Hardwood Floor Design Ideas

The Globe and Mail

When my husband and I started talking to friends and family about our plans to renovate our kitchen, what we mostly heard were warnings: “It will take months longer than you think it will,” “It will cost thousands more than you think it will,” “There’s no such thing as a contractor who comes in at the price of the estimate,” and so on.

You’ve probably heard the same admonitions – renovation horror stories are so plentiful, it’s a wonder anyone even embarks on home improvement plans unless they’ve got unlimited time and money to burn.

Regardless, after 10 years of putting it off, I was determined to create a modernized, beautiful kitchen. (The existing kitchen was a 70s-era, musty, pressed wood monstrosity I’d painted royal blue in a bid to camouflage it.) My husband was extremely anxious about the cost, and feared it would get out of hand once the reno was in motion.

But I gave my husband an assurance: I could renovate our kitchen for $25,000. Not the $50,000 or $60,000 or $70,000 our friends had spent on comparable jobs – $25,000, all told.

In case you’re starting to think this is going to turn into a “design disaster” story, guess again. I did it. I managed to create a gorgeous 10 x 15 kitchen for $25,290 that is practical and livable, and garners plenty of oohs and aahs from visitors. And it only took eight weeks from start to finish.

For those of you who are interested in the numbers, my cabinets cost about $6,000, my quartz countertop was $3,500, hardwood flooring was $1,100, labour was $9,800 and everything else (like backsplash tile, mouldings, a new dishwasher, paint, a range hood, breakfast bar stools, etc.) was about $2,690. I also included the $2,200 we spent on six weeks in a rented condo during the renovation (we did an extra couple weeks with family members).

We didn’t purchase a new fridge and stove, as ours were in perfect working condition, but we also repainted the living room and ripped out a crummy second kitchen from the basement to create a new playroom down there, an added bonus I included in the total cost.

Now, enough with the back-patting. Here are my do’s and don’ts for getting the kitchen you want without spending a fortune:

Do your research
It might seem like a waste of time to spend a morning touring a bunch of flooring stores to suss out the price of hardwood, but it will save you time and money. Shop around, take notes and don’t let a designer, contractor or friend tell you what you have to spend on your backsplash. And yes, it pays to buy a whack of kitchen design mags. Most of the designs will be unattainable and ridiculously overdesigned (in my humble opinion) but you will find ideas for colour combinations, configurations and see what’s new with kitchen faucets these days.

My home renovation – hardwood flooring ideas | Interior Design Sense

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about my huge home renovation and addition project and my need for finishes for the bathrooms (and the almost non-existent budget we will have). Well, I am in the same boat with flooring. I would like hardwood flooring (could be engineered wood) throughout the house with the exception of the front entrance and bathrooms which will be tile. The flooring is another aspect of this renovation where we may be stuck with subfloor for a while if there are no funds for flooring materials – which is why I am hopeful that someone out there can help us out with a great deal on flooring with blog mentions etc. in return. I am thinking I would like to do something fairly light. I am a huge fan of Scandinavian/mid century/industrial styles and hope to mix these in my new home with lots of greys, black and white. I also have SEVEN cats and refuse to do white floors (been there, done that, didn’t work out so well) or really dark floors. Both of these would be a complete nightmare to keep clean. We can always go back to the flooring we recently put down upstairs that you can see in this post .

I found some inspiration in my stash of photos, and my favourites are below. I did include one sort of dark floor (Luce Rosso) which I would reeeeeeeally love but if it were lighter. I love the idea of a light grey stain to show off the wood grain. And it’s a bit unusual instead of typical clear sealed natural hardwood. If anyone has any suggestions for sources of flooring, or types of flooring you think would work, I’d love to hear about it in the comments or via email (desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com). Thanks!

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