Vinyl Flooring for Your Living Room: What You Need to Know

Flooring is an integral part of any residential home. After all, you can decorate the rest of your home, so why shouldn’t you do the same for your flooring? There are many flooring systems that you can use in your homes, such as ceramic, concrete, marble, wood, and vinyl. Many homeowners tend to use different flooring systems if they have at least two stories.

Thankfully, you don’t have to splurge on marble flooring—you can also use vinyl flooring for your living room as well. It sounds unconventional, but unlike other types of flooring usually used in living rooms, vinyl flooring is durable, low maintenance, and very stylish.

We listed down everything you need to know when using vinyl flooring in your living room. Read on below to learn more.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Vinyl

#1: The Type of Vinyl

When choosing vinyl flooring, you can either choose between printed and composite vinyl.

Printed vinyl is composed of a backing material, a print layer, and a wear layer placed at the top. The backing material ensures stability for the tile, while the print layer can have any design of your choice. This allows you to get creative by imitating the look of natural wood, stone, or any other material.

On the other hand, composite vinyl’s designs are the same among tiles, so there’s not much freedom in design options. However, the good news is that the design’s colours will not fade.

#2: Design and Color

The overall design and colour of your tiles must match the style of your living room so that everything is consistent. When you think about it, though, it’s relatively easier because there are many different designs you can choose from.

If you don’t know where to start, maybe it’s best to consult with an interior designer.

#3: Textural Enhancements

The primary reason vinyl flooring isn’t often used in living rooms is that it feels like plastic and flat. However, this shouldn’t be something that should stop you because many textural enhancements can be applied to the vinyl itself.

You can apply a cleft stone finish first before applying the vinyl itself. This will make the vinyl flooring feel like it’s solid. You can also go for a grained finish to imitate the feeling of natural wood.

Vinyl Flooring Maintenance

As stated earlier, vinyl flooring is low-maintenance, so it doesn’t take much to maintain it.

You can simply clean them like any other flooring via mopping and vacuuming. Floor wax isn’t necessarily needed, but an acrylic finish will significantly help maintain its quality appearance.

The Lifespan of Vinyl Flooring

Since the living room is where people often gather, it gets moderate foot traffic. People step on it whenever they walk so that it can wear out. Don’t worry, though, as vinyl flooring doesn’t quickly wear out because it has a lifespan of 10 to 20 years. That means that there’s no need to replace the vinyl flooring in your living room unless badly needed.

It becomes a problem if your living room has big windows that let in natural light. Direct exposure to sunlight can discolour your vinyl flooring, which results in a yellow, hazy look. The only way to bypass this is by placing curtains or other window coverings to shield the floor from sunlight.

Conclusion

Using vinyl flooring for a living room might sound counterintuitive, but it does more good than harm. You can use vinyl flooring for your living room, but make sure that both complement each other so that everything is consistent.

Aside from vinyl flooring, laminate flooring is also a good option for many homeowners. Like vinyl flooring, laminate flooring is also applied similarly and often has the same designs, such as wood. If you’re looking for laminate wood flooring, Global Carpets has got your back! We can help you improve the look of your home through our flooring products. Contact us today to learn more!