. I think tile, or if you have a smaller budget, a laminate tile-looking material is probably the best. I know you can even get the laminate stuff that has anti-bacterial treatment for bathrooms, so the bacteria doesn't grow like it can between grout in tile. For your dark wood vanity, you maybe could take off the doors and sand them, and see if the dark is the actual wood or just a stain. If it's just a stain, then you could sand it down and restain it and make it lighter. Ok, sorry, this is terribly long! I'll send you a picture of our floor though so you can see what a "locking" engineered wood floor might look like. Hope that helped!
I would agree with thte lasst comment. You shouldn't use the laminate or locking stuff in the rooms that has a lot of water. I was told not to use it in the kitchen either. We have laminate wood in the living room and the dining room. We had to change out our White carpet because with all the kids it just got gross! Anyway I am soo not a decorator so that is all the advise I can give but I will make sure that Michelle see's this because is so much better at this kind of stuff. Good Luck with you decorations.
Thanks - I am planning on sanding the terrible dark cupboard and seeing what we can do with it. I also was thinking of painting in the bthrm with a pale yellow and some other color theme. I was thinking flowers or something since it's the "girls" bathroom, but dh wasn't thrilled w/that idea. I think we're also going to try to change or replace the existing light fixture in there. Now, to decide on flooring.... the big decision that I just can't seem to make.
We used the same wood flooring that Rachal there at the top is talking about and we like the way it looks, however, if I were to ever do it again I would save the money and go with all wood flooring. My sister-in-law went to a surplus flooring store and was able to do her living room for a fairly good price. She used what was called a "honey oak" color. It has those light and darker colors in it and looks very nice with her different toned wood furniture. I also have to agree with Rachel about the bathroom cabinet I would definately sand that baby down and use a stain that would match better with the cabinet and toilet seat, but that's just me. :) Yep, a pale yellow or green would look very nice in the bathroom. I hope this helps.
Michelle Huguley
I think the only reason we buy homes to is to make long to-do lists...or so it seems at our house. lol
Go tile in the bathroom, you really don't want wood floors in a kitchen or bathroom, too much chance of it warping because of all the moisture.
We have a window in our shower and I can't believe someone ever thought that was a good idea. If we end up staying in this house, I would like to redo the bathroom and we will be putting (heavily) frosted glass blocks in the window spot. As for the dark cabinet, I agree with other posts - try to sand it and stain it close to the other woods, or just paint it a solid color. A closed shower curtain would hide the yellow shower tile, so you could kinda go any color...
I love the idea of bamboo floors. You should ask Leslie Kingrey (who is an interior designer, btw) about the floors in her kitchen in their Little Rock house they just sold. I don't remember what she said it was, but I remember that it was eco-friendly and GORGEOUS! I think it was a bamboo type something. But we have wood and I really like my wood floors. I think painting the doors would be cool, especially once you decide what color you want to repaint the walls.
I hope my comments don't sound bossy. :o/ I hate it when I do that...
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