Reimagine Your Living Room With Laminate Flooring
Tired of lackluster floors dragging down your living room's style? We have exciting news - laminate flooring has evolved into a versatile designessential, offering fresh modern patterns, luxe finishes, and enhanced durability perfect for busy family spaces. Read on as we reveal the latest laminate innovations that make transforming your living room beautifully easy.
Laminate flooring has come a long way from basic oak wood patterns. Brands now offer abstract geometric designs, convincingly natural stone and concrete textures, customizable borders, and dramatic high gloss sheens previously only seen on real hardwood. Still affordable and easy to install, laminates are ideal for delivering stylish, long-lasting living room floors on a budget.
Laminate Flooring Advances Making It An Ideal Living Room Choice
Modern Patterns And Textures
Once limited mostly to basic wood visuals, laminate floors now showcase all sorts of eye-catching and modern patterns beyond basic plank designs. From painterly stripes to hexagons to abstract shapes straight out of an art gallery, today's laminates offer aesthetic versatility perfect for making a living room floor a focal point.
In addition to pattern play, textures take laminates to the next level. Many collections accurately emulate finishes like weathered barnwood, concrete, travertine stone, and bleached driftwood that add organic depth. choosing a textured surface amplifies visual interest and makes laminate floors perfect for spaces craving an extra style punch.
Integrated Underlayment And Extra Durability
Quality laminate flooring should last upwards of 15-25 years, especially in living rooms and bedrooms with less wear than kitchens. To increase stability and longevity further, many now feature an integrated underlayment backing that provides extra cushioning and sound dampening. Underlayment creates a more relaxed, comfortable feel underfoot - something especially nice for living spaces.
Additionally, top layer technologies like exotic wood species photographs fused onto durable resin cores allow premium laminates to better resist household scuffs. Their dense composition also deters moisture damage from inevitable drink spills. Upgraded scratch protection plus water-resistance give laminate floors impressive maintenance perks compared to natural hardwood prone to denting.
Stylish Finishes And Customizable Touches
For striking light reflection, we recommend a dramatic high-gloss laminate floor for swanky living rooms. Mirror-like sheens paired with sleek modern furniture exude upscale sophistication. Or take the opposite approach with a matte finish for an earthier element.
Some laminate brands allow for interesting customizable details through interchangeable borders, medallions, and mixed-width planks. Experiment with contrasting borders or medallion insets as a distinguishing factor. Mix widths for a dynamic patchwork effect.
Living Room Makeover Ideas With Laminate Floors
Modern And Sleek Style
For contemporary cool, try a monochromatic scheme mixing glossy laminate flooring, bright white walls, and sleek grey furniture. Add in sculptural light fixtures and sparse metallic accents for an edgy, runway-inspired living room only laminate durability can withstand.
Inviting Rustic Charm
Warm, textural decor helps balance out distressed wood-look laminate's slightly industrial vibe. Layer in cozy elements like linen curtains, woven blankets, and sheepskin rugs to craft a comfortably modern blend of old and new.
Bohemian Eclectic Mix
Go gorgeously global by maximizing mix-and-match laminate planks bearing an artisanal variety of stains, grains, textures and widths. Paint one wall a saturated jewel tone, then accent with vivid textiles, exotic greenery and worldly found objects.
Enhancing Your Living Room With Laminates
Layout And Floor Plan Advice
When deciding on laminate floor installation, first assess your living room's size and traffic flow. Leaving a slight gap around the perimeter allows seasonal expansion and a floating layout simplifies fitting planks in place. Stagger seams randomly for stability.
Strategically using area rugs atop laminate flooring easily defines sitting, entry and media zones within large living rooms. Rug padding prevents slips while protecting floors underneath.
Mixing Other Elements With Laminate
To guard against dents from heavy furniture, use wide felt pads on chair and sofa legs. For additional sound buffering, roll a rug underneath main sitting areas. Place mats under removable tables to catch condensation rings.
Rather than ending laminate floors abruptly at doorways, overlap room transitions using coordinating threshold trim for a seamless look. Etched glass inserts, sleek metal strips, or timber transitions bridge spaces smoothly.
Lighting And Accessories
Properly illuminating laminate flooring showcases color variations and wood grains. Position recessed can lights or sleek track lighting to graze floors at an angle that casts dimensional texture. Accent shaded floor lamps also direct flattering light.
Style coffee, console tables and shelving atop the flooring surface rather than wall mounting for a cohesive ensemble. Incorporate ceramic garden stools, woven baskets and nature-inspired art that references laminate patterns.
Beyond basic oak, today's laminate floors offer innovative patterns, detailing and durability that beautifully transform living rooms on any budget. Their realistic visuals and enhanced longevity stand up well to families, pets and entertaining. Our guide covered the latest design trends to get you started imagining the laminate possibilities!