When it comes to designing a space to unwind in, carefree flooring options are your ticket to a relaxing holiday, says Carpet Court ambassador Jane Carolan
3 low-maintenance flooring options perfect for the bach
The promise of long, warm and breezy summer days naturally leads us to want to throw open the doors, kick off our shoes and move the children outside. Feeling the first, albeit brief hint of spring means the imminent arrival of days at the beach and that indoor-outdoor flow we New Zealanders inherently design our homes around.
While we tend to layer and soften our urban interiors, this is not normally the case for those escaping to the beach or another retreat. Holiday homes are exactly that – a space to holiday and relax in – so their surfaces and design elements need to reflect the stress-free nature of the environment. Flooring is a great component in making life easy in these homes. Happily, there are a number of low-maintenance yet luxury-feel flooring products to choose from that are both durable and affordable.
1. Vinyl
Don’t be afraid of vinyl – its uses and sustainability are endless. The pattern and format, in both tile and plank designs, offer a world of choice and provide durability and no-fuss care. Enhance beachy vibes with a light board-style vinyl in blond, ash or light oak. Layer this with textured rugs in sea grass or sisal, or a good loop-pile carpet square along the lines of Carpet Court’s Galaxy or Oakland.
Bring the texture and softness up from the floor and into your furnishing and fabric choices. Pick a colour theory for these spaces and keep it simple. This environment is about ease, absence of clutter and freedom to move and breathe. Jazz up bathrooms and laundry areas with a printed vinyl or tile format such as Primetex Harlem Taupe or Texline Comfort Fado Perla.
2. Laminate
Taking the world by storm thanks to its ease of use, both in installing and in everyday life, the new laminate flooring is revolutionary. The plank-form and short-form varieties available enable you to be creative in your flooring patterns.
There’s no need to limit your imagination to long, wide boards. Beautiful parquet, herringbone or diagonal pattern formats allow interesting and hardwearing design elements to come into play. Even better, there’s no compromising on usability, durability or affordability.
3. Luxury vinyl tile
Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) places a digitally formatted photograph between the backing of a tile or plank and a clear-wear layer. Manufacturing designers need only to photograph their desired wood to create a natural-looking, durable product for a third of the cost of a hardwood floor. There is also a texturisation method applied to some brands, which captures the feel of the wood. LVT is a durable material resistant to moisture and climate-change effects.
This type of flooring, found in Carpet Court’s Scandia range, is perfect for running through the whole house, including wet areas. Due to the in-and-out nature of play that happens on vacation, you can look at running a hard surface like this through the majority of the home and soften it with large rugs in the bedrooms and living spaces.
This also gives you the ability to add some of that all-important layering, which creates interest and softness. Given this is a holiday home, you can move away from the more strident rules of design and think about lightening the floor to suit a beach environment, or use a textured wide plank in a farm-style house location.
The team at Carpet Court know floors like no one else does.
Their showrooms across New Zealand offer a free, no-obligation measure and quote service, either in-store or in the comfort of your own home.
To find a store near you, visit carpetcourt.nz or call 0800 787 777.
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