Flooring can make a difference!

We all have those small spaces in our homes, wither it’s a bathroom, hallway, cupboard or kitchen. You may have already tried to use light colours on the walls, maximised the lighting, used light curtains or blinds to maximise the wall space and de-cluttered. But how about using flooring to enhance the space?

Flooring is often overlooked, but if you choose wisely the right type of floor can make a huge difference to how your room looks even when you’ve already tried the well-known space enhancing tricks.

Not only can flooring create the appearance of more space it can also freshen up or change the look of a room entirely.

Here are some of our tips for choosing flooring that will enhance space available in any room:

If you are looking for a solid or engineered wood floor, select wider planks rather than strips (narrower than 3 inches). The fewer wood joins that are visible, the less busy and cleaner your floor will look, helping to create the illusion of space.

If you lay tiles, wooden, vinyl or laminate flooring diagonally, it can fool the eye into seeing the flooring pattern in a more visually interesting way, but this look isn’t for everyone. So try and get some ideas of how it will look from your local flooring company before they start to lay the floor. Of course with a herringbone floor, this has to be laid in a very uniform manner.

Don’t be afraid to chose a dark wood floor for your home. Many people believe that a dark floor can make the space seem smaller, but this isn’t always the case. If you have the right colour on your walls and soft furnishings and furniture that are lighter the darker wood species such as blacknut, walnut, cherry and smoked oak don’t always make the space seem restricted. In fact, a dark floor with lighter, neutral colours and soft furnishings can be a striking contrast.

With luxury vinyl, choose larger tiles to increase the appearance of the square footage. Choose tiles larger than 12” in size if possible. As well as being stunning in design, vinyl tiles are durable, comfortable underfoot and warm. They also have fantastic scratch proof and flip proof qualities and are waterproof so can be used in bathrooms and kitchens.

Another space-enhancing trick is to join adjacent rooms with the same flooring. This will give the illusion of having more space especially in the downstairs of your home or in an apartment. If you do want to change the flooring material – such as to have a carpet in a bedroom, try and keep the colours the same.

If space is a concern in your home, there are a few other things you can do to give the impression of space. The first is to maximise the light coming into your home by ensuring that window coverings don’t cut off the light when they are open. When you hang curtains, ensure that the entire windowpane is clear when they are open.

Also use mirrors to maximise the light in your home – they will reflect the light around the home. Buy glass rather than opaque furniture, and use glass or mirrored picture frames to add to this theme. Finally, keep your walls and furnishings neutral with a pop of colour here and there, and don’t be tempted to clutter your home with ornaments and too many pictures.