In this post: We’re sharing our brand new laminate floors!
We are SO very very very excited to show you our new floors today!
Finally decorate your own home – with confidence!
You’re so much closer to a beautifully-decorated home than you think. You just need a little help to get there!
Like super-duper-crazy-bouncing-off-the-walls-thrilled-to-share-a-million-photos excited!
They are so pretty!
After perusing all the choices at Lumber Liquidators, Dean and I settled on their Kensington Manor 12mm Sandy Hills Hickory Laminate based on this photo:
Yup, we picked our floors from a photo online. Gasp!
We actually went into our local store to see it in person after we found it online, but as luck would have it, they didn’t have it at a location near us. But they told us we could order it in from another warehouse and if we didn’t like it it was no big deal.
Hello!
Fabulous customer service.
Obviously we went ahead and ordered it!
When our flooring arrived, Dean rented a cargo van (we drive a Civic – we rent a cargo van a couple of times a year for things like this) and went and picked it all up. The moment I saw it in real life, I was smitten.
Afterall, this was what we had been living with BEFORE #projectlaminate!
Orange. Orange. Orange.
Not just orange, UGLY too!
Sidenote: For those of you who may be appalled that we covered hardwood (even parquet) with laminate, yes, we could have stripped down the parquet and refinished it in a darker stain. I’m sure it would have looked lovely. But Dean and I had two problems with that option: parquet is notorious for loose pieces (something Dean didn’t want to deal with forever) and there would have been scads of dust and mess in refinishing all that parquet (something I didn’t want to deal with even temporarily).
Besides we would have missed out on all the gorgeous hand-scraped goodness of the new laminate!
Being that it’s laminate and not hardwood, obviously it’s not actually hand-scraped. But man, it looks AND FEELS textured!
And at 12mm plus an attached 3mm underpad – it’s nice and thick!
I’ll let some beauty shots do the talking for a minute…try not to drool on your keyboard whilst you look.
I adore how the floor just continues on from the living room into the dining room…
Just look at the nice WHITE baseboard too! Totally makes the laminate go “pop”!
We even dared to put laminate in the kitchen!!!
I was totally worried about how we’d handle the stairs and railings, but Dean worked his magic while I was at a conference one Saturday and now we have this:
Uh-Mazing, yes? (Dean and the floors!)
Update…years later
The laminate held up like a champ, both in the main living areas and in the kitchen for the three years we lived in the house after the laminate was installed.
And I’m pretty sure the laminate throughout helped us sell that house for a pretty penny.
We honestly can’t say enough good things about these floors and Lumber Liquidators. The compliments we’ve received in person from friends, family, and visitors have been too numerous to count. And we are looking forward to installing new laminate at our new house.
How about you, do you love the new floors? Or were you sad to see the parquet go? (Btw, if you answer yes to that last question, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore. Just sayin’.) Do you have flooring you love? Or are you still dreaming of your perfect floor?
You can see the How to Install Laminate floors post here
*Disclosure: Lumber Liquidators generously gave us flooring in exchange for posting about their awesomeness. They did not tell us what flooring to choose or what to say. We were quite pleased with our LL flooring in our last house (that we PURCHASED) and are over-the-moon thrilled about our new Lumber Liquidators flooring in this house. We trust you all know by now that we wouldn’t post about or recommend anything we don’t love.
Your floors look great and that was some mastery by the stairs – we installed laminate last fall and we love it!
Laminate is so great, yes?! And Dean totally blew me away with the area near the stairs!
Your floor is GORGEOUS. Wow totally awesome. I ‘ve hated parquet since we had a flood in an apartment back in my student days.
That makes me laugh! I’ve had a bad association with parquet since college too when Dean and I lived in an apartment with parquet that just happened to be infested with cockroaches! So yeah, super yucky thoughts go with parquet for me too.
I have nothing against parquet, but your new floors are lovely!! Laminate is great for kitchen too- doesnt warp when wet like hardwood (tho, I always wonder what kind of water fights people HAVE in kitchens when they dismiss the idea of wood floors in there!)
I know! We’ve spilled on it a bunch already and it’s doing just fine. And our dog has slopped all over it too. No problems!
Love your choice Shannon! Gorgeous job!
Jo
Thanks, Jo! P.S. Did you see the Harvest sign post? Totally used the Beeswax you sent! LOVE!
I missed that one, I will go look now!
That is just BEAUTIFUL!! You wouldn’t know it was laminate!! Great job guys!
Laminate has come such a long way!!
It looks sooooooo good…great job as usual guys…xo
Beautiful! Your laminate looks very close to what we are installing in our home at the moment. Isn’t it nice! A lot work but totally worth it!
Where are you installing yours, Shannon?
We are doing the whole house about 1400sqft, even the stairs. We still need to do some prep, risers and painting on the stairs. Love your baseboards! đŸ™‚
Sounds like a big job! It’s so nice to have big white baseboards again!!!
Floors look great. We extended the laminate from into our kitchen and even have it in our front entry. It is doing great after 4 years and we have messy winters here on the east coast.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Love the look – what a great choice!
GORGEOUS floor, just beautiful you guys!!!
They look amazing Shannon! Congrats, Don’t you love how a finished floor ties the entire house and all the projects you’ve worked so hard on together? Love them!
Thanks, Tammara! I do love the finished look the flooring adds. đŸ™‚ How is your house and family?
Your new floors look so good!! He handled the railings like a Pro! Looks amazing đŸ™‚
I had Armstrong 12mm laminate flooring installed (not by me, too much for me) in a 1400 sq foot house and I have to say I was disappointed. I got 12mm because I didn’t like the clickiness of laminate and that part worked, no clicking at all, very solid. Exotic Walnut if I remember correctly, very attractive. But, it scratched in the middle of boards and chipped on the edges. And it’s me, careful 58 y/o lady w/small dog and 2 cats. I don’t know what was wrong. I was always crawling around with a Sharpie camouflaging scratches. I talked to the flooring store and Armstrong and got no real ideas or assistance. I have had great luck in the past with Bruce engineered hardwood floors and that was when my kids and their friends and bigger dogs were always in the house. If I do this again, I will get the Bruce engineered again or just go for real hardwoods. Your floors look beautiful, I hope you have better luck than I did.
I’m really sorry you had a bad experience. I have zero experience with anything other than Lumber Liquidators and they’ve been amazing. I hope your next experience is much better!
Hi! I’m loving your floors! Loving! We are replacing nasty carpet in our house but I’m struggling with color choice. I love what you used but do you find it darkens your house? Our house is pretty dark and I’m worried it will make it darker. Thanks!
I don’t find it too dark. But we do have several windows and I’d recommend light walls for sure! đŸ™‚
Im having the same flooring put in from LL and just curious, is there anything you would recommend on paint colors for the walls? I really like what you have on yours.
The living room walls, I’m not sure because it was this color when we moved in. The dining room is Sherwin Williams Analytical Gray and I’d definitely recommend that!
Hey, I just bought 3000 square feet of this flooring for our new home. So glad I found your pics it makes me know I made the right decision.
That’s great. New floors are so fun!
I love your floors. I came across your blog by searching the floors. I am so excited because we just ordered 900 sq ft of this flooring yesterday. We plan on installing it in our kitchen, dining room, living room, hall, den and even our master bedroom. I wouldn’t have picked it from the photo in the catalog but in person from the sample. We also had a great experience with our local lumber liquidators. I can’t wait to see it done and installed. Thanks for sharing your photos.
Oh how exciting! You’re so going to love the finished product!
That looks FANTASTIC, Shannon! I can hardly believe it’s laminate. Beautiful!
So excited to see your pictures because we just ordered this flooring today and now I know we made the right choice!!! Thanks for sharing.
Perfect! We have nothing but good things to say about our floors!
Hi Shannon, it seems to be about a year since you installed your floors? I’m wondering how they’re holding up so far? Do they scratch? I’m contemplating buying the same floor….
There is such a stigma connected to laminate and it’s killing my confidence in installing it!! I need it to look as good as new in 4ish years when we sell.
Also, I was telling myself that we should just go with hardwood since it will be a better selling point than laminate.. but if buyers see how good THAT flooring looks, I’m not sure they’d care much that it’s laminate?? And it’s sooo muchhh cheapperrrr.. lol
Thanks for any advice!
PS. I absolutely LOVE every detail in your house.. very inspirational to me.. thank you đŸ™‚
Hi Rachel! I’ve actually been thinking of doing a follow up post. But the gist is these floors rock! They take a beating, don’t show footprints and look fab!
Wow! Looks great love your style! Do you happen to have any more pics of the stairs and/or railing. We are installing this laminate and are not sure weather to put it on the stairs. We also have to put up railing at the top of our stairs!
We haven’t done the stairs yet. But the plan is to paint the risers white and stain the hardwood treads to match the laminate. I’m not sure it’s possible to do laminate on stairs as it’s a “floating” floor.
Love the floors. About to put down the same stuff and wondered how yours has worn. Thanks!!
They have been incredible!!! They take all sorts of kid and (small) dog abuse. Spills clean up easily too. Highly recommend them!
Hi Shannon, I’m debating whether to leave the tile in my front entrance and kitchen, or have this laminate extend all throughout the main floor (into hallway/kitchen). How does it hold up to foot traffic and water in these areas? Have you had to repair any of these areas yet? My guess would be that tile is better suited for this area, but I think aesthetically it would look much nicer. Thanks for your posts!
So, we have the laminate in the kitchen and it’s been perfectly fine with spills. BUT we live where it snows and there is subsequently a lot of salt that gets tracked in. For the main entryway then we have tile – I doubt the laminate could handle that much salt. Does that help?
Yes it does thanks! We get the snow/salt as well so that helps confirm I will keep my tile for that section đŸ™‚
Glad I could help!
love your floors!! I think I will get them too!! I just wanted your opinion…they don’t appear “orange” at all….but in person do you see any orange or cinnamon kinda coloring? Thanks!!
Nope, not orange!
Hi, love the look of your laminate flooring! Question do you have pets? Wondering how it holds up to dog claws?
Love your floors. We are currently looking for new flooring. Can you tell me the make & color of your floors?!
Do you have any extra boxes of the Sandy Hills Hickory? We had some damage in our kitchen and new some more planks to repair the area, but don’t have enough spares to finish the job. And it’s a discontinued product. Any way we could by some from you?
Oh Jared. I’m so sorry! We don’t have enough left. I hope you find some!