Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

What do you want to feel like or see when you walk through your front door? Maybe impressive wall sconces or detailed wood flooring are on the top of your list. Eclectic pieces and designs can make your foyer look as though it had a total makeover.

Adding an inlay to your existing wood floors can dramatically transform your floors and even brighten them. Renaissance Floor In-Lays has a variety of designs to choose from such as medallions (large and square), borders, panels, parquets, octagons and corners. If you don’t want to invest money on an inlay, enhance a piece of furniture such as a settee with Inlay Product World, Inc.’s Ready Marq (self adhesive overlays).

Decorative wall sconces can bring the look together. The Victorian Tiffany Gothic Fleur-De-Lis wall sconce shown below has warm, rich tones and an intricate design that no one’s eyes can miss.

Faux painting on the walls can softly bring the color palette of the foyer together.

When you have to replace the wood flooring or carpet in large rooms, it can be a costly endeavor. But before making the commitment to buy new materials, check out your reclaimed flooring options for better deals.

Pioneer Millworks carries reclaimed wood flooring that is manufactured in the U.S.A. They have a large selection of species, grades and widths, and the flooring is 100% reclaimed or FSC certified. Although the wood in reclaimed floors is sometimes less than perfect, it gives the floor character. If you have already replaced your wood flooring and have extra wood from the project, contact Pioneer Millworks to see if they will buy it from you.

Maybe carpet is more your style, so use your creative freedom to work with recycled carpet tiles, which you can get from FLOR. These tiles can give a room more personality and color. Plus, if a few tiles become worn, you can replace and return them to the company.

If you like the look of bamboo, but the funds for installation aren’t in the piggy bank right now, you could save some money by choosing a laminate flooring that looks like bamboo.

While it maybe not be the “real deal,” it can be an attractive and easy-to-maintain upgrade from carpeting. If someone in your family suffers from allergies (especially to pets, mildew, mold, etc.), then it can even improve the overall health of that person (I noticed a huge change when my parents’ switched from carpet to laminate flooring in the downstairs half of the house–for the first time in years, I didn’t need to whip out an inhaler when I visited!).

Installing laminate can really be affordable if you’re willing to take on the project yourself. I helped my dad when he did it, and while I wouldn’t say it was “easy” (there’s a learning curve), it was definitely doable. And if you’re just doing a couple rooms, it can even be accomplished in a weekend.

To further save money, get your laminate flooring from a liquidation store. I didn’t think that Lumber Liquidators would have that big of a selection, but I found this bamboo laminate flooring at their online shop. As I write this, the cost is $1.29 a square foot, making it much more economical than real bamboo, which is double or triple that (at least), even at a liquidation store. Also it’s not as DIY friendly as laminate, which interlocks via a snap-and-click feature.

If you’ve got a golf nut in the house and you need a new rug for the library, living room, bedroom, etc., then here’s a must-see for you:

The “Putt Up or Shut Up Rug Kit” is from Flor Carpets, the folks that make those modular carpet tiles we’ve looked at before.

Their golf rug is made from a “combination of Twist & Shout with its smooth cropped surface and A Little of This with a plusher depth Putt Up or Shut Up provides ‘ruff’ angles for you to master again and again. Start out easy (Par 3 configuration) and work your way through our suggested course with Par 4 and Par 5 designs. Each rug comes with a rug map with three different course configurations (Par 3 Par 4 and Par 5) and FLORdots so you can reconfigure your design as much as you like.”

I don’t even golf, but it’d be fun to have something to do in the living room during commercials. A quick hole, anyone?

it’s hard to beat the beauty of wood when it comes to flooring (and there are other perks as well: it’s much better than carpet for people like me who have allergies… there aren’t any carpet pads or deep crevices for mites, pollen, mildew, mold, etc. to hide under and in). Most folks choose hardwoods for their durability, but soft woods such as pine are an option too.

This knotty pine flooring is part of the Grizzly Forest collection at 1 A Flooring.

The Grizzly Forest Mills in Joanna, SC produces pre-finished and un-finished flooring including boards made from reclaimed Antique Heart Pine salvaged from historic mills and buildings. Reclaimed river wood from the Savannah River basin is also available. Those who appreciate history (and are looking for a rustic story as well as a rustic look for their home) may appreciate that some of the wood is five hundred years old.

The pre-finished floors have a seven coat aluminum oxide system and come with a twenty year warranty.

The pine wood costs a little under $4 a square foot.

While ceramic tiles are common for bathroom walls, they can also be used for floors throughout the house. In warm climates, these cool tiles can feel good underfoot. And they can look good too.

Tiles come in myriad colors and design styles, so there aren’t many design limitations. Just about any pattern you can imagine can be laid down in your home.

These unique tree branch tiles make an interesting floor covering, and this is just one of many colorful designs from Popham Design in Morocco.

The tiles are hand-made by artisans in Marrakech, using locally sourced materials. The design video on the company’s site is worth watching if you’re curious how tiles like these are made.

Looking for something a little different in the flooring arena? These decorative cement tiles are sure to make guests take notice of your floors.

“In constructing the Pantheon (120 A.D.) Romans ground lime and volcanic rock to formulate cement durable enough to withstand the weathering of centuries. But the art of mixing cement was lost until the 18th century. Decorative cement tiles first appeared in France and Belgium at the end of the 19th century. Exquisite Surfaces offers new cement tiles and an extensive line of antique French and antique Belgian cement tiles.”

I don’t know about you, but I’d love to have a patio made out of the colorful tiles (and if I lived in a warm climate, I wouldn’t mind these for floors inside the house too).

If you like the look of natural stone flooring (i.e. marble, granite, limestone, etc.), but the expensive tiles just aren’t in the budget, you may look to vinyl as an alternative.

Vinyl tiles are an inexpensive flooring option, and they come in more colors and styles than you can imagine. And, yes, you can get these tiles in patterns designed to mimic natural stone.

Responsive Flooring offers a line of durable, low-maintenance vinyl flooring tiles that come in 40 wood-look-alike varieties and 28 stone styles, mimicking slate, limestone, marble, granite, etc.

Get the “natural stone” floor of your dreams (without spending the fortune that real stone tiles cost).

Tile sizes come in 4″ x 36″ or 6″ x 36″.

If you like the idea of installing eco-friendly cork flooring, but you’re not seeking a living room floor that looks like the top of a wine bottle, you might be surprised at just how many colors this material is available in.

Cork Concepts is a company that specializes in high-density tiles for use in areas where a durable hard-wearing floor surface is required. And they’re available in lots of colors too.

Their “Muddy Water” color is seen in the pictures here. A few of the other hues the tiles come in are stone, cayenne, black pepper, jet, arctic, silver, olive leaf, and graphite (the metallic colors are particularly unique looking).

The tiles are made from agglomerated cork granules which are taken from the bark of the cork oak tree (stripping the bark does not damage the tree, as it just grows back). The granules are bound together with resins, baked in a mold and then sliced, rested, split and finally sanded on all surfaces.

Among other places, cork flooring is appropriate in kitchens (dropping a dish on a cork floor won’t likely break it, as the material has much more give than ceramic or hard wood), family rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms (particularly for allergy and asthma sufferers).

Hardwood flooring never really goes out of style, and it’s been around for a long time. Ages before people were using vinyl, laminates, and wall-to-wall carpet, they were using wood for floors.

Today you can get hardwood planks that are brand new and have never had a scratch, dent, or even anyone else walking on them. But… if you prefer the rustic or Old World feel, you might dig some floors crafted from reclaimed woods.

For example, this antique French oak flooring has a lot more character than something installed straight out of the box. It’s not any cheaper than the stuff from the local home improvement store (in fact, reclaimed wood can command a hefty price tag), but at least if your Rottweilers start roughhousing in the living room, you won’t feel compelled to run and put dog booties on their feet to keep them from scratching the wood (hey, it’s antique, it’s already seen worse!).

This flooring is available through Cavendish Grey, a company that specializes in “supplying the finest antique and re-edition floors and architectural stonework.” They offer antique materials such as wood, limestone, and terracotta, so if you’re looking to create an Old World feel in your home, definitely check them out.