Help! I need decorating help!

[hatredisnotavalue]

We are finally biting the bullet and getting flooring for the house. I live in a log home, with orange gold pine walls and ceilings. The fireplace is a varied brick, the white, red and burgundy kind with a slab of white granite as the mantel.

My husband and I like the burnt red brick ceramic tile , not too orangy. My son wants the off white ceramic tile and my daughter says go with wood flooring. All would look good, but I just need some guidance! What would you suggest?

[skygazer]

1. Where do you live?

I'd go with wood myself - it's warmer both literally and to look at.

[hatredisnotavalue]

3. Maine

I love the wood too, but I am worried because some of the rooms are so small it would look like a match box. I have soft pine on the floors right now, unfinished, but have pets and a dirt driveway and worry about how scarred up these would get. I could put wood flooring on top of the wood flooring, but again I worry about the durability.

[Lars39]

2. Dark hides dirt better than light.

The tile would give your eyes a rest from so much wood. :)

[hatredisnotavalue]

5. We will be putting

orientals on top of the tiles, so I guess if I was going to go with a light oriental I would go with a light tile. But if I go dark, I would have to go with dark oriental and that would close the rooms in to much. But then the light will show the dirt from the kids and dogs. AGGHHH!!!!

[Lars39]

13. A bonus to the tiles you like is that it has some passive solar results

that could help with your heating bills. :)

[mtnsnake]

4. There's only one way to go...

antique wide plank flooring, recycled from old homes or buildings. You'll have a floor to brag about, and it's so good to see the old stuff recycled. Log cabins and old wide plank flooring are a match made in heaven. Wide pine would probably be nice, but there are also other nice choices like chestnut, hemlock, etc. Old reclaimed lumber is much better quality than the flooring that you can buy new because the old stuff has it's growth rings much closer together, making it denser, stronger, and better looking, too.

Only drawback, is it's more expensive because it's labor intensive to get the stuff, but what the heck, you can do it.

[hatredisnotavalue]

6. Funny you should say that

At our first house, we found we had pumpkin pine flooring under the hideous wall-to-wall rugs. The day we refinished the floors was the day before we sold the house because the buyer just loved the floors.

[mtnsnake]

10. Yup, those are really in. It's amazing how many awesome floors are hidden

by layers of carpeting, plywood, particle board, linoleum, etc. Every now and then, as a sideline, I tear apart an old house that's scheduled for demolition, just for the old flooring. Sometimes I have to remove several layers of whatever is nailed over the top, then take it out board by board, then remove the old square nails one by one. I just tore up a floor a few weeks ago that was well over a hundred years old. Good luck. Your cabin sounds nice.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. Harvest Gold tile

:D

[applegrove]

8. Go with wood flooring. You can get it in almost any tone. Skip pine

floors. They are too soft.

Wood.

Keep with the rustic look. And remember - the biggest & most expensive items in your house, like floors, should be the most classical in style (according to what type of house you have). Then you can dress it up with paint (sounds like your walls should never have paint since they are logs) or art or area rugs or cushions which are all cheaper.

Don't do trendy on the floor.

In reality you should go online and look at log cabins and see what the Model homes or magazines have on their floor. So you would be copying what the designers have done.

And you should sit on something you think you like for a few months (have a ideas file for this websites) and see how your decision feels in a bit.

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/ara-loghome.html

[applegrove]

11. White tiles would be wrong. You could use cheap wood and paint

it different colors to change the mood (traditional green or blue colors or a stencil - if you use cheap & thick plant wood flooring - the paint decorative arts are traditional too in old homes). That might be fun. Or use stone like slate - but hard to keep clean. Don't know about sealer. But definitely in not a white. And red is just so red. Sounds like your place is already so warm - a red tile would just make it more expansive. I know spanish looking tiles are gorgeous - but think about it - they are usually in plaster homes. So the red doesn't overwhelm.

"Floors in rustic country decor and cottage style homes are made with stone or wood materials. Wooden floors were traditionally constructed with boards that were bare and simply waxed and hand-polished (high-gloss varnishes did not exist). Sometimes the boards were painted with light colors. If you like floor coverings, use oriental rugs and throws for visual warmth and color. Rustic country decor is about handcrafted objects, simplicity, furnishings that you enjoy and connecting back to nature".

http://www.hotlib.com/articles/show.php?t=Rustic_Country_Decor_-_How_To_Decorate_Cottage_Style_Homes

[applegrove]

12. I like hemlock flooring. They'll put it in and come around with knot

fillers and pound those into the holes afterwards. Very rustic. Though knotty.

http://www.conklinsbarnwood.com/flooring.html

[xchrom]

9. rustic wood flooring

recycled if you can get it -- and definitely wide plank.