eNewsletter Archives
June 2008: Selecting the right Flooring for your entire home
Hello, this is Dana Smithers from Sun On My Back Redesigns,
Thank you for taking time to read my newsletter. I always feel very privileged to know that so many of you enjoy my newsletters and that I am helping you create more beauty and harmony in your homes for living and/or for selling. Thanks for all your feedback!
This month's topic in keeping with our Decorating 101 theme is all about flooring. Flooring can be a costly expenditure and yet most of us do have to replace and upgrade our flooring every 10 15 years.
DECORATING 101
Selecting the right Flooring for your entire home.
The challenge of selecting the flooring for your home can seem overwhelming at times because you need to pick the right' type of flooring for each room/area. To pick the right flooring here are some things to consider:
Choosing FLOORING for LIVING:
Consider what you want to do in each room i.e. what is the function in each room? If the function is day-to-day eating then you want flooring that can be easily cleaned tiles, vinyl, laminates; is it going to be used by children to play in, then cleanliness and care of the flooring needs considering durable patterned carpet, laminate or vinyl; is it a heavy traffic area that will get plenty of wear and tear tiles, vinyl, laminates; are you looking for something that feels luxurious on your feet requiring little care thick pile carpet or area rugs; low traffic area with an updated look hardwood.
Other key considerations can be the amount of direct sunlight in the room flooring can fade; how much dirt, dust and moisture are in the room these conditions require more maintenance; what the new flooring is going to replace check what is underneath the existing flooring.
It is usually recommended that you keep your flooring choices down to 3 or 4 at the most. The most traditional choices of flooring include hardwood, laminate, ceramic tiles, carpeting, vinyl/linoleum.
Flooring comes in all different design options so find the one that gives you the look that you want i.e. clean and sleek, warm and cozy, sophisticated and trendy, etc.
TIP: If you scratch your hardwood flooring one of the best products out there is a liquid product called No-Scratch which can be purchased from Mohawk Western Finishing Supplies in Vancouver BC at 604 324 6787.
Choosing FLOORING for SELLING:
Creating the right look' is of key importance in staging your house to sell and keeping the number of different types of flooring throughout the home to 3 is best.
In many recent home selling polls hardwood comes out in the Top 3 best Return On Investments (ROI) and is the most popular choice for most buyers
Select your flooring to work with the undertone of your paint colours and vice versa. If you are buying some new flooring look at the undertone to ensure it works with the existing flooring.
Keep all your flooring neutral i.e. not too dark and not too light and not too fancy as the goal is to create broad buyer appeal
TIP: When cleaning your tiles use sandpaper to get the grout sparkling clean. Thanks to Tanja Powell of Powell Painting for that tip. She does amazing work and can be reached on the North Shore in BC at 604 314 8178.
NB: The cost of your flooring per square foot or per tile may seem reasonable but remember to ADD your labour costs into your budget before you make your final selection! Consider what you have to have taken up and removed - that can be a hidden' expense.
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Each month we are looking for the 'right' Training Homes that we can teach our students Staging for Selling, and Redesign for living. All of our Training Programs involve some component of hands-on work in real client's home. Check out our website under SERVICES for more details.
A recent client testimonial:
"I was so excited when Dana said she was going to use our home for training purposes. She had just done my mother-in-laws and it looked great. I'm a busy mom with kids and a dad that coaches and plays many sports so you can imagine how much stuff' we had around our house. Having Dana come was great incentive to get rid of some of our clutter and at the same time make some changes that I had been putting off. Well when I came home everything felt much calmer and looked so much more attractive. As Dana said we have the right pieces just not in the right places! Our family room just seems so much more spacious now and with the television in the tv armoire where it belongs, well just awesome! All of my accessories look like they belong together instead of here and there where I had them. Can't thank you and your students enough for the great calming changes in our home! Julie & Family"
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Register One Month early and save $100! Register on line or contact us NOW to save your space, or be Waitlisted. Monthly courses are almost all FULL! Course cost is going up in 2009.
July 21st July 25th VANCOUVER BC
August 11 - 15th VANCOUVER BC
September 15 - 19th VANCOUVER BC
October 6 10th KELOWNA
November 3 7th VANCOUVER BC
COMING SOON - New and better classes in 2009. Stay tuned for more courses in Victoria and Calgary!
In Complete Gratitude,
Dana J. Smithers
Dana J. Smithers 
