KAREN WIGHT
Nothing in your house takes a beating like the floor. Bare feet bring
the sand in. Boots bring the rain in. Pets bring the grass in. The
wind blows the dirt and dust in.
Mops slosh, Swiffers slide, vacuums roll and brooms bristle.
Floors see the heaviest action in the house. Floors are high
maintenance out of necessity, but they can also embrace high fashion.
Whether your choice is wood, tile, carpet, concrete, linoleum or
bamboo, the floor colors everything in your home from the ground up.
There are fan decks for your walls, and if you're like most
people, you take hours, days, weeks or months to decide on the
perfect color. You paint samples on the walls -- and then more
samples until the walls resemble a patchwork quilt. More indecision
and meditation follow. And it's always the walls that get the most
attention.
Then there are the floors. You grab a carpet book with a dozen
4-inch square samples and make a decision within days. The floor
literally casts a glow on everything in a room. The light reflected
off the floor can change the color of your walls, ceiling and
furniture. An example: blue carpet in a white room throws a blue tone
on every surface. It's important to take your floor color into
careful consideration.
If you choose to use a bold color, anticipate the reaction with
the rest of the room. This might explain why most floor and carpet
samples fall into the neutral category, hence the more limited color
selections. The primary flooring question is whether to use lighter
or darker colors. A floor that's darker than the walls helps ground
the space and throws the emphasis on other elements in the room:
furniture, artwork, lighting and accessories.
A lighter floor color reflects more light and gives the room a
brighter glow. Flooring with a similar tone value as the walls helps
create a feeling of spaciousness.
With flooring, slight hue variations can translate into large
value changes. Colors in the taupe family can run the spectrum, from
purple to brown to green. That small carpet sample might not be big
enough to get a realistic impression of the overall look. Don't be
shy about requesting a larger sample.
If you use wood or bamboo flooring, they are particularly
susceptible to scratching. Even the sealant on concrete floors can be
damaged by furniture. Put felt pads on the legs of any sofas, tables
or chairs. Plastic disks or metal glides that are added to furniture
legs for floor protection are still going to damage floors if the
