Laying the groundwork for flooring

KAREN WIGHT

Nothing in your house takes a beating like the floor. Bare feet bring

the sand in. Boots bring the rain in. Pets bring the grass in. The

wind blows the dirt and dust in.

Mops slosh, Swiffers slide, vacuums roll and brooms bristle.

Floors see the heaviest action in the house. Floors are high

maintenance out of necessity, but they can also embrace high fashion.

Whether your choice is wood, tile, carpet, concrete, linoleum or

bamboo, the floor colors everything in your home from the ground up.

There are fan decks for your walls, and if you’re like most

people, you take hours, days, weeks or months to decide on the

perfect color. You paint samples on the walls -- and then more

samples until the walls resemble a patchwork quilt. More indecision

and meditation follow. And it’s always the walls that get the most

attention.

Then there are the floors. You grab a carpet book with a dozen

4-inch square samples and make a decision within days. The floor

literally casts a glow on everything in a room. The light reflected

off the floor can change the color of your walls, ceiling and

furniture. An example: blue carpet in a white room throws a blue tone

on every surface. It’s important to take your floor color into

careful consideration.

If you choose to use a bold color, anticipate the reaction with

the rest of the room. This might explain why most floor and carpet

samples fall into the neutral category, hence the more limited color

selections. The primary flooring question is whether to use lighter

or darker colors. A floor that’s darker than the walls helps ground

the space and throws the emphasis on other elements in the room:

furniture, artwork, lighting and accessories.

A lighter floor color reflects more light and gives the room a

brighter glow. Flooring with a similar tone value as the walls helps

create a feeling of spaciousness.

With flooring, slight hue variations can translate into large

value changes. Colors in the taupe family can run the spectrum, from

purple to brown to green. That small carpet sample might not be big

enough to get a realistic impression of the overall look. Don’t be

shy about requesting a larger sample.

If you use wood or bamboo flooring, they are particularly

susceptible to scratching. Even the sealant on concrete floors can be

damaged by furniture. Put felt pads on the legs of any sofas, tables

or chairs. Plastic disks or metal glides that are added to furniture

legs for floor protection are still going to damage floors if the

furniture is pushed from one place to another.

The hardware store stocks the peel-and-stick felt pads. If you

have light-toned floors, the thick, beige dots will work for you. But

if you have dark floors, you might not find what you need hanging on

the store rack. I can’t find felt protectors dark enough to

camouflage themselves with my floors. I buy the thick, brown felt

protectors on the Internet.

Another point to ponder -- why are there so many bright green felt

dots at the store? When was the last time you had a bright green

floor to protect, or worried about chair legs scratching the lawn, or

had a grass-green vase that needed dots to protect the table?

Clean your floors often. Less dirt on the floors minimizes

scratching. Vacuuming your carpet frequently will not wear it out. In

fact, the opposite is true. Vacuums use rollers to lift the dirt from

the bottom of the carpet: the less dirt that is embedded, the fewer

stains. Having your carpets professionally cleaned twice a year helps

the longevity. Preventive maintenance also applies to wood floors.

When the floor starts showing signs of wear, have a fresh coat of

polyurethane or sealer applied. Go ahead and walk all over your

floors -- just give them the respect they deserve.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs

Thursdays.