Your living room is the room your family spends the most time in, so you want to be sure that you have a floor built to deal with everyday wear and tear that will stand the test of time. However, this doesn't mean you need to compromise on style! If you're stuck on flooring ideas for your living room and need a little inspiration, we look at the best lounge floor ideas for each material, from wooden floors to tiles.
What is the Best Flooring for a Living Room?
There are two main considerations you have to bear in mind when choosing your type of living room flooring, from laminate to vinyl or solid wood. For example, practicality is a big factor as your floor has to match your specific needs. The second consideration is style and whether the colour or finish of your flooring fits in with your aesthetic.
Practicality
Perhaps not the most exciting aspect of choosing your flooring, however practicality should play a key role in your decision. It's important your flooring is suited to your family and can offer longevity. For example, a person living alone can get away with any type of flooring. Whereas big families with young children or pets may have to consider other aspects. Such as whether the flooring is waterproof or scratch-resistant.
If these are your main concerns, vinyl or laminate flooring are the most durable types of floors and often are moisture resistant. These floors can mimic the look of solid wood at a fraction of the price.
However, if you're after a genuine wood option, engineered flooring with a lacquered finish offers a level of protection. Or layering a rug onto solid wood floors can also work wonders to maximise your floor's lifespan.
Our Room Compatibility Chart gives further information for the best type of flooring for each room.
Style
As well as practicality, style should also be considered with your flooring, and colour and finish play a huge role in the overall look of your living room. For example, wooden shades such as oak or pine can help create a rustic atmosphere in your home. However, for something more modern, consider vinyl or laminate in shades such as white, grey or black.
Colours can also tie into practicality. For example, if your house is often prone to mess, a darker shade of flooring can help hide any dirt or stains. Or if you have a smaller living room, light floors, whether vinyl, laminate, or wood, can help create the illusion of a bigger space.
Living Room Flooring Ideas
Once you've determined the best type of flooring for you, you can further delve into the different styles of flooring and experiment with living room flooring trends. Below are our favourite living room floor ideas for each style of flooring, from wood effect floors to tiled flooring.
Wood Floor Ideas
Whether you opt for laminate, vinyl, engineered wood or solid wood, wood effect flooring is a highly popular choice for the living room. Dependent on your chosen finish or shade, this can create a warm welcoming charm, or a cool and sleek exterior. Our favourite wooden flooring living room ideas include various shades and patterns.
Dark Wood Floors for Living Rooms
Dark wooden shades are a timeless look for any living room and are achievable with all types of flooring, including laminate, vinyl and solid wood. Shades such as oak, walnut and chestnut never go out of fashion and add a sense of elegance to your living room. Not to mention, as stated earlier, these dark hues can help hide any marks or stains, so are ideal if you have little ones.
Coloured Wood Floors
For more contemporary spaces, coloured wooden floors are also a firm favourite in living rooms. For example, there are plenty of white, black or grey wooden floors to choose from. While offering a striking finish, these shades are neutral enough to complement any existing colour scheme, so you don't have to worry about matching your flooring to your furniture.
If you are someone who changes their mind often however, you can opt for a new colour, even with solid wood floors. For example, you can sand down your floor and refinish it with a different stain or lacquer!
Parquet Living Room Floors
Parquet brings the style of your living room to an entirely new level. This antique, iconic design has been trendy for centuries, and is making even more of a comeback in 2021. Parquet floors add depth and another patterned element to your room, without looking to busy and overwhelming. You can opt for a traditional herringbone, stylish chevron or even a unique Dutch pattern, like the Kahrs Oak Palazzo Biondo.Wide Planks
Finally, another wood floor idea perfect for living rooms includes wide planks. Extra wide planks, whether laminate, engineered or solid wood, are typically 189mm or over in width. Wide plank wood flooring offers a sense of elegance whether you're after a traditional or contemporary look. Because of the typical width of these planks, they're also great for showcasing the natural grooves and knots of solid wood.
Tiled Living Room Floor Ideas
If you don't fancy wooden flooring, tile effect flooring is a highly popular choice for living rooms. This creates a smooth and sophisticated look that also boasts longevity. For example, tile effect flooring comes in a vinyl material, which means it is water resistant and perfect for messy homes. Vinyl tile effect floors also offer versatility and are available in a wide range of styles and colours.
Stone Effect Flooring
Stone floors can typically be cold and hard underfoot, but stone effect vinyl floors have been expertly crafted to have the texture of real stone, without having your feet freezing cold every morning! Stone in the living room has become much more on-trend recently, with open spaces being highly sought after. Stone effect flooring can open your space, and make it look much more luxurious. These floors are available in a range of colours, from dark slate grey to white marble options.
Black Tile Effect Flooring
You can't go wrong with black flooring. Similar to the dark wooden floors, dark tile effect flooring is also a popular option. Black tiles provide a sleek and contemporary style to your living room that will never go out of fashion for years to come.
Living Room Rugs
Finally, if you're looking for a way to freshen up your living room, but don't fancy the idea of a new floor, a rug can make a massive difference! A solid colour rug brings the focus to the soft and fluffy texture of the rug. Or you can also opt for a patterned rug if you want to really change up your space. Persian patterns are ideal for creating a vintage, romantic aesthetic. However for something more modern, consider geometric styles.
If you're unsure on the best flooring for your living room or would like more advice, please visit our Flooring Guides or get in touch with our team.
Check out our inspiration centre to see a collection of moodboards, before and after images and Our Floors, Your Style to see how our customers have styled our floors in their own homes.
