Our hunt for the perfect flooring was long, confusing and exhausting. When we purchased our condo the previous owner decided on a $0.99 per sq foot laminate flooring. He thought it would help him sell the condominium faster, and I just kept thinking that removing it would be more expensive than the actual floor ever was. We knew we wanted wood, but that is as far as we knew. So many color options, materials, shades, grain, hardness and finishes—and the most important in this project was price. Adam and I settled for a remodel budget that was reasonable for the work we are currently doing in the condo—we are trying not to spend a penny more.
At the beginning of the project we were looking into a very dark shade of wood with a rustic finish. I want a european
feel in the condo. The actual house has nothing special, no character, so we are going to have to try to achieve it with the finishes. I found this picture on Pinterest and I decided I wanted this same look. What I didn’t count on is that this is repurposed wood, the price of this wood is not the most expensive but the installation and refinish would be a hard hit on the budget. Later I realized that our condo doesn’t let in much light—the kitchen would look too dark with this flooring anyway. Also, the kitchen cabinets we chose are too close in color to this flooring. I had to give up my dark, rustic and amazing repurposed wood.
I kept looking online for the perfect mid-dark wood. Some were too red, some were too shinny (shinny=dusty), some were hand scraped (I’d rather not have that look, it has been in-stlye for the last decade and I fear is going to be out soon). I finally chose a “subtle scraped” hickory engineered hardwood from Home Depot. When I was about to purchase it, something inside me kept saying not to do it. I just wasn’t sure about it; I wasn’t in love with it.
I decided to go to Home Depot and look in person. I had just found another image on Pinterest of a kitchen with cottage feel that I really liked. I went looking for an engineered wood that would achieve this look. I was surprised I kept going back to the laminate section! I never considered this to be an option, specially after the ugly one we had just removed. This one actually looked like wood and it had a fresh feeling I loved. It was a pretty light shade and the planks of laminated wood were individual. Oh—the price was right too! I was so happy with my decision until my contractor said: “This floor looks great, and installation will be less than I quoted since it is not glued to the floor.” I asked him more about what that meant, and when he mentioned the word noisy my laminate dreams fell apart.
Next stop was a specialty hardwood store. We found this beautiful white oak engineered wood flooring. Very similar to the first option we were looking into but in a lighter shade. It was decided, that was going to be the floor. As you are expecting, there is a BUT. When I got a quote for the flooring I realized that it was out of the budget. $1,000 too much. I wasn’t going to let the perfect flooring take me out of track. That extra $1,000 meant no window treatments, and that is clearly not an option.
Our last stop was Lowes. I discovered on their website they carried a lot of white oak engineered wood. We found a very plain white oak flooring that was close to the look we wanted and at the right price. I have to admit, it is not my dream flooring, but I think it will do the job alright. I promise I will post pictures after the flooring is installed. It is simple, and simple in flooring tends to be a good thing. I don’t like a hardwood floor that takes away too much attention from the rest of the room. I hope this was the right pick because I placed the order yesterday afternoon. I can’t wait to show you the finished product. The floor will probably be installed in about two weeks. I promise to update this post then.
CALIFORNIA - PERFECT 