Building The Woods and Ivy Cottage – Flooring

Ever since we started planning The Woods and Ivy Cottage, we had absolutely no clue what to do for flooring.  If we had a crystal ball and could see how long we will be living there, our decision would be easier.  We could both handle concrete floors for six months or so, but I truly think it will be a LOT longer than that.  If you are confused about this whole plan of ours, read this post where I explain everything.  If we started building our house tomorrow, which obviously we aren’t, it would still be a year.  In discussing living with concrete floors for a few years, we had a few drawbacks.  First off, we cannot paint/stain/epoxy our concrete floors because of the type of sealer concrete boy applied to the slab…  so that is that.  Secondly, the coldness.  Here in Indiana/Ohio, it is FREEZING in the winter months.  We are afraid the cottage would be so cold during those months.  Thirdly, the natural grayness of concrete.  I love the color gray in other people’s homes.  I absolutely cannot live with the color gray.  It makes me feel gloomy.  The dark days are of winter are so gloomy here in the midwest and I think gray reminds me of that.  You all know I have issues with SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Therefore, we went on a hunt to find a warm flooring which can be installed over concrete. We didn’t want to be living with concrete floors for any longer than we had to.

Flooring That Can be Installed over Concrete

The first thing we had to take in consideration was that we are installing flooring over concrete. Which instantly limits the type of flooring we can use.  It has to be VINYL.  And if you find a laminate that doesn’t have wood as one of the layers, that may be a possibility too. 

Deb and I had a few MUSTS when it came to flooring which is safe over concrete. 

• Warm colors naturally found in wood
• Looks like REAL wood
• Low cost since this is a temporary living space
• Not a LOT of color variation in each piece
• NO GRAY tones

We searched high and low for a WARM colored flooring.  By warm, I mean warm brown tones that aren’t bright orange and doesn’t pull gray once laid out in massive quantities.  We found several different samples and once we got them to the cottage, they looked completely different.  Honestly, I was just about to give up.  EVERYTHING looked gray.  Deb ran to Menards for a few boards for a project and decided to run back through the flooring section.  She called me because she found a few that she thought would work.

I told her to bring an entire box of each of them home so that we could actually lay them out in the cottage and check them in the light.  There were two that we eliminated immediately.  We didn’t even need to take them out of the box.  They were light gray.  There were two that we thought were gorgeous.

Flooring Samples

We loved both of these! 

The first one???????? was Legacy brand in the color, Classic.  It is really pretty and has three different sized “boards.”  We both LOVED AND KNEW we would love it once we got it to the cottage.   The color was very calming.  

The second one ????????  looked pumpkin orange in the store.   It’s Great Lake Vinyl Floors in the color Vintage Pine.  The Vintage Pine color had me intrigued.  You know we are planning real pine wood flooring for our home.  ????

At the Cottage

Once at the cottage… things changed.

The one we THOUGHT we would love, is the one that almost read COOL colors… aka gray.  The one that was BRIGHT ORANGE in the store, read a perfect amount of warmth and looked like REAL WOOD.  We found the one we LOVED.

TIP:   Make sure you take an entire box to your own home and lay them out to see what the lighting does to it.  I was shocked that the PUMPKIN ORANGE flooring was the one we loved. 

Stay tuned for the installation of this flooring.  This will be OUR job.  I shared what our jobs will be in this post, if you missed it.

LIVING WITH CONCRETE FLOORS