I've been waiting a while to write a celebratory post on this epic event lol! Well that post is finally here and I can say I couldn't be more happy with the fact that my carpet is finally gone in my front dining room and living room, eeeek!! How long have I been saying I want that gross carpet gone for you guys?? Since the day we moved in, 6 years ago! Oh, and basically the ENTIRE time having my Instagram channel....you guys must be so sick of hearing me say it haha! Well now no more whining, it's time to show you guys some amazing transformation shots and what I think are the sexiest floors on the internet...yup I said it!!
*This post contains affiliate links, which I gain no commission from, all views and opinions are my own.
So let's get to the original before pics shall we? I took these pics while we were touring the house and it shows best the carpet that used to be in here and just how dark it all felt.
The front of our house faces north, and gets very little sunlight so the carpet always made it seem dirty, even darker and grimy no matter what I tried to do. I've certainly realized that I'm the kind of person who needs sunlight and a bright clean environment to feel content and like I can fully relax in a space. I also can't even begin to tell you guys how many times I tried to convince Curtis to just rip it out and live on the sub floor even for a while, lol!! He wasn't having it!! He grew up with a carpeted dining room and felt nostalgic maybe when he saw it?? Curtis also thought made for a good wrestling surface when he and our son would have some matches against each other. So maybe there are some benefits after all?? I don't know.....but something he did always say was if you want the carpet gone you have to pay for it or make it happen yourself.....booooo, but I guess I could never blame him....I mean he does pay for all the bills and this was not exactly a priority (insert eye roll)
I have been taking pictures of the front two rooms in my house for years all while trying to be sneaky in not trying to show too much of the flooring. It always made me cringe to see just how yucky and dark the carpet was. While I tried my best to still decorate the spaces and try to hide the carpet with decorative rugs, I could never fully enjoy these spaces. I sound so spoiled to even say this out loud, ugh, but it's the truth! Anyways here's a few slides of the spaces as I worked with the carpet over the years. I think this also goes to show you can absolutely work with the carpet you have, especially if you are also not in a position of ripping it out any time soon. Large area rugs work well! Yes you can lay an area rug over carpet!! It's not a "no no"...at least in my books anyways. Also paint those walls bright and crisp colours. Try to avoid dark brownish toned colours, I find those paint colours almost make carpeted floors seem dirtier or something.
So now let's talk about the transformation. I went to an incredible Calgary based flooring company called Divine Flooring and found the most beautiful rustic plank floors I had ever seen! I knew I was wanting to do something special in this space and when I saw a sample of the flooring it was love at first sight! I chose their Divine brand Compiano Farmhouse European Oak Herringbone engineered hardwood floors in the 5" planks. The character of all the unique saw scratches, knots, and colour variations are what won me over! To me they screamed real wood....and they are!! The oak detailing is amazing and I know we will have these here for years!!
*The flooring appears darker online than it does in person
That same day Curtis had started ripping up our old carpet and did it in sections to easily role up the pieces and get them ready for the dump. We did all the demo and removal, even took our baseboards off to have it ready for the installers to come and work their magic. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was watching Curtis cut through the old carpet and remove it!!
It felt like Christmas morning when we got to load up the truck with our new flooring!
As soon as it came home I just had to crack open a few boxes and start to lay out the look for the new floors!
Ok so install day was here and I just have to say I may have not slept very much the night before!! They came with their team of 3 people, and I couldn't believe how efficient and quickly they worked. They start by levelling off the sub floor with what looked like a big grinder machine. Then they got right to it and before I even realized it they were already snapping the centre room line and installing the herringbone pattern!!
They would back butter adhesive on the back of each plank and then air drive floor nails into each plank. The colouring was laid out so nicely too. I did make sure to mention that this flooring has such a variation of colours and I wanted them spaced out as best as possible. I know my OCD would come in strong if I saw 4 dark pieces all laid next to each other!
I couldn't stop peeking my head in and staring! It was just all happening so fast, but they were doing such an incredible job at the same time. Once they were done for the day with the herringbone pattern they had to come back the next day to do the boarder around the room.
Installing a boarder is no joke! I thought, oh they will be done in a few hours....nope! This took them all day! Soooo many cuts involved with herringbone floors and especially the boarder and around the door casings. These guys are masters at what they do and I can't even imagine Curtis and I attempting to do this ourselves....we would have needed to socially distance in separate houses when we were done haha! Paying to get this installed wasn't exactly inexpensive, but I wanted to do the floors justice and make them shine! It was well worth every hard earned penny to have them professionally installed by Divine!
Here Troung is cutting down the snap line with his saw to get ready for installing the boarder.
And now lets take a closer look at the boarder installed!!
The boarder was a personal preference. I am so glad I did it! It really frames the art work of the herringbone detail.
Drummer role please......now for the entire room shot!
I knew we weren't gonna set up the furniture late that night, but Curtis and I did bring in a couple chairs and a bottle of wine to celebrate this joyous day, lol!
The next day we set up our two rooms again. I couldn't wait to decorate in here, but this time I decided to take it a bit slower and live with more of a simplistic look for a while, allowing the floors to be the main feature. I had painted the entire two rooms and all the trim in Benjamin Moore Simply White in a flat finish and I also managed to scrape my popcorn ceilings in the living room and paint out that as well. No more popcorn and no more carpet has updated this space by decades! It feels like a new build when we are in here now.
Now I just want to photograph everything from the ground up being sure to capture all the beauty of this flooring. No more sneaky photo skills to hide the ugliness down below!!
The variations in the wood tones are incredible and it's what has made me fall in love with them the most. Some people may be nervous to commit to a flooring that looks more busy, which I totally get. This flooring might not be for everyone, it's definitely a personal preference, but I figured with all of those gorgeous wood tones I would be able to eventually match the rest of the original hardwood flooring in the house and make it look intentional and not like I'm trying to match anything. To me this is far more forgiving and a win win for when I get to refinishing the old floors.
Well guys what do you think? New flooring for the win!! I think my patience has certainly paid off and now I just want to hang out in here all the time! I should also mention we did also lay this flooring down in my husbands small office, which I have yet to photograph as it's still in disarray, but eventually I will show that as well!
If you guys have any questions on this flooring please let me know, better yet reach out to Diving Flooring! Even though they are based in Calgary, they have numerous locations where they distribute their brand not only across Canada but also in the USA! Click here to see if there's a location near you!
Hope you enjoy your days guys!
Dale
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Absolutely gorgeous! This is the most beautiful floor I have ever seen!