We have lived in our flat for 14 years and it has undergone a few transformations in that time - but again I feel we are in the need of some serious property refurbishment.
One of the first things we did when we moved in was pull up the green carpets - there was nothing wrong with them really but we wanted a minimalist style that was easy to keep clean - something straight out of an Ikea catalogue. Both of us worked full-time so we had the money to spend on decorating - we laid light beech coloured laminate wood flooring and it looked amazing at the time.
Fast forward 11 years we now have two adults, three kids, four cats and a dog - let's just say nothing lasts very long anymore.
Whilst our daughters were young toddlers we decided to change the beech laminate floor and put a super gloss laminate flooring down, a dark cherry wood to be specific and we were delighted with the end result, it was very easy to clean and it looks super awesome when the sun was reflected in it. The fact that you can sweep the floor and mop it is great - especially with kids indoors.
This prompted us to get laminate flooring throughout our flat but being that we never have any spare cash we used second hand laminate boards from freecycle sites so we can honestly say that we have experienced a lot of different qualities in flooring, and believe me, when installing yourself it really does make a difference.
Having beautiful wooden floors make such an impact, not only on the appearance of your home, but you will notice that certain odours are no longer present either like smelly pets and damp carpets. It's great for spillages too - no worrying about getting stains out either. I'll never forget the day I accidentally knocked a table and spilt mulled wine over my friend's brand new cream carpet. She was not impressed.
Over the last 10 years our cherry laminate flooring has taken a bit of a beating - we have had some water damage via a leak from our bathroom and also there are the odd scratch marks where furniture has been moved about. I would always advise that people invest in the best product you can afford - as the old saying goes, "buy cheap, buy twice" and we can verify this after too many times we have been caught out by ill fitting boards, warping boards and even ones that were supposedly from the same batch but actually were completely a different style of wood let alone colours.
Our plans for the future will be to have solid wood flooring throughout - no this picture below isn't our house, but I can dream can't I? Having gone for a dark floor last time I would also go for a light wood or even a grey tone next time round.
Do you prefer carpets or wooden flooring?