Flooring Layouts: How to Develop Your Layout Plan

The flooring in your new home can have a significant impact on the way a room or area looks. When you’re having a home built, you can choose the type of flooring you want for it. Although this allows you to choose the material, such as hardwood or tile, you’ll also need to decide on the layout. The following tips can help you design your flooring layout in your home.

Decide Which Flooring Goes Where

You don’t need to have the same flooring in every part of your home. Some types of flooring, such as wood, don’t hold up well in certain rooms. Bathrooms, kitchens and other areas that get damp should have flooring that can handle these conditions, such as tile or laminate floors. When drawing up plans for your flooring layout, indicate where each type of floor goes. You might use the same flooring in your living room and dining room with an open concept house, for example. You might also use the same flooring for your upstairs hallway and bedrooms while using a different type for bathrooms.

Choose the Right Direction

Flooring layout plans should include the direction your floors will go in. Keep in mind that you don’t always have to install hardwood floors in a vertical direction. Instead, consider installing tile, wood or other flooring in a horizontal direction or even a diagonal direction. The shape of a room helps determine the ideal direction for flooring. In narrow areas, vertical flooring that runs the length of the room or area typically looks best. In wider areas or square rooms, though, you might prefer the expression of horizontal or diagonal flooring.

Consider Room Transitions

If you’ll be using different flooring in some areas, think about how the transition from one room to the next will look. You might keep the flow going from room to room by having flooring installed in the same direction. For example, wood floors in your living room might give way to a tile floor in your kitchen that goes in the same direction. To create more distinctive boundaries between rooms, consider having the flooring installed in different directions. You might have a hardwood floor in your main bedroom facing horizontally with a tile floor facing diagonally in the adjoining bathroom. This offers a more visually striking transition from room to room. When creating flooring layout plans, indicate the direction each floor will go in for these transitions.

Select Stair Flooring

When you’re working on your flooring layout plans, don’t forget about stairs. You’ll need to decide which type of flooring to use on steps in your home. You can use the same flooring as the areas that lead to the stairs to maintain the same look. For example, you can use hardwood stairs to match a hardwood floor in your upstairs hallway or foyer. If you have laminate flooring near a stairway, you can use this flooring material on the stairs. For a more distinctive look, you can use a different type of flooring on your stairs that contrasts with the floors nearby. Include the flooring you choose for your stairs on your layout plans.