Men of the world, it’s time to wave away the boring beige carpet with suspicious stains and dirty footprints with two middle fingers.
Flooring is often one of the most neglected areas of interior design for beginners. That’s why we’re taking a step back today to show you the best flooring alternatives since Nutella-lined floorboards. Watch and learn.
Carpets for days
Carpet with cowhide
Add personality (and cover ugly floors) to a boring room with a combination of carpets arranged around your house. Mix and match styles and colors, and be sure to have rugs of different sizes to create depth and interest. Play around with the pattern and texture until the bottoms of your pad look and feel right.
A few male favorites:
Cowhide: Consider cowhide leather to add texture and softness to a room. Coordinate the surrounding decor to include tones in your cowhide rug.
Shag rugs: Shag rugs are perfect for winter and can be used to add warmth and texture to a room.
Cure with concrete
Go hard or go home
Smooth, sleek, and refined concrete floors are the pinnacle of masculinity. Choose polished or matte finishes depending on your style and furniture. When the concrete rush escalates, it’s also helpful to note that this type of flooring is quick and easy to clean and maintain – always beneficial to the busiest of gorgeous bastards.
Tile it up
Tiler
Most of us associate tile floors with the bathroom, but they can also be a great alternative to carpets.
Tile floors are perfect by Australian standards and provide the home with a natural cooling mechanism and easy-to-clean properties. There are clay tiles for a slightly Mediterranean feel, ceramic or glass tiles for a polished look, travertine tiles for a warm and cozy floor, and a variety of other options to suit every style.
Sealed tile floors receive bonus points for their antibacterial and hypoallergenic properties. They are also waterproof and more durable than carpets.
Include your hardwood
In the forest
Nothing compares to a well-laid and treated wooden floor. Natural, warm and refined wooden floors come in different styles. We love old wood floors that are unbeatable in terms of character and charm.
For something more interesting, two-tone wood (layered in a grid pattern) is a great option and can soften an overly masculine space.
A touch of bamboo
The bamboo solution
Pandas have known it all along, and now interior designers are jumping on the bamboo cart. Similar to its hardwood siblings, bamboo floors are sturdy, durable, and stylish.
Bamboo is popular with the environmentally conscious and more environmentally friendly than traditional hardwood. Unlike pine, maple, birch, or mahogany, bamboo is a member of the grass family and grows quickly and productively, making it more sustainable than most other types of flooring.
Cork it up
Not just for packaging bottles
Uncork a bottle of wine and celebrate the versatility of cork by setting it on the floor.
If you think that bamboo floors are sustainable, then you will meet the eco-cork tree. This bad boy doesn’t have to be hacked to produce the goods. Rather, the bark of the cork tree is stripped and treated to create the end product.
Cork is treated and stained (or sealed) and tends to be warmer underfoot than traditional wood. Hence, those who live in the cool southern states should consider this renewable flooring.
Linoleum lined
Line up the lino for a great look
Lino floors are often perceived as old and sticky. After its heyday in the 1970s and 80s, lino has become increasingly unpopular and is unjustly associated with cheap and nasty synthetic vinyl floors. However, “real” linoleum flooring consists of natural materials such as limestone, resin, linseed oil, jute and other organic components.
Thanks to the fire resistance of the material, Lino floors are ideal for everyone who lives in the bush or in areas at risk of fire. Likewise, people who suffer from allergies, asthma or an aversion to germs are recommended to make optimal use of Lino’s antimicrobial powers. This is because the linseed oil in linoleum kills germs and unhealthy microbes.
A bit of column A, a bit of column B.
Be the mix master
The purists out there may argue that durability is the key to a well-functioning and attractive home, but we say there are no rules when it comes to flooring.
Why not try combining a concrete kitchen floor with a hardwood living area? The juxtaposition is modern and eye-catching, with the two meeting perfectly (i.e. the industrial nature of concrete with the warming / rustic look of hardwood).
This type of decoration is especially useful in studio apartments where carpets can be used to separate different areas (living, dining, etc.) and give a small house more floor space.
Whichever floor option you choose, always install the appropriate underlay or contact the store or supplier that your floor came from to avoid costly breakdowns.
Comments are closed.