wood in main areas with vinyl planks in laundry/craft rooms?

9 years ago

We are at the floor selection stage. We'd like to do 1/2" engineered wood (5" distressed, rustic hickory) flooring in the entry, formal living room, hall, kitchen, and breakfast nook. I am not sure what to do with the following two rooms. The laundry room is also the mud room, and we walk from there to the hallway and kitchen. I am hesitant to use wood there because it is not only expensive, but its a utility room and there will be dirty shoes, ect. plus the washer/dryer. I was thinking of doing a similar wood look in a waterproof vinyl plank, but it would butt up to the actual wood floor.

The other room is harder because it is an office with french doors right off the entry/formal living room. We also want to use this room as a craft room in addition to an office. The kids and I do a lot of crafts, painting, beads, glue, ect., and I don't want to be terrified of hurting/staining the floor if it's wood. I was wondering if it would be okay to do the same idea as the laundry--use a close match vinyl plank in that room. The other option would be to still do wood and maybe do a rug of carpet squares over the floor that can be changed out if something spills on it.

The wood we are choosing is very textured and distressed, with lots of chatter and wood grain, plus the store owner said it is very hard and durable, so I am not worried about the floor in other areas, even with kids and a cat.

We live in Florida on two acres. We do have tile in the bathrooms but other than that I am not a fan of tile.

Would the wood-like vinyl plank look okay in these rooms, or should we do wood in these two rooms as well, or something else entirely?

Comments (8)

Annie Deighnaugh
9 years ago
We went from vinyl plank to tile in our laundry and powder room and did it by having our carpenter make a transition piece out of wood that we stained to match the floor.
mrspete
9 years ago
I think it would always look like two different types of "wood flooring". I'd rather go with something entirely different. Tile, carpet, cork . . . but not an "almost matches".
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pixie_lou
9 years ago
I think an almost match would look tacky. It would be like doing granite counters in your kitchen, but then granite look laminate on your island.
caben15
9 years ago
Look into real linoleum (not sheet vinyl). It's a natural product, the color runs all the way through (so it takes a beating) and it is sterile (used in hospitals) with various finishes that won't clash with your wood.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marmoleum
mlweaving_Marji
9 years ago
We just put in Hickory flooring throughout the main part of the house, transitioned to porcelain tile in the laundry, and porcelain tile in the foyer. Our Library/Study is off the foyer, so if I'd wanted to do a vinyl flooring in there it would have been ok, since it doesn't butt up to, nor is it visible from the areas with the real wood flooring. I did luxury vinyl wood look floor tile in my fiber studio above the garage - love it but would not not not want it in proximity to the real wood floors.
So, your layout sounds a bit like mine. Can you put a tile or something like it the foyer where you can break the floor material between your living area and your office/craft room? Then if you use a vinyl tile in the office you can change the color dramatically so that it doesn't look like you tried to match and missed the Hickory.
User
9 years ago
If you have to do vinyl, do a tile look instead of a wood look. But real tile would be a better choice for those hard wearing areas.
dekeoboe
9 years ago
I was also going to suggest Marmoleum. But maybe that is because we did wood floors with Marmoleum in the laundry/mud room and bathrooms :)
Skyangel23
Original Author
9 years ago
Okay, thanks for the advice. I'm leaning towards still doing the wood in the office/craft area since it is connected to the living area of the house. Maybe it would be best to do vinyl tile look or actual tile in the laundry room. Thanks.