Back in January, I made a post about our Home Goals for 2011 and talked about how I wanted to get new flooring to replace the carpet in our living room & hallway. It is completely & utterly disgusting! I thought it was bad & then after Griffin came along, it went from bad to WORSE! The child spits up everything he eats & now I have a million spit stains all over the carpet to go along with all of my other stains!
So frustrating!!
So I had decided that I wanted to go with wood flooring instead. I love the laminate wood we have in our kitchen...it is easy to clean and its durable! I have even had some spills & areas where it has gotten wet & still no damage at all!! Because we bought the kitchen flooring 6 years ago at Lowes, naturally it is no longer available, so I have to replace the kitchen floor as well!
Since it all had to be replaced, I decided I wanted to go with a darker finish this time around! I think it is going to compliment my newly painted kitchen cabinets quite well! When I made the Home Goals post back in January, I showed you these pics to give you an idea of the look I was going for...
Marin Kitchen Co.
Kitchen Design Ideas
Decorpad
I just love the contrast of the dark floor with the white cabinets!
So I finally got to the flooring store the other day & brought home some samples to play around with..
After moving this particular sample all throughout the house...
I am quite happy with my decision!
(pardon the lousy cell phone pics)
What do you guys think?
I LOVE IT!!!
Can't wait to get it ordered & get it installed!!
You can tell by that last picture, that I still haven't painted underneath the cabinets!
I've been waiting to paint under there until the new floor was installed because I was afraid the paint would get all scratched up when the old flooring came out & the new flooring went in!
So don't worry...I'm not leaving it that way!!
I also wanted to ask my readers...
those of you with laminate flooring...
What do you guys use to clean your floors with?
Right now, I just get down on my hands & knees with a wet rag to clean the kitchen floor, but now that I am going to have such a large area to clean...
THATS.NOT.GONNA.HAPPEN!
So I need some tips to make the cleaning part easy...
So spill it....
Talk to me people!!
I love your flooring choice! We have hardwood throughout our whole upstairs now ( except for a small bathroom and our bedroom)...years back we did the living room and hallway, and that was when hardwood was just becoming popular. So, my new flooring for the kitchen had to stay in the same tones of the oak redwood. I would prefer the darker now too,,,always a new trend right! But, we they are real wood, so the whole upstairs could one day be sanded down and restained! But,,,no time, or effort to want to do that!!! Still working at getting the kitchen done, we are getting soooo close though. The granite countertops will be installed on the 22nd and then hopefully things will move along a little faster. I love the darker wood you have chosen though...Go for it!!
ReplyDeleteLOVE! I love the way the dark looks against the white, too! Once again, you've helped me see something I've been looking for! I now know that I want a darker tile when we redo our kitchen floor. As many blogs as I've read, and you come along and answer two of my questions! :D
ReplyDeleteLove your new floors! In our last house, we had floors almost identical to that color (and I LOVED them!!! Didn't like how much they showed dirt and dust....the darker the color, the more you must clean!) But, I did find a good cleaner that fit the bill. It's called 'Bona', and you can find it at Bed Bath & Beyond (do you have this store your way?). They sell it for both hardwood and laminate (different formula's), and worked like a CHARM. We'd use that for overall cleaning, and our [electric] swiffer vac for everyday dust & debris cleanup (aka smashed fishes and graham cracker dust). How I lived before these two cleaning tools, I don't really know! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI heart the dark wood! I have a floor steamer I use for my hardwoods and love it. Your blog is really great. I am your 200th follower, congrats!
ReplyDeleteLove, love, LOVE…dark floors! Just put them in our kitchen. Go with it…you will be very glad you did :)
ReplyDeleteahh i LOVE dark floors! they look fabulous in your kitchen! so glad you went with that choice :) can't wait to see the final result! great job girl!
ReplyDeleteLove the dark flooring Tonya! I have a Shark Steam Mop. I love it. It was about $130. But...it's good for the environment, you don't have to buy cleaners because it uses water, and that sucker will get anyting up. We pulled out our fridge one day and that steamer got up some dried on drink that was spilt and under for who knows how long. I also use it in our bathrooms and mine came with a carpet steamer glider. I know now that they came out with the sweep and steam, so that sounds even better. Good luck!!!
ReplyDeleteI love the dark color! We had darker hardwood at our house in St. Louis and I loved it! We use the Shark steam mop to clean ours. We love it, and even sometimes race to see who can do it first (Weird, I know). It's just really fun and easy to use. I still sweep the old-fashioned way (which I hate) before using the steam mop, but I've been trying to talk Dipal into one of the electric sweepers to make that task a little more enjoyable. Otherwise, it's not done nearly as much as it should be. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the floor. We chose the same dark color but wanted a very rustic look so ours has knots and character extras in it. Cleaning though, oh gosh, it is an every day and night chore. I haven't tried the steam mops but I will be now that I'm hearing good reviews.
ReplyDeleteGo for it girl. BTW - for a cheaper price, check out Surplus Sales in Paducah.
I had the dark laminate and found it was hard to not see any dust or dirt on it.. it was very pretty so it was worth it but I had to clean it more ofetn than the lighter laminate I have now.. I bought a O Cedar mop (swiffer) type thing that you can wash the pad after use of buy disposable ones and use your our cleaning solution in it.. I like just water or water with a little bit of vinegar..
ReplyDeleteI love love love your floor choice. The dark floors and white cabinets is an excellent choice. 2 thumbs up =)
ReplyDeleteYou will love your wood floors especially with a kiddo! I have to share the best thing ever that I found to use with mine. It's the Norwex mop. All you need is water! You can learn more at Norwex.com or there is a girl who sells it locally in the Boro. The best part...it cleans up milk spots...Love it!
ReplyDeleteI have Konecto in our entire first floor. I use a Hoover Hard Floor cleaner (basically an electric mop). It's works great, puts down the cleaning solution, scrubs, and sucks up all the dirty water putting it in another container to be dumped out. It's not fast, but works great (as saves my knees). I do the whole first floor about every 3 weeks, except for the kitchen which I do about every 10 days. I love the ProForce No-Rinse floor cleaner from Sam's ($5.50 for a gallon on concentrate that will last forever). I dustmop daily. Love the dark wood!
ReplyDeleteLOVE the flooring!!!! :D I am so happy with my choice for the darker, it does look really great against the white! i love your choice!! I clean mine with a Green works that you can get at any Target or grocery store but I just got Basic H from Shaklee and it is gentle but it cleans really well. I have a steamer for floors but it leaves streaks.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting, I can't wait to see everything together!
The rooms look good with that wooden flooring! Stains wouldn't be a problem anymore. Also, cleaning will be a lot easier!
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