This post is in partnership with Boardwalk Hardwood Floors and Vintage Flooring. All opinions are my own.
I am so excited to share that this year we will be taking on the biggest DIY project for our home. This has been a project over 10 years in the making and I am thrilled to have you along for the ride. If you have followed my Instagram Stories for any period of time, you know I love baseboards. Big, tall baseboards. Living in our home for over 13 years, well it just has the sad little baseboard that came with the house 25+ years ago. We agreed that it seemed silly to do the baseboards until we were ready to upgrade our flooring.
Well, we are officially ready to upgrade our flooring and in partnership with our friends at Boardwalk Hardwood Floors and Vintage Flooring, we are going to go on a journey together to share how to pick the right hardwood flooring for your home. Over the next year, we are going share the process of selection, installation, room reveals and maintenance tips and tricks to keep those floors looking amazing for years to come!
Boardwalk Hardwood Floors
Boardwalk Hardwood Floors is a small, local, family-owned company serving the St. Louis Metro Area for more than 22 years. Boardwalk sets itself apart by educating the customer on product, installation, refinishing, and proper maintenance of your new floors. Their goal is to educate and have the tools and resources available for you to install your gorgeous new floors in your home. Perfect for the do-it-yourself homeowner. Not feeling as adventurous? Boardwalk also has professional installers available to help you out.
Vintage Flooring
We selected a floor from Vintage Flooring. They are based in Canada and have been manufacturing hardwood flooring for over 30 years. They pride themselves on longer than average floor plank lengths and their wide selection of sizes and finishes. Over 10 sizes, 4 grades, 100+ colors, 3 gloss levels. All Vintage finishes are 99% VOC and formaldehyde-free, something this mom is always concerned about.
Now, with the best guys town (Boardwalk) and so many options to chose from, it was time to decide on what floor would be best for our home. If Vintage sounds familiar, you may have seen them featured on several shows on HGTV and DIY with Mike Holmes and others.
The Plan
The floor plan for our home is fairly open. For this project, we will be adding new hardwood floors to the office, formal dining, entryway, living room, kitchen, and mudroom. Currently, half of the space has carpet and a half has an older lighter colored small plank that is laying on top of some very dated laminate. Our goal is to remove all of those areas, replace them with hardwoods, and new baseboards.
Floor Selection
Our friends at Boardwalk make the selection process as easy as it can be. There are quite a few things to think about when selecting hardwood. We met with the showroom manager, Justin, at the St. Peters location and had conversations about our home, our lifestyle, who lives at our house, and traffic levels to determine what would be a great fit for our home. With having a young busy family and a dog, Justin suggested going with a darker more textured look.
He indicated that there are 4 main factors when considering hardwood flooring selections – the color, the gloss, the grain, and the texture. All of these are things you can discuss when you visit a showroom.
Our Pick
Don’t tell Jeff I told you, but he ended up picking the winner. We opted for the Vintage Red Oak Harbor in 4 1/4 plank from the Sculpted Collection.
A modern twist on traditional hand-scraped hardwood floors, made in Canada from premium oak hardwood. “Sculpting” the wood adds depth, detail, and practicality for daily use. Another great choice to help hide everyday wear.
Doesn’t that sound like the best description ever? My recommendation would be to bring home a few samples to try in your home. The lighting can vary from the showroom to even parts of your house. I was convinced this would be too red for our home, but it turns out, it was perfect. We borrowed larger samples to bring home for the weekend to see what fit in our home best.
Other than picking out the flooring, we also needed to be able to provide square footage of the space that we were looking to update. If you have a copy of the floorplan to your home that will work great, or you can measure your rooms as well. You’ll also need to count how many floor registers you would need to replace as well as any transitional areas that would bump up against the flooring. If you are unsure about what those areas would look like, the team can direct you what to look for.
Next Steps
We have officially ordered our Harbor Red Oak Sculpted flooring and expect to accept delivery by the end of June. This will give us plenty of time to learn more about how to manage this project. In our house, my engineer husband does not let anyone do any projects he can tackle. He has experience installing hardwood floors for friends and family, so I have no doubt he’ll do a great job. We will also get to take a hands-on workshop at Boardwalk where Jeff and Justin will create a game plan on where to start the project in our home. I love that we are being set up for success before we even start.
Boardwalk Hardwood Floors also has the tools you will need for your project available to rent, so you’re not having to locate those as well. They really are making this project much easier already.
I’m so excited to be sharing this huge transformation with you this year. We have really enjoyed getting to know the team, they can answer any question they have and offer suggestions on what would be the best solution for your home.
If you are in the market for new flooring, you can find Boardwalk at their 3 locations in St. Louis or online on Instagram and Facebook. While Boardwalk is a St. Louis company, they have had clients from all over the country and can help you with your upcoming project regardless of where you’re located. Be sure to check their social for up to date showroom hours and availability, or book an appointment online.
Are you in the market for new flooring soon?
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