Creative Flooring Ideas to Add Flair to Your Home
Here are some ideas that will look great and add value to your home without breaking the bank.
19/07/2018
When remodeling your home, one of the largest value-adding changes you can make is flooring. Unfortunately, flooring can get pretty expensive without some creative thinking and more than a little elbow grease. Here are some ideas that will look great and add value to your home without breaking the bank.
1. The Penny Floor
One very cool and unusual solution to your flooring problems is the epoxied penny floor. It’s made by layering two or more layers of pennies so that they cover the whole space without gaps, and then pouring an epoxy over the top, sanding the epoxy once dry to ensure a perfectly flat and level surface, and then polishing. While you can choose to use only new pennies for an incredibly lively copper accent, the patina of old pennies contributes a lot of character and history to a room. Plus, it’s a whole lot easier to save all your pennies up for a while than to go trade in your hard earned bills for change!
2. Reclaimed Wood
Driftwood is in vogue, and it doesn’t need to be expensive to get that weathered gray that’s been taking hearts for the last few years. By taking a look in your local classifieds to see if anyone has old barn wood they want hauled away, or asking some local businesses if you can take the pallets from their shipments (most have to pay to have them removed, so it’s a win-win!), you should be able to get some free lumber. Finishing is up to you, some people prefer to sand the wood smooth and apply a stain like traditional flooring, while others may use a resin or other such thick finishing agent to retain the texture of the reclaimed wood without risking splinters. Either way, with just your labor and some persistence, you can have a beautiful and modern floor!
3. Stained Concrete
If you’ve got a home on a slab, stained concrete floors are a beautiful and almost maintenance-free option. They are more expensive up-front than other options available to you, but their durability and weather resistance will more than make up for the initial investment over the long haul, and the stain colors and patterns available are more than able to fit into any décor. Some options look like natural stone, others are a solid color, some look like a polished stone, and on and on. When sealed properly, the color will last for decades, and the whole time the floor will be water-proof and considerably more scratch resistant than traditional wood floors. If you’ve got the start-up cash, and a home that allows for a stained concrete floor, this is a really solid option.
4. Epoxied Concrete
While traditionally thought of as a coating for protecting and adding a bit of class to a garage or shop floor, epoxy coated concrete is becoming increasingly popular for interior use in kitchens alongside concrete counter-tops. Just like stained concrete, this is a completely water-proof flooring option that is nigh indestructible and looks fantastic. Keep in mind: While this can be done by a home-owner, it’s often worth letting a concrete Perth professional do it due to the amount of work required to undo it if you make a mistake. DIY at your own risk!
5. Reuse Old Flooring
If a house in your neighborhood is getting a remodel (or if you’re looking through your classifieds and find another free lot!), reusing the old flooring that’s being replaced is a great option for the low-budget DIYer and smart consumer alike. Real wood floor planks can always be sanded and re-stained, so it doesn’t really matter how beat up the old stock is! Simply install, rent or borrow a stand-up flooring sander, stain and seal, and presto! Sure, this option takes a lot of work (Probably too much work to replace any wood flooring already in your home), but if you’re replacing laminate or linoleum you’d be hard pressed to find a more valuable upgrade at a lower cost!