Hardwood floors & Laminates

[KimWDW]

We have a hardwood floor in our dining room and vinyl in our kitchen & hallway. I want to update the kitchen & hallway with laminate hardwood (Pergo), but can't decide between two different options.

1) refinish dining room hardwoods to a color close enough to the new laminate hardwoods in the kitchen
or
2) cover the hardwoods in the dining room with the same laminate as the kitchen so they all match

I know #2 is a mortal sin to hardwood lovers, but I'm scared that if I keep the hardwood in one room and have new laminate hardwood in the other room that it will look stupid because it's not going to completely match. The rooms meet, but only in an open doorway. What do you think?

Also, how nasty is it when a hardwood gets refinished? How long does the smell last for and how dusty does it get in the house?

 

[scubamouse]

how about shag carpeting?

seriously though, if you redo your floors, do that before you do any paint since there is a lot of dust when you refinish the floors

 

[KimWDW]

Hey M. don't you have a picture of Tom Friedman to fantasize over or something?

You're stalking me! LOL!

PS - that is the cutest pic of the kiddos!!!!

 

[scubamouse]

stumbling onto and stalking are two different things ya know

thanks - that was our Christmas card shot

 

[Tigger&Belle]

We have hardwood in our foyer and want to eventually extend that into our living and fining rooms (money permitting...). We had vinyl in our kitchen and wanted to put laminate in the kitchen, so we put a tile laminate floor--Manninton. It looks very much like tile and has some texture to it. We chose a color that looked nice with the color of the wood, but didn't have to worry about a match so if we ever do extend the wood floor it will look nice.

 

[KimWDW]

We had vinyl in our kitchen and wanted to put laminate in the kitchen, so we put a tile laminate floor--Manninton. It looks very much like tile and has some texture to it. We chose a color that looked nice with the color of the wood, but didn't have to worry about a match so if we ever do extend the wood floor it will look nice.

A guy that came to do an estimate said our kitchen was calling out for the laminate tile. I hadn't even thought of it. It would eliminate the "matching the dining room" problem. Would it look ok in a hallway in addition to a kitchen?

 

[Tigger&Belle]

A guy that came to do an estimate said our kitchen was calling out for the laminate tile. I hadn't even thought of it. It would eliminate the "matching the dining room" problem. Would it look ok in a hallway in addition to a kitchen?

I would sure think so. I think ours is Brazilian Stone (style) Summer Straw (color) that we chose, but I didn't look it up--that's looking on their website and I think that it would look nice in a hallway area, but a lot of that would depend on your house, how formal, etc. What did they guy who did the estimate think about putting it in the hallway? We have ours in a very large area--laundry, breakfast area, kitchen, which extends into a wet bar area to the base of stairs and the dining room. It can't be seen from the front door really, but it can from a "formal room" (butts to the dining room), not that we're exactly stuffy people (whatever they would look like ), but it looks good. A WAY lot better than the terrible vinyl that we had (ours was pulling up and in bad shape).

 

[golfgal]

I wouldn't try to match laminate to real wood. While you might get close, it isn't going to look very good. The price difference for laminate and real wood isn't that much IF you have someone install them. If you are going to install the laminate yourself, then it would be a lot less expensive.

I would either try to find a wood laminate that is far enough away from the dining room so it compliments that room or go with the tile laminate. We were looking at the same tile laminate Tigger and Belle was, the Summer Straw. It looks great in person. We ended up just going with all hardwood instead though.

 

[Galahad]

Remember that most laminates should not be allowed to get wet. Might be a problem in a kitchen

 

[Cantw8]

I just wanted to say that the carpet should always match the drapes

 

[JayCT]

Why not put hardwood in your kitchen that matches your dinning room? you will never get the laminate to match to hardwood and it will look odd (IMHO) if the floors are different. You are right that #2 is a sin. Laminates are nice but nothing beats hardwood. When you see a house for sale, does it advertise laminate floors? No, but they defintely advertise hardwood. There is a good reason for that. JMHO Jay

 

[ncbyrne]

You'll never be able to duplicate a match. And don't cover the hardwood! Hardwood floors last forever with minimal care. Laminate doesn't last forever. I know.