Need (very OT) advice

[Jan in SC]

We had hardwoods installed in the hallway going to the bedrooms of our house. Now we have a major decision--- do we continue the hardwoods into the bedrooms? or...put new carpet in the bedrooms?

 

Help!! I can't decide! Part of the hall flows into one of the bedroom, so I have to decide quickly. (The guy will be here in 3 hours!!)

 

Does it looks weird to have the hardwoods in the hall and carpet in the bedrooms off of the hall?

 

THANKS!!

[Tess in the Burbs]

my mom has hardwoods in everywhere except the bedrooms and it looks fine. We have allergies really bad so if I could I would put hardwoods down in every room!! but it's your choice. would look fine either way

[atozmom]

My parents also have hardwoods everywhere except the bedrooms. It looks just fine. So it is really a matter of preference. But I agree with pp as we have allergy issues as well, I would go with hardwoods in the bedrooms too.

[RoughCollie]

I don't think it looks bad. In our house, we had hardwood hallways and carpeted bedrooms. There were thresholds that separated the wood floor from the carpeted areas, and bedroom doors that closed over the thresholds.

 

We had a large space that opened at the end of our 2nd floor hallway which used to be a bedroom. The house had had an addition and the added bedrooms were reached by walking through this space.

 

The space's floor was a hardwood one, as was the adjoining hall. I put an area rug there because we used the space as an upstairs play room. I had planned replace the wood floor with Marmoleum in that space, but we moved.

 

I prefer wood, cork, or linoleum floor coverings because they are easier to keep clean and allergen-free. Cleanliness is especially a factor in high-traffic areas, IMO. In bedrooms, I just go with whatever the bedroom-dweller wants, even though the pictures I've seen of dust mites kind of freak me out.

 

There are plenty of pictures online of space that is used in different ways having different flooring. For example, houses in which the kitchen, dining room and living room are essentially in one big area. The different flooring delineates the areas and there is a threshold, or whatever it is called, which separates the different flooring.

 

This is a good resource for questions and pictures:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/

Edited January 18, 2010 by RoughCollie

[KidsHappen]

We have hardwoods on the first floor and my hubby's office and one of the bedrooms has carpet. It looks fine. There are wooden threshholds at the doorways. I am not terribly fond of carpet but I do prefer it in bedrooms. It's just more comfy for lounging. Generally speaking it is easier to keep bedroom carpet clean as there is less general traffic and no food and drink.

[Aggie]

We had hardwoods up to our bedrooms, then ripped out the carpet and installed hardwoods in the bedrooms (for allergies).

 

I bought area rugs for the kids' rooms so they could play on the floor, but I could throw the rugs away if/when needed.

[hornblower]

We ripped up the carpet in our hall & put down laminate but the bedrooms still have wall to wall. You use a special transition piece on the threshhold & it's right under the door. If it's done right, when the door is closed, you don't see the floor surface on the other side of the door. We have a transition piece with the bathroom off the hall too - that floor is tile.

 

Even with dogs & cats and allergies, I really like wall to wall carpet - esp in bedrooms. I find it cozier, quieter, nicer to walk on.

 

(our bedrooms all have original hardwood under the wall to wall & there are a couple people agitating to have the carpet removed & the floors refinished, but I'm holding out!)

 

BTW, even if you did put in flooring into the bedrooms, you'd still need transition pieces over the threshold because usually the direction the planks are laid out changes + you need expansion joins when you go from room to room.

 

So go with what you like, but I personally really like carpet in bedrooms.

 

Actually I'd consider carpet everywhere (except bathrooms! :ack2:; we had carpet by the toilet in the ensuite when we moved in......)

 

I'm not really feeling the love for floors.......

[mom4him]

We have hardwood everywhere in our first floor except the bathrooms. I love it and would have it down stairs if I could. We are in the process of putting down cer. tile in the lower level but I far prefer the hardwood.

Personally I HATE HATE HATE carpet. It is a major dirt/germ collecter nor matter how good a house keeper you are. We do have a skatter rug by each bed so when you get up the first thing you feel isn't cold but other than that we are hard surface people.

The hard wood is so easy and fast to keep up. When I go through with a dust mop I can do all our upstairs hardwoods in the time it would take to vacuum one room of carpet.

[ChristusG]

We're looking into getting wood laminate floors in the future. We'll be putting it everywhere but the bedrooms. I like that look. However, I have really bad alleriges so I'm wondering if we shouldn't put it everywhere. But then again, I do not like the look of it and plus, our cost would really go up.

[SproutMamaK]

For me it woudl depend who's going in the bedrooms. We tried hardwood in our boy's bedroom once. Our boys are, shall we say, excitable. And apparently, hardwood = echo. In a small enclosed space... that was a BAD idea. They now have carpet for sound-dampening. Plus, their furniture moved around a lot thanks to their style of playing (see how diplomatically I worded that?), so they floors got scratched. For a small kid's room, I'd go with carpet. For a teen or adult, I'd do hardwood.

[Jan in SC]

Thanks for all of the advice! I'm leaning towards the hardwood, but it is about 2&1/2 times the cost of carpet, so I keep having little anxiety issues about it.