Decorating With Laminate Flooring
Decorating with
laminate flooring is very similar to decorating with wood flooring. Although
similar to wood flooring, laminate flooring does not have as much texture as
wood floors, so basically your choices are in color.
As with most other types of flooring, remember that the color of your floor will
be the background and foundation for your overall decorating scheme. If you're
working with dark furniture, you may want to consider a lighter colored floor.
With light furniture, a medium or darker colored floor may be a better choice.
Although most of the patterns and colors available with laminate flooring
resemble wood, there are some ways to get creative if you have the space in
which to do it. For example, WILSONART and BRUCE make a line of color
coordinated tiles that can be used for an entire floor, or as a border with the
wood look patterns.
Generally, you want to make sure that you have a large enough room or total area
if you plan on using these tiles as borders. For instance, if you are doing a
small bedroom¿let's say a 10' x 10' area¿using these borders might be a mistake.
In a small area such as this, after you place all of your furniture, you will
probably not see as much of the border as you would like. In addition, bordering
out a small room will tend to make the room look even smaller.
On the other hand, if you have a larger area¿a living and dining room together
that measure 14' x 25' for example¿the border may look very attractive and
accent the room very well. It will probably not cut down the overall look of a
larger room either, as it would in a smaller room.
In some cases you can even use these borders as an inset in one area to
highlight that area. For example, let's say you have that same living and dining
room, 14' x 25', you can use the tiles in the dining room inset in the middle of
the wood pattern underneath the dining room table. This will give you a very
formal and classic look and will help distinguish one room from the other.
Another consideration when deciding on the finished look of your
laminate floor will be the baseboard or quarter round molding you will use.
Since the laminate floors are all free floating, you must leave a space or
"expansion joint" along all the walls in order for the floor to expand and
contract properly. In doing this, you can leave a gap that then needs to be
covered. If you have no existing baseboard on your walls, or you're planning on
removing your existing baseboard, than you will need to install new baseboard
after you install the laminate floor.
The decision you will need to make in this case, is whether to use a matching
baseboard or a painted baseboard. Our preference is to use a painted baseboard.
We feel this way because we have seen both, and the painted baseboard is a nice
contrast with the floor while blending with the walls. Since the baseboard is on
a vertical surface up against the wall, it is a part of the wall and should
match the wall. If you're doing a lager area, you will find that using the
matching baseboard is a lot more expensive than using the painted.
Remember, this is only our opinion, if you like the look of matching baseboard,
there's nothing wrong with it, and you should use what you like. After all, you
will be living in the house, not us. We can only tell you through experience
what we feel looks the best, and what the majority of homeowners are using.
If you have existing baseboards that you will not be removing, you will need to
install what's called "quarter round" molding. If you can picture looking at a
circle and dividing it into four, each would be a quarter round. The quarter
round molding should match the existing baseboard. Again, you can use a quarter
round that matches the floor, but it will most likely stand out if you have a
light colored baseboard such as white, and your laminate floor is a wood pattern
such as oak. For more information on baseboards, quarter round, and other
moldings, please go to our "Laminate Flooring Installation Products &
Accessories" page.
Remember, visit
FastFloors.com
if you are the least bit confused, have any questions at all, or just want to
talk about laminate floors some more.
• 
