Decorating your home can be a very daunting task. While you may want a look that is maybe a little different, that reflects your own style, you should also go with paint colours, flooring and finishing touches that are timeless but also trendy.

One thing I have found recently while renovating my own home is that flooring is a very important element which can affect the overall look of your house. I know many who have had carpets fitted in their homes recently but to be honest, using carpets is a very old-fashioned way of styling a home and when you have pets or children, carpets can be a nightmare to keep clean too. They are also difficult to hoover and often need a deep clean to get rid of any hidden bacteria.

That’s why when we are looking to buy flooring for our living room, we are going to buy some engineered wood flooring.

Wood flooring is the perfect choice for our house and probably yours too. It is super easy to keep clean, can be styled with various types of rugs and with so many different colour choices available, Gary and I will easily find the ideal flooring to match the decor in our home.

For our living room, we are aiming for a Victorian-traveller look. This will incorporate rattan furniture, taxidermy pieces, dark colours like black on the walls, deep velvet colours, animal inspired wallpaper and exposed brick.  It will be a very unique style but at the same time with the exposed bricks, character features and classic decor, it will make our house very sellable when we decide to move on to the next house.

Style wise for the flooring, we are looking at a couple of choices. The 18mm Engineered Oak Flooring from Flooring Hub has some lovely options. I really like the Billinghay Engineered Natural Oak as it reminds me of what would possibly be found in an old cosy country cottage. I also really like the Hayle Engineered Golden Oak and Helm Engineered Golden Oak flooring. Our leather sofa is a fairly dark brown so it would be best to get some samples ordered to hold up against the sofa to see what flooring and colour works best.

If you don’t know much about engineered wood flooring, its job is to replicate the same quality and durability as a hardwood flooring. The manufacturing process of engineered wood incorporates up to three layers of timber with a durable top-surface veneer. It is designed to be easy to lay also and is compatible with many types of underlay, further reinforcing the resistance and stability of the floor.

We originally wanted to have a vintage, second-hand parquet flooring but the process of laying old parquet is extensive. Once the floor is prepped, we would have to rub down and lay each parquet tile down by hand and once that is finished, sand the flooring and seal it. That process could take a couple of weeks to do in our spare time and weekend, so we decided that engineered wood flooring would be a much easier option to choose as it’s quick to lay and still gives the look of something vintage and classic. You can even buy engineered Parquet Wood Flooring from Flooring Hub which is another option we are looking at as it looks amazing, is durable and would be easy to fit in our living room over a few days, rather than weeks.

Having Engineered Wood Flooring is also a good idea if you get bored easily. By using different style rugs in your living room, you can always change the style of any room without the added expense of changing the whole floor. Different rugs can give any room a different look. If you want a boho feel to your room, a jute rug is the perfect option to give that natural feel and relaxed vibe. If you are looking to achieve a more Scandinavian style look for your house or room, a white and grey shaggy rug can do this. It will give the room a softer feel but a minimalist look, that is trendy but also easily adaptable with other styles.

To also help with your flooring choice, I would suggest creating a mood board to decide what styles you want in the room you are looking to decorate. I did this for our living room and it has helped massively. On the mood board, you could put the colours you want to paint the walls, the furniture you are thinking of buying and even wallpaper and floor sample images so you can see how it all fits together.

I hope these tips and ideas help you on your quest to make a cosy and comfortable home for yourself and your family.

DISCLAIMER: This is a collaborative post.