Flooring help

[Quiver0f10]

Our dining room borders the entrance/ hallway of our house. The hall has kind of dark wood parquet flooring and right now the dining has carpet. We want to replace the carpet with laminate flooring that looks like oak.

 

Now I am not sure sure this is going to work? We plan to put a floor divider strip ( can't think of the name) between rooms but I am trying to imagine what this is going to look like with two different floor styles.

 

We rent so puting new flooring in the hallway too is not an option. The only reason we are doing the dining is it's carpet and well with 10 kids, 2 dogs and 3 cats, let's just say carpet isn't working for us. :D

[Brigitte]

I think if you match the wood colors it will look okay. I would put down a wide (as opposed to the usual skinny) strip of wood over the threshold to ease the transition between the two styles.

 

Have you thought about putting down parquet in the dining room? I don't think parquet is very expensive and might be easier to install than the laminate.

[Sue G in PA]

Hey Jean. We are sort of in the same boat...except we don't rent. We can't afford to do laminate in our living room, hall and dining room/kitchen although we would really like to. Our kitchen has a vinyl floor in a brick-like pattern. It really does look like bricks. Blech. The living room had carpet and we ripped it up b/c it was disgusting. Hall still has carpet. So, we are putting down laminate in the living room only. It will likely look ridiculous, but at least we will have a floor! I would just go ahead and do it. Worry about appearances later, kwim? In a perfect world, our houses could all look like showcase homes but reality is what it is!

[Quiver0f10]

I would just go ahead and do it. Worry about appearances later, kwim? In a perfect world, our houses could all look like showcase homes but reality is what it is!

 

The problem is this is not my house. We don't ever intend on buying it so it does need to look nice for when we leave.

[The Governess]

If you aren't planning on matching the colors I would make sure that you get the trim pieces that go with the laminate you choose, so it looks like an extension of that flooring (rather than use a trim that doesn't perfectly match either flooring). I think if you are going to have two different colors of wood, it looks better to have a lot of contrast (one dark and one light) than just a little bit of contrast. You want it to look like you were trying to create the contrast rather than hope no one notices.

 

I would bring some samples home and see which wood color best complements the dark wood color that is in the hallway, and go from there. :001_smile: