If you are here to learn more about flooring, you came to the right place. To help buyers become more aware of the products within our market, we have created a quick and easy guide. This guide covers the basic types of flooring that consumers are eagerly buying. If you are interested in learning more, keep reading!

Popular Types of Flooring:

Hardwood.

One of the most classic and timeless choices for homeowners is hardwood floors. Their natural beauty and classic look create for a stunning home. Hardwood can be a breathtaking addition to any home, and it is offered in a wide selection of sizes, styles, and colors to meet your style preferences.

• Best Rooms for Hardwood: Living Room, Dining Room, and/or Bedroom(s).

Carpet.

The other most traditional flooring option is carpet. Carpet adds instant coziness and texture to any space. Carpet can also be an excellent choice for families because of its add plushness and added protection.

• Best Rooms for Carpet: Family Room and/or Bedroom(s).

Laminate.

Laminate takes on the look of popular flooring finishes like stone, wood, tile, and even concrete. Laminate flooring can be installed over top of your existing floors without the need to use nails/glue.

• Best Rooms for Laminate: Kitchen and/or Bathroom.

Ceramic Tile.

Ceramic tile can be one of the most personalized choices for homeowners. From your kitchen backsplash to bathroom floors, ceramic tile can be a beautiful addition in your space. Plus, it comes in an array of colors, shapes, sizes, and even textures for your personal preferences.

• Best Rooms for Ceramic Tile: Kitchen and/or Bathroom.

Natural Stone.

Natural stone withstands moisture and creates a stunning finish inside of any room. With its polished look, you can create a luxurious space in no time. Plus, stone can be used outside; making it the perfect option for outdoor patios.

• Best Rooms for Stone: Kitchens, Bathroom and/or Outdoors.

Vinyl.

Vinyl can be an extraordinary flooring option for homeowners who want a resilient and versatile flooring option. Vinyl flooring has exceptionally low-maintenance and high durability for homeowners who need a little wiggle room in their flooring. With its gorgeous array of choices, you can complete the look of your dreams for less.

• Best Rooms for Vinyl: Kitchen and/or Bathroom.

Are you interested in learning more about a particular product? We would love to help you. Contact us today or visit one of our locations to learn more. Thanks for reading!

Hardwood floors are one of the most beautiful and elegant flooring options for a home. They create a classic landscape with their rich color and smooth texture. But you may ask yourself, what do you pair with hardwood floors? We are here to help you answer that question. Let’s take a look!

What to Pair with Your Hardwood Floors:

Plush Rugs.
Add instant comfort and coziness to your floors with a plush rug. The rug can add a layer of warmth that hardwood floors do not have. Plus, it can help tie together the space. Be sure to have some of your furniture sit on top of the rug to pull together the room’s look.

Consistency.
We recommend providing a consistent flow of your hardwood from one room to the next. You want to try and avoid any awkward breaks/pauses in the flooring.

Mix to Match.
Initially, it was frowned upon to mix and match wood colors.  But with designing, there are no official rules. Recently, homeowners have begun to mix and match their wood finishes, and we are obsessed with the outcome. This trendy take on wood furnishings can make any room feel rustic.

Contrast.
If you choose dark hardwood floors, you may want to decorate with light tones to contrast the harsh floors. This tip can be used vice versa. If you have light floors, you want to contrast them with darker decor and furnishings.

Bright Lights.
A great way to open up a space is to have excellent lighting. By adding great lighting into a space with hardwood floors, you can showcase the beauty of your extraordinary floors.

Pop of Color.
If you are looking for a little bit of color, do not be afraid to add some colorful objects into your space. The dramatic hardwood floors help to balance the colorful pieces. Try subtly adding color into your space through a chair, dresser or an art piece.

Open Floor Plan.
Hardwood floors can be beautifully showcased with open floor plans. If your home has an open floor plan, try to continue the look throughout your home. Avoid bulky furnishings and let your floors do the talking.

Are you looking to add gorgeous hardwood floors in your house? With a wide selection at reasonable prices, you do not have to look any further. Let one of our expert sales staff help make your flooring dreams become a reality. Call or visit us today!

If you have kids, you know that they can be tough on your house, especially floors.  For a kid’s playroom or bedroom, there are plenty of flooring options that will please your style and stand up to the daily rigors of life with kids.  If your kids don’t have a designated playroom, having the right flooring in your living room and family room is even more key.  Once the toys and games are put away, you’ll want to feel like you are sitting in your room and not a play zone.

If you are putting in new flooring, talk with us about the best options for kids.  You can also take our “How I Live Quiz” to learn more about the best flooring options suitable for your lifestyle and home. There are many stain resistant and stain repellent carpets on the market. This means you can put carpet in a kids’ area and not fear every time something spills it will stain forever. Another option for carpeted rooms is to put a large area rug over the carpet to protect it.  Feel free to browse our area rug catalog to learn more.  As the kids get older, you can remove the area rug or swap it out for a new pattern or color. With this same idea in mind, carpet squares can be used and replaced if they get stained.

Hard surfaces like tile and stone are durable but might be too tough on little knees and elbows. Hardwood is good as is cork, which has a soft feeling under foot. Again, area rugs are your friends when it comes to protecting floors.

Kids and pets are probably the hardest on your floors.  Work with your flooring person to choose the best option that will be durable and stylish for years to come.

If your bedroom is feeling a little bland, you can easily spice things up if you have a good foundation.  A suite of bedroom furniture that provides a bed, nightstands and a dresser makes for good design bones for a bedroom. However, all the matching furniture and finishes need to be livened up with accessories and additional furnishings to create a lively and interesting bedroom.

This bedroom is a great example of having good bones.  The cream colored bedroom suite is a nice way to begin to decorate the bedroom.  The neutral cream color allows you to go in any direction with wall, floor and accent colors.  You could stick with the neutrals and layer in deeper neutrals like grey on the walls, pillows or duvet. An area rug could be used to add color, texture and pattern, and still show off the beautiful wood floors.

Color can be applied on the walls and windows as well.  Paint is a quick and inexpensive way to bring color into a room. Curtains can also be used to add color and pattern to the space.  Smaller pops of color could be done in accent pillows, a colorful lampshade, or a lampshade trimmed with bright ribbon. Swapping out the lamp for a colorful one is another idea.

If you prefer neutral walls, add color to the walls with artwork or a hanging.  You could frame a collection of family photos—great for a bedroom. Paintings and prints are other ways to bring color onto the walls without painting the wall.

Hartco Flooring is now part of the Armstrong flooring family.  Armstrong Hardwood has a variety of species and finishes and will continue Hartco’s popular hand-scraped wood flooring collection.  Designs and styles include distressed and rustic, exotics and contemporary dark stained flooring. This collection has something for every décor style.

The Armstrong Hardwood collection has hundreds of wood flooring choices, from distressed to fine grain. Oak to maple to walnut and more woods are available in a range of stains, widths and board lengths. One of our favorites in the collection is the Antique Natural Maple. This flooring has the distressed feeling of true antique or reclaimed wood floors. Combined with the durability and technology of contemporary flooring, this antiqued floor gives you the best of both worlds.

Hand-scraped hardwood floors are a popular flooring trend. The term “hand-scraped” refers to the type of surface treatment wherein the surfaces have been carefully sculpted to create unique finishes. Hammered, chiseled or sculpted by artisans using a variety of tools, these floors that have a natural-worn looking appearance. Despite these floors having an aged appearance, they are available in popular colors that suit every décor from contemporary to rustic farmhouse. One of our favorites is the Toasted Wheat walnut. The warm, rich brown has an aged, antique patina look to it. Would look lovely in a kitchen or bedroom.

For more information on these and other Armstrong products visit us online at Carpets N More website.

If you love this color, there’s good news for you this year. Pantone, the company that provides color palettes to manufacturers, graphic artists and designers has selected a pinkish red, called Honeysuckle, as its color of the year for 2011.

When Pantone highlights a color like this one, you will soon see it in a variety of consumer products. From fashion to furniture, designers and manufacturers focus on color trends and recommendations.

If you want to bring this color or any other light bright tones into your home, you can’t do better than a light wood floor such as this one as the foundation. You can see from the photo that light pinks and blues work beautifully with this floor.

This particular floor is a maple hardwood, but bamboo would also complement the colors. If you want your color options to change with the trends, the seasons or your own mood, this floor is a good start. Add in furniture with washable white slipcovers and other neutral shades, and then use pillows, throws, area rugs and accessories to focus your color choices. By changing out a handful of easily-replaced elements, you can create an entirely new feel for any space in your home. This is a perfect option if you love color but don’t want to settle for just one combination.

Light wood floors are a perfect choice for the changing needs and desires of children. Beautiful in a nursery, this wood floor grows as the child does, allowing for dramatic variations in color and style over time. Even a dramatic adolescent choice of black for the walls would be softened to some extent with the light floor.

If you’re looking for flexibility and durability, consider the advantages of a light wood, bamboo or laminate. It will provide the range you need to make décor changes over time.

This is the month for Surfaces, the largest flooring event in the world. As all the newest in flooring is presented, demonstrated and sold, it’s worth taking a few minutes to consider how flooring started and how far we’ve come.

Bill Bryson, the author of a number of books including the best-selling A Walk in the Woods, recently wrote a book about the origins of everyday aspects of our homes, called At Home, and in it, he talks about the origins of flooring.

When people first started building homes, the focus was on protection from the elements rather than comfort. Flooring reflected that. You would find dirt floors in almost every home in the 1600’s, and in rural England and other parts of Europe, dirt floors were common until the early 20^th century.

To provide some protection from the cold and dust, the wealthier households spread rushes over the dirt, with a new layer about twice a year. Unfortunately, they often didn’t remove the old rushes, which left plenty of space for insects and even mice and rats.

Once wood and tile floors became more common, carpets began to appear. However, these were so valuable that they were almost never laid on the floor to be walked on; rather, people hung them on the walls or placed them over tables. Because of transportation costs and limitations, the wood, tile or stone used for homes and floors was all local. This is one of the reasons why in England, most floors, moldings, and furniture were made of oak.

Today, instead of cutting rushes when you want new flooring, you can visit our showroom and choose carpeting, tile and wood from around the world. Rather than having carpets too valuable to walk on, you can warm your feet on them in every room in your home. We’re happy to have a hand in making flooring a source of pleasure and style rather than just the basic protective covering it once was.