Replacing Area of Carpet with Inlaid Hardwood Flooring (vinyl, kitchen, door)

[TWG1572]

We have an open concept house, the majority of the first floor is hardwood with the exception of one area. We are thinking about making that hardwood as well, but are considering a couple options. I'd be interested in feedback on the options we are considering, and if anyone has tried something similar....

For background, we bought this house about 5 years ago. I've attached a crude drawing of the layout. The area in grey is the area we are discussing. The white is existing narrow oak flooring running lengthwise with the rectangular shape. There is a master bedroom to the left of this drawing, and current hardwood runs through the door and into the bedroom (the door is what the narrow strip of hardwood on the bottom left of the picture runs to). Our kitchen is in the far right of the picture, dining area in the middle, and the grey is a family room. All open, no walls, just a bar between the kitchen and dining area.

What we suspect is that the grey area was once carpet. The prior owners had cats, and based on what we found under our other carpets I'd guess they trashed this one too. At some point, the carpet was replaced with inexpensive vinyl wood plank type flooring. It's some sort of cedar looking finish, and matches nothing. So it's time to rip it out and go....here are the options we are considering. Both will use matching oak flooring, the difference is in how it's integrated.

1) Blend in the new oak flooring with the existing flooring. This will require them to rip out some of the existing boards along the transition area. We are having the rest of the hardwood in the house resurfaced at the same time, so we have that going for us. But the installers are telling us there will be a good sized chunk of time spent doing the blending.

2) Leave the existing hardwood alone and build some sort of inlaid design along all four edges of the new hardwood to create an "edge" between the old and new. The benefit we see here is that blending costs quite a bit of money, so there is $$ savings there. And it could be nice from a visual perspective, and help to define that space. I've attached an example of something simple I found online that hopefully illustrates the concept. We'd likely go with a bit more elaborate border, but nothing too busy.

Hopefully this wasn't too confusing. We are just looking for opinions on what the best route might be from a design perspective. We aren't going to live here forever, so don't want something that looks tacky or is off putting to buyers.

[emm74]

It's personal preference but I'd blend it into the existing floor. The border could end up limiting your choices for furniture and rug placement, and I'd rather maintain the flexibility to switch that up as desired. I use rugs to define spaces, so it's not like the wood border is the only way of doing that. I think that it's also more neutral to have it all match, and in terms of potential future buyers, neutral is general better.

[K'ledgeBldr]

With that layout I'd definitely be "lacing" the new flooring in.

If the same company is doing both the install a finish/refinish I'm sure you could negotiate the cost on the lacing. I had to have several of my spec homes done that way when people wanted more hardwood than my standard offering- it's not that much more work, a circular saw makes quick work of removing the pieces needed to do the lace-in.

[TWG1572]

Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr

I had to have several of my spec homes done that way when people wanted more hardwood than my standard offering- it's not that much more work, a circular saw makes quick work of removing the pieces needed to do the lace-in.

Which is ironic, because the individual that gave us the inlaid flooring idea was someone that had that group of customers as their target market. People with spec homes that wanted more hardwood. As I think about it, his value proposition was very much along the cost savings end of things.

We'll be having the same company do both, so it's good to hear there is likely negotiation room.

I will say that based on the comments so far, I'm starting to lean more to the blending/lacing again. I was pretty sold on the inlay, but hadn't really considered the "generic and flexible" is better argument. Makes sense to me, and these points of views are exactly what I was looking for when I started the thread.

[Pitt Chick]

Are you planning on selling soon?
If not, get the inlay you were leaning towards and enjoy the heck out of it!

Seriously, we did our house to suit us, as we are the ones living in it. No use - IMHO - decorating for resale.

Chance are, by the time you sell, carpet will be back in style....

[Qwerty]

I love the inlay look...if the space was more defined as a 'room". I agree that doing that in that spot will really limit what you can do with that space-and it has nothing to do with resale and everything to do with how it will flow overall. We added new oak flooring to existing 70+ year old oak and had it all refinished/finished at the same time. It all looks the same, no one would ever know that some of the flooring is only 10 years old and the rest was put in 70+ years ago.