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While most of us tend to focus on color and style when choosing flooring for a renovation project, thinking about the functionality of a room is just as important. After all, each room serves a very different purpose in our homes. Mudrooms contend with wet shoes and outerwear, busy kitchens see high traffic and frequent spills (and cleanups), and bathrooms deal with a whole other level of splashes and humidity. The flooring you choose must be tough enough to endure the environment and still look good doing it—and often, that’s not straight hardwood.
We sought out flooring solutions from The Home Depot that offer the distinctive look of wood and functionality to meet the unique challenges of various rooms throughout the house. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the home improvement retailer stocks options that blend aesthetics, durability, and DIY-friendly design through snap-together installation and integrated underlayment. Keep reading to find a flooring suggestion practically hand-picked for your next hands-on room update.
Scenario 1: A Mudroom Update
Often referred to as a “drop zone,” the mudroom is where household members shed their wet boots, shoes, and coats on the way into the heart of the home. Not surprisingly, this entryway can take a real beating, which is why the flooring in this part of the home must withstand moisture, gritty dirt, and shoes.
Try: Vinyl Plank
Vinyl plank flooring boasts both the water resistance and durability needed in a mudroom. Consider the highly-rated Lifeproof luxury vinyl plank flooring: Completely waterproof, resistant to scratches, and featuring a wear layer that’s 22 mil thick—that’s tough enough to endure the wet paws, shoes, and outerwear that a mudroom will see. We also like that Lifeproof is treated with an anti-microbial coating that resists mold and mildew, which can be problematic for mudrooms. Lifeproof comes in a variety of plank sizes and finishes, so you have plenty of style options to choose from. With its interlocking planks and pre-attached underlayment, Lifeproof flooring is also easy to install, a real plus if you’re planning to handle the installation yourself.
Scenario 2: A Busy Kitchen
The kitchen, perhaps, makes the most demands of flooring: This space sees constant foot traffic and is susceptible to splashes from the sink, drips from wet hands, and frequent food spills. So, a good kitchen floor must be both water- and scratch-resistant to hold up to this abuse.
Try: Vinyl Plank Flooring
With its excellent durability and water resistance qualities, vinyl plank flooring is the best option for your kitchen. Vesinet Oak from The Home Depot’s Lifeproof line is 100 percent waterproof, so it will hold up to the spills that are bound to happen in a kitchen. The added protection of an Ultra-Fresh treatment will resist mold growth on both the top and bottom layer of the flooring. And thanks to its 22 mil wear layer, it’s built to endure the heavy traffic that the heart of the home experiences.
Scenario 3: A Spacious Primary Bedroom
Choosing a wood flooring for updating the primary bedroom can be tricky. These tend to be the largest sleeping quarters in the home, so you need flooring that won’t show any repeating patterns.
Try: Engineered Wood
Affordable and authentically natural in appearance, engineered wood flooring works well in a spacious bedroom. To bring coziness to an especially large room, we like the Home Decorators Collection Kensington Hickory style: The extra-wide 7.5-inch planks come in random lengths up to 4 feet, which can help you quickly fill in the floor. Plus, the floors have a textured brushed finish with knots, mineral streaks, and other variations—the combination closely mimics the look of natural wood with a warm, rustic look. The Home Decorators line of engineered wood even features an aluminum oxide finish that’s stronger and more moisture-resistant than polyurethane finishes, which you’ll appreciate if you ever accidentally spill the glass of water off the nightstand.
Get Home Decorators Collection Kensington Hickory Engineered Hardwood Flooring for $2.99 per sq. ft.
Scenario 4: A Luxurious En Suite Bathroom
With sinks and showers nearby, bathroom flooring is bound to get wet regularly—that’s why ceramic tile is the most common flooring found in bathrooms. That doesn’t mean wood-look flooring isn’t an option, as long as you choose a completely waterproof product.
Try: Vinyl Plank
Known for its water resistance, vinyl plank flooring is the clear choice for bathrooms and a great alternative to traditional bathroom tile. Before bringing it into a bathroom, just double-check the product description, as not all lines of vinyl plank flooring are waterproof. We like Lifeproof luxury vinyl plank flooring for the bathroom because its interlocking planks ensure a 100 percent waterproof barrier. This hardwood alternative is both ready to be in a splash zone and easy to clean up. Plus, the surface has an antimicrobial treatment that makes it resistant to mold and mildew, which is always a potential problem in bathrooms.
Scenario 5: A Large Great Room
Great rooms don’t present the moisture threat to flooring that kitchens, mudrooms, bathrooms, and basements do. But these large spaces have their own challenges: With more square footage than most rooms, the flooring is a more visible feature. That means any flooring you install in a great room needs to look authentic, with no (or few) repeating wood grain patterns.
Try: Engineered Wood
Since engineered hardwood uses a real wood veneer, you won’t find repeating wood grain patterns on the surface even in a room where large stretches of floor are visible. With features nearly indistinguishable from solid hardwood, we like Home Decorators Collection engineered hardwood flooring for a great room. The medium tones of the wood complement lighter or darker furnishing finishes, and the floor’s wire-brushing surface treatment enhances the wood-look vibes. The best part? It costs only a fraction of similar hardwood styles—savings that will quickly add up in a room of more than 300 square feet. The glueless click-locking system also makes it easier to DIY the installation and save more on labor.
