Floors We Chose for Our New Build Home

New laminate flooring in the kitchen/dining area

When Gloria Bunn and Sam Carr bought their house, it was a completely new experience for them. For the first time ever they were both buying a newly built house – and for the first time they were able to choose brand new flooring.

Gloria explained:

Both Sam and I had always lived in older houses. When we met, he was in an Arts & Crafts-style country cottage while I was living in an Edwardian town house. After a couple of years of moving between the houses we decided to start again and buy somewhere new together. The obvious choice was to look for a character home again. We pin-pointed the area we wanted to live in and started our search.

Sam and I each have two children and although they tend not to all be with us at the same time we did want somewhere that would accommodate everyone comfortably whenever that situation did arise. It soon became apparent that finding an older property that was larger would be hard.

Buying Off-plan

Then one day I was driving down a main road in the area in which we were searching and I saw signs to a new development. I drove up to have a look but there wasn’t a lot to see apart from mud, building equipment and a marketing office. I went in had a quick chat and grabbed a brochure.

Initially Sam was not over the moon about considering one of these houses but the more we looked at the brochure, the more tempting it was.

For the same price as an older home, we could buy a new one with two extra bedrooms, a garage and a larger garden. The house itself was tastefully designed and we discovered we could have significant input into the choice of fixtures and fittings if we bought quickly and “off-plan.”

A Choice of Flooring

A few days later we made an offer and it was accepted. The building company explained that as we had got in at an early stage, not only did we have a choice of bathroom tiles and kitchen units, but we could also – within reason – choose our flooring. If we wanted something particularly expensive we could make our own choice and they would contribute.

To begin with, we looked at the kitchens and the bathrooms. The units we had opted for in the kitchen were a simple, light blue, painted wood.

We considered the possibilities here and eventually opted for shiny white porcelain tiles. They worked well with the colour of the units, gave the whole kitchen a bright fresh appeal and – best of all – would be easy to keep clean.

Light Tiles

This floor then really set the tone for the whole house. The new house would be very airy and having light flooring would further enhance this. Our bathrooms would also have a clean, minimal look, with modern white and chrome fittings. In the end we opted to put travertine on the walls and floors in here.

It was a more expensive option and we had to make a contribution ourselves but I love bathrooms and was prepared to pay to have what I wanted.

When it came to the rest of the house, we decided to go for Carpeting – it was simply a question of which carpet for which space.

The children were all given a choice of colour for their own rooms and, with the exception of my son, who opted for a dark blue, they all chose coffee or mocha shades. The carpets being offered by the builder were good quality and reasonably thick so we were pleased.

Carpeting the Living Areas

In the hall and stairs we went for a wheat shade that was slightly flecked. We felt this would keep the space, which would only have one skylight window, reasonably light but might not show up the dirt as much as a plain, light colour.

For the sitting room, we chose a sisal. We felt this Natural Carpet had a slightly classier look and it was worth paying a bit more again ourselves here.

The house seemed to go up fairly quickly and it was fun watching it being fitted out with everything we had chosen ourselves. We had no regrets as we saw the flooring being laid and have had none since.

When you buy an old house you tend to stick with the flooring that is there until you can eventually get around to replacing it. This gave us the chance of a genuine fresh start right from the beginning – and we loved it.

See Also
Couple and dog sat on the bare floor of their new home
Flooring for a Newly Built Home
Woman choosing floor colours
How to Choose a Floor Colour for Your Home