New House Journal: New Hardwoods and Carpet

This post is probably way more exciting for me personally than for any of you readers, but it's part of my documenting the progress of our new house. When we first walked into the Entry, other than notice the shiny ceilings, was the fact that the formal living and dining rooms were covered in carpet. Now I have nothing against carpet as you will see, but I really wanted hardwood floors this next time around.

As you may remember, my Hubby was the one who found this house, and I just wasn't wanting to make a move now. To get on board I knew we needed to make some changes. New hardwoods, new carpet in the Bedrooms, and the rest of the woodwork needed to be painted some shade of white. We debated on hardwoods throughout the house, but I would have wanted room size rugs in the bedrooms, so we just went with carpet. More about my choice on that in a minute.

I had in my head what I wanted for the wood floors from the beginning; actually from when we bought our current home almost 5 years ago. It only took me 20 minutes at the shop to narrow my decision. Our choice was going to have to exist alongside the Bamboo flooring that was in the Kitchen and Hearth room. I didn't want to do the same thing, but it needed to compliment and color match what was already there. You can see both from the Entry Hall, and they actually meet up in the Dining Room and Kitchen doorway. It needed to be the same color and hue, but I didn't want the contrast of color within the Bamboo planks.

Listing Photo showing Bamboo Flooring

I ended up painting the Living Room the same color as our current house, Smokey Taupe by Ben Moore. It looks darker in this house because the woodwork is much lighter, so there is more of a contrast. I needed to use this color again because of my weird linen Chesterfield Sofas. They have a funny khaki cast to them and this color pretty much works with them.

The drapes are the same Penney's Supreme draperies in "Linen" that I've had before. They are a good basic lined drape, and won't break the bank if you have several huge windows. 

The new hardwoods make such a major difference in the look of these two spaces, I'm beyond happy with the choice and workmanship. They match the Bamboo perfectly and the installer did an excellent job. They are Hickory and made in the USA from Shaw Floors.

Shaw Lincolnville Western Sky

Shaw Flooring Photo

The Dining Room, which was being used as an office, threw me a little when we looked at listing photos. I wasn't sure what that room was supposed to be. And I hesitate to use the listing photos because I don't want to come off as being critical about the previous owner's choices or decor. It was just a personal issue about carpets versus hardwoods. I actually thought her decor was pretty cool. She had an interesting modern vibe with color and pattern. 

Listing Photo of Living Room

I have the same "Linen" draperies in the Dining Room, and if you noticed the color of the paint below the chair rail looking a little lighter, it is. The more I looked at the Smokey Taupe, the bigger the contrast became. So I repainted using Agreeable Gray from Sherwin Williams and I'm much happier with the look. The draperies are a little different color, but once I get my huge patterned black rug in here I think all the colors will work together. Same style but bigger area rug will also be in the Living Room.

This is a pic from last Christmas of the Dining Room here at our current place, and you can sort of see the design in the rug has a lot of color and pattern. It will be going in the DR at the new house so I hope it will bring all the shades together, since it contains several  colors of tan, gray, cream and an interesting blue/green.

On to the carpet choice and many of you will scratch your heads over this one. I've had a ton of different carpets in the many houses we've lived in and I went with something that is practical and understated. If you think it looks like "office carpet" well... But I wanted something "tweedy" in a medium to darker variegated shade. This is a variegated "Loop" from Shaw Carpet called Harbor Fog in shades of brown, gray and cream. I love it. Just what I had in mind.

I'm really super tired of traffic patterns, vacuum tracks, and looking dirty because you just walked through it. Living with some elderly cats has also influenced decision to be more functional. We have hairball issues, enough said. With the light woodwork I didn't want the rooms to look too feminine, so I wanted a "masculine" look in the carpet to offset it.

Shaw Floors Website Photo

As I said last post we're making great progress. We painted two more rooms in the basement which will be storage temporarily, but I'm hoping when I can get organized they will be more fully functioning. They got a coat of a cream colored paint that was matched to what was there for an easy spruce up. The basement has white woodwork and beautiful 6 panel solid wood doors, so it's nice to see those spaces brightened and cleaned up.

We did wallpaper in Hubby's small dated Master Bath that really made a HUGE difference in the look, so I'll share that and a few other projects soon. Hope you're having a wonderful week before Christmas. I'm taking this week off to organize for Christmas and to try to get this house in some kind of passable order. Right now I still have some pumpkins and Fall decor lined up waiting to be packed away. It's bad, folks. I don't know the last time I vacuumed or dusted, maybe before Thanksgiving. yikes.

*This is not a sponsored post, and for those that are confused, I've tried to make things a little easier to understand. (insert happy face and a wink here)

xoxo,

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