Why We Chose Karndean Flooring | life and style

When we first stepped into our new-to-us 1963 A-frame, one of the first things that jumped out was the red shag carpet and the old dirty linoleum floors. We knew right away that replacing all the flooring was a must; and would be such a transformative part of the renovation we were going to take on. We just didn’t know exactly where to begin on choosing the right floors. Eventually I discovered Karndean Flooring and instantly fell in love.

Choosing a new floor can be a long and stressful process. You want to keep it clean and affordable, but you don’t want to sacrifice on style. We knew that we needed something sturdy and durable to handle the different seasons and outdoor lifestyle of Lake Tahoe. With all the snow we get in the mountains, we thought something waterproof would be smart to withstand the weather. But we also had a certain look in mind; and thought wood flooring would really add to the style of the cabin. But could we really have it all and find the perfect material.

We started to ask around. Mainly because they say the best advertising is word of mouth. So we wanted to see what others had found. Luckily for us, this is where we got introduced to Karndean floors. Some of our neighbor friends raved about their Karndean flooring that they recently installed.

One of the more affordable luxuries these days is vinyl flooring. This isn’t the 70s style patterned vinyl flooring from your grandmother’s house. Now, vinyl flooring is very versatile and can be found in many styles and varieties. One of those is Karndean luxury vinyl flooring.

For those that don’t know, Karndean is a vinyl flooring product made primarily from calcium carbonate (limestone), polyvinyl chloride and pigments. It is structured with five layers. Two PVC backing layers, one high definition photographic layer, one clear PVC embossed wear layer, and a top polyurethane (PU) protective coating.

At a glance, it can be difficult to tell if you are looking at real wood or Karndean. So whether you want your home to look beautiful or your business to look professional; Karndean will have a style that’s perfect for you.

WHY WE CHOSE KARNDEAN FLOORING FOR OUR CABIN

We knew when choosing flooring for the cabin that we wanted it to be water-proof, could hold up with heavy foot traffic and would be good for pets. Our pup Lola can get very excited when coming home or departing from the cabin so we wanted to keep that in mind. Karndean is GREAT for pets–they even have a dog in their logo!

Karndean flooring is washable and fully waterproof, making them ideal in bathrooms and kitchens where there are often messy spills or water on the floor. Any spills, whether water or any other liquid and dirt are easy to treat and clean in not much time.

You can bring the natural beauty of real wood and stone into your home. Knowing that you won’t have to worry about damage or wear. A Karndean floor only needs a regular sweep and a clean with a damp mop. All Karndean floors are guaranteed for a minimum of 12 years for commercial premises to a lifetime (35 years) for domestic use.

OUR DESIGN PROCESS

It’s important to visualize what your floor will look like in your home when you’re trying to choose the right color and design for your space. Since we were new to this type of flooring, we reached out to the Karndean design team to ask some further questions. The team was super helpful in orienting us to the various types of wood-style flooring; and opened our eyes to the tile-style flooring that we ended up using in the bathrooms.

We loved the look of a distressed wood floor and the idea of having them light or white to offset all of the natural wood and beams on the A-frame ceiling. Our cabin isn’t very big at 1,100 square feet…so anything to make it feel big and open was a must! The Karndean team helped us find a few different styles and we ultimately settled on the White Painted Pine for the majority of the cabin–living room, kitchen and dining, and sleeping areas. For our two bathrooms, we chose the Fumo natural stone-style flooring and added their design strips meant to look like grout lines–that definitely made it pop like a much pricier tile install.

From a design perspective, there’s so much to choose from with Karndean floors. There’s a wood effect to suit every style, size, and budget. When deciding what style would work best for our cabin, we started out by doing some research on their website. We looked over different styles, layout options and worked with their design team to choose the perfect flooring.

INSTALLATION OPTIONS

When it comes to installation, you have a couple of options. You could choose to go with a professional installer, have your contractor do the install or DIY it and do it yourself! We were working with a contractor for the majority of our project; and he was able to easily install himself with the supplies! If you’re looking for a professional Karndean retailer or installer near you, you can use Karndean’s search map.

Karndean floors can be installed easier and faster than alternatives like wood and stone. Our installer cleaned and prepped the sub-floor and applied a layer of the Karndean glue. Then they applied the flooring planks, secured into place and allowed the proper cure time. If you want to install your floors on your own, check out this helpful guide.

OUR LIVING SPACES

As mentioned, we chose the White Painted Pine glue-down flooring for the majority of our space. I loved the look of a white flooring but knew it would need to be CONSTANTLY cleaned since our cabin is in the woods with pine needles, dirt, snow slush, paw prints, etc being dragged through the house daily. When I first saw the White Painted Pine flooring sample I knew it was the perfect mix of my white-aesthetic I was going for; with the perfect mix of raw-pine speckled throughout to perfectly hide random bits of debris. I’ve never lived in a home that had this style of “visual camouflage”flooring before and I’m now a huge fan. Next time we need to upgrade our flooring at home, I’ll be choosing something similar. So I’m not constantly running around with the Dyson!

OUR BATHROOMS

We originally thought we would tile the bathroom floors (pre our knowledge of Karndean flooring). But quickly changed our mind after learning that Karndean had stone tile-style flooring options that were waterproof and looked just like stone. Since we planned on having friends and family spend a lot of time in the cabin, we wanted something that would be super durable and stand up to cracking. We chose the Fumo stone-style flooring and added concrete-colored design strips (aka grout lines). I personally have never seen anything like this in flooring. So I was blown away at the ability to have this look and style without having to have a tiler and much pricier materials. Major win!