I have a question for the board, just looking for ideas. Currently in my house, we have carpet in the bedrooms and living room. The rest of the house is all tile (kitchen, dining room, hall ways, game room / office). And by living room, it's basically a square shaped area surrounded by tile. Essentially my living and kitchen are all one big room, and they used carpet in the living around to kind of distinguish it from the rest of the room (I presume).

So my issue is my kids have a cat. An older cat. That has issues. And no, I can't get rid of the cat . The carpet in the living area needs to be replaced, but I hate to replace it with just more carpet, as long as the cat is still living and breathing. The rest of the house (minus bedrooms) is all the same tile. I am not a huge fan of the tile and would ultimately like to replace it down the road with something else, but that's not happening any time soon. I am trying to come up with ideas for something to replace the carpet with that would just not completely clash with the existing tile. Anyone ever seen two different flooring type (non-carpet) in a situation like this? Here are a couple of pictures. Please ignore the clutter, I am in the middle of painting my kids rooms

Picard said:

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Congrats on your new "replace everything with wood-look tile" project!

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Ha, nah. I won't be doing that. I'm not a fan of the wood look tile. When and if I eventually replace all the tile, it will not be with more tile.

I have seen a complimentary colored tile of the same size put in. Their carpeted area was outlined in tile on all four sides though. When they replaced it with more tile it looked deliberate. I am not sure you can get the same look as it appears your carpet goes to the wall.

If you did a dark wood floor it might look ok. The stark contrast might make it look more purposeful.

Something like this:

replace with carpet until u can replace everything with wood, that tile is hideous

Rustys-Beef-o-Reeno said:

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replace with carpet until u can replace everything with wood, that tile is hideous

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Dude, I wouldn't call it hideous, lol. It grows on you...

The tile in the pictures looks great to me! Nice choice of color - blends with just about anything. Nice installation. Well done.

Carpet does a number of things that are good: non-skid, sound reduction, insulative, decoration/pattern/color, etc., but has the distinct disadvantage of "hiding" soil, odors, stains, etc. Occasional steam cleaning for stains, odors, etc., is always good in addition to regular vacuuming. Carpet is good for kids to play on. People with walking issues requiring a cane or crutches do better on carpet. Wheelchairs not so much. Carpet's expected life span is typically 5-7 years (but we typically wait much longer to replace) - if not for being worn, as a decorator issue with "new" surface looks, i.e., accent pieces ala oriental/middle east/modern, etc., shag, cut pile, looped pile, wool, nylon, carpet tiles, patterned vs solids, wall to wall, etc.. Also depends on whether or not a pad is required and/or the type of "backing", length of pile, tuft bind, etc. Good carpet can be very costly.

Tile is permanent. easy to clean. hard to replace etc. Best for wet areas! along with sheet vinyl. Many options, colors, styles, etc.

The new vinyl plank stuff looks good and usually works well EXCEPT on concrete floors that do not have adequate water barrier proofing under the slab which causes the planks to peel, bubble, etc., - a real mess and almost impossible to fix.

Wood flooring - real oak, now bamboo, etc., engineered wood with veneer, plasticized coatings, etc., save all sorts of waxing but still need to be polished. Wood (oak) floors before plasticized finishes became available require a LOT of work to wax, maintain and look nice.

The old standby of vinyl (VAT asbestos now a no no), VCT, solid vinyl tiles, sheet vinyl, linoleum products, stretch wrap products, etc., work well but often get a bad rap for being "cheep"... inexpensive = less desirable somehow... but may be the best alternative all things considered.

All hard surface flooring is prone to show dust, ghost turds, dust bunnies, etc.... needs a lot of maintenance to keep looking nice.

Carpet tends to "hide" soil items and can be a person with allergies worst nightmare. Actually, commercial carpet maintenance is less expensive to maintain than hard tile or terrazzo type floors that have to be kept shiny and buffed to perfection.

hodgesco said:

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wood-look tile and sliding barn doors will be akin to shag carpet and pea-green bathroom tiles in 15 years.

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DING DING DING, We have a winner.

I couldn't agree more. 1960's = shag carpet. 1970's = single-color themed rooms. 1980's = mirrors everywhere. 1990's = brass fixtures. 2000's = too open floor plans. 2010's = wood-look tile. Ewww.

Love open floor plans

That room needs some color. Everything in that room is neutral (grey, tans and browns). I would put in a large area rug.

What about the way-too-open ones? Where there's a master bedroom lofted over the living room, with no doors or sound proofing? Or the ones where the living, informal dining, kitchen, formal dining, study, laundry room, and play room are all one giant room and only separated by columns so that it's noisy AF all the time?

I've only seen those kinds of floor plans build in the 1998 - 2012 era. I can't believe anyone ever thought that was a good idea.

That's dumb

Open time is kitchen living dining breakfast areas

I would put the Tuscan/Spanish style as the 2000s lasting issue at least on the upper end homes. I would put the mixture of brick, stone, siding all on one home as the 2010s. Nothing like red brick, white limestone, and some white hardy to really date a home.

Sorry. Didn't see the red brick and white limestone in the pictures. No offense there is about a million homes with that combo.

Good lord give the guy a break. I agree with above poster that says a darker wood for something to stand out. If the cat is still around go cheap with a dark laminate and once she is gone go with real wood. The contrast will look nice.
Sincerely,
Someone with the same age home who doesn't have tons of $$ to spend. And yes I've ripped out all my old flooring and replaced it.
Good lord this isn't the GB.

Finally getting around to revisiting this thread. Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I like the idea of vinyl or laminate. Something less expensive, easy to install and replace. I'd eventually like to replace all of the tile, probably with wood, so adding more tile is something I think I'd prefer to avoid.

I'd replace the flooring with carpet. In my opinion it will look better than the wood tile.

I'd get some cheap carpet until the cat dies.