Home Ideas

What’s under your feet (or however you get around) is as important as anything when it comes to home. That’s why this fall, we collaborated with The Home Depot on an A to Z guide that’ll give you the confidence to make flooring choices you’ll love. Check out the A to Z handbook here.

Grease tracked onto tile after working in the garage. Science experiments gone awry in the kitchen. Muddy paw prints on the living room carpet. There are countless ways that messes find a way inside our homes.
Fortunately, most situations that seem like a major mess at first glance are actually not too tough to deal with, as long as you don’t let them linger. Below are five tools — affordable, handy workhorses you might not think are as crucial as they are, all of which you can find at The Home Depot — that will ensure your floors stay in tip-top shape for years to come. (For even more information about cleaning ideas for different types of flooring, don’t forget to reference their specific letter in the A to Z Flooring Handbook.)

Tool: Boot Brush
The first thing a cleaning expert will tell you about keeping floors neat is to ban outside shoes from coming inside the home.

Boot And Shoe Scrubber
Sontax homedepot.com
$22.87

“That is my number one [piece of] advice: Take your shoes off at the door,” says Carolyn Forte, Director of the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Home Appliances & Cleaning Products Lab. “You may not want to ask guests to take their shoes off, but even if the family itself has [the] habit, it does an amazing job of keeping floors looking better.”
But if there are holdouts among your ranks, or guests don’t quite understand what the hubbub is all about, general contractor Mark Clement of MyFixitUpLife suggests purchasing a shoe and boot brush and parking it right outside the entryway. Ideally, it’ll encourage anyone coming inside to clean off their shoes before entering your home. (Placing welcome mats where shoes can be wiped outside the front door can also help mitigate any superfluous dirt.)

Tool: Wet-Dry Mop
Ditch the dirty mop water and bucket for good with a wet-dry mop, like the GH Seal holder Swiffer Sweeper Dry and Wet Mop. This tool can clean up dust and debris that collects on hard surfaces when in the dry mode, then seamlessly switch into its mop version for bigger jobs, for which wet cloths are attached.
There are even products that come with a built-in spray system for cleaning solution if you’re working in a larger space but still prefer a tool that’s lightweight and more streamlined than a traditional mop. (Yes, please!) Both the wet pads and dry pads from wet-dry mops can be tossed after use, making clean up a breeze.

Tool: Surface-Specific Cleaners

Bona Stone, Tile & Laminate Floor Cleaner Spray, 32 oz, 32 Fl Oz
Bona homedepot.com
$7.97

When it comes to cleaning, it’s always best to follow manufacturer’s instructions and the advice of experts, lest you end up with a messy mistake that can’t (easily) be undone. While flooring isn’t a place to improvise with whatever cleaning products you might have on hand, there is often some overlap for which types of flooring they can tackle.
The cleaning process for laminate floors is a good example. “Many cleaners that are safe for hardwood are safe for laminate, too,” Forte notes.
There are also cleaners that pull triple-duty for laminate, stone and tile. (Tip: if you’re looking for an extra layer of protection to make cleaning even easier down the line, consider applying a sealer to appropriate flooring styles, like tile.)
And if you’re an allergy-sufferer, there are cleaning products, like Bona’s Free and Simple for hardwood, that are specifically formulated without dyes and scents.

Tool: Microfiber mop

O-Cedar Dual-Action Microfiber Flip Mop with Telescopic Handle
Brand: O-Cedar homedepot.com
$12.97

Spills turn into stains on floors when they’re not dealt with in a prompt manner, making time seriously of the essence whenever an accident occurs. Whether the mishap takes place on hardwood, laminate, vinyl, or tile, a microfiber mop is a tool you can turn to for its multi-use properties: try it dry for capturing dust in tight spaces, damp for general cleaning, and wet when spills occur.
To use one effectively, Forte recommends working on a small, three-foot square section at a time: Apply the cleaner you are using, mop it with a microfiber mop, and then let it dry. Also take care to buff off any cleaning residue that might linger on top of floors and give them a cloudy look. The goal is a floor that’s spic-and-span, but also shiny.

Tool: Stick Vacuum
It’s not news, per se, but outside of one-off disasters, regular attention and care will keep your flooring in pristine condition for years. One of the best ways to accomplish this is regular vacuuming at least once a week, and a stick vacuum is the space-saving, lighter-weight way to make this task as easy as possible.

V11 Torque Drive Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner
Dyson homedepot.com
$699.00

“Dust and dirt is abrasive: if you look at sand, dirt and grit, it’s sharp,” Forte explains. “If you walk on that stuff day to day, it can eventually dull the [floor’s] finish.”
Stick vacuums can often pack the same punch as their bulkier canister counterparts (particularly for apartment dwellers or people living in smaller homes) and have some serious perks, including cordless models, versions specifically designed to tackle pet hair and the ability to convert into a handheld model to clean effectively in crevices.
If you have carpet in the house, it doesn’t hurt to call in the pros once a year or so. “Besides vacuuming and removing spills, it’s important to have wall-to-wall carpets professionally deep cleaned every 12 to 18 months,” Forte advises. “Professionals can reapply a stain protecting coat that will help carpets look good longer.” More

What’s under your feet (or however you get around) is as important as anything when it comes to home. That’s why this fall, we collaborated with The Home Depot on an A to Z guide that’ll give you the confidence to make flooring choices you’ll love. Check out the A to Z handbook here.

The spectrum of tools needed for different flooring projects can undoubtedly seem intimidating at first (so many saws! so many applicators!) but using the right ones can be the difference between a finished project and a flop. You wouldn’t try to paint a watercolor masterpiece with a kitchen whisk or dig in the garden with measuring spoons, would you?
Fortunately, following a few guiding principles, as well as consulting with professionals like those at The Home Depot, will help ensure you have all the right instruments for the job.

Materials dictate the tools
Not surprisingly, the flooring material you’ve selected is the single biggest determining factor when it comes to what tools you’ll need to get the job done. (For example, the trowels necessary for installing tile have nothing in common with the pneumatic nailer you’ll need for hardwood.) The difficulty level of installation and the number of tools needed to complete the job properly should play into the decision-making process for anyone planning to DIY their own flooring installation or project. For example, renting a drum sander for refinishing your hardwood floors is only a worthwhile endeavor if you’re confident you can successfully use one.

Should you rent vs. buy?

Tools can be a smart investment if you plan on future projects, but when it comes to flooring, how many do you need to actually take home with you forever? To ensure your budget doesn’t take a major hit, you should carefully weigh cost versus return on investment and frequency of use when considering whether to rent flooring tools or buy them. Joe Truini, general contractor and weekly host of Today’s Homeowner Radio, advises homeowners to be honest with themselves about this kind of purchase.
“Some of the tools can be relatively affordable, but are you ever going to use them again?” he inquires. “How many floors is the average person going to install in their lifetime? It may make financial sense to add tools to your garage if you’re building a new house and want to install all of the floors yourself, but otherwise, it’s likely renting is the way to go.”

There’s a saw for that

Saws are integral to so many different types of flooring that you’re bound to use one during a DIY flooring installation. Even with the seriously easy-to-install floating floors like laminate, you still have to cut the boards precisely with a circular saw or jigsaw for where they meet the wall.
And when it comes to actual hardwood? Miter saws, jamb and undercut saws and table saws will become your close personal friends. Tile even takes its own type of saw, the wet saw. If you’re feeling uncertain about which will work best for your project and level of expertise, make sure to ask an expert for guidance.

Spring for an all-in-one installation kit

Pro Flooring Installation Kit for Vinyl, Laminate and Hardwood Flooring
Roberts homedepot.com
$32.55

A useful new development in recent years has been the arrival of flooring toolkits, which package together many of the basic instruments needed to install flooring material properly. Most often made for the installation of luxury vinyl planks, laminate and engineered hardwood, these affordable kits provide items like expansion spacers, tapping blocks and pull bars into a single, ready-to-go bundle, taking the guesswork out of your tool-gathering process. (Bonus: all the items are reusable if you plan to tackle another flooring project.)

Take your room’s temperature

Contractors may use a moisture meter or hygrometer to take an accurate reading of the moisture levels in a home’s substrate and general environment, which can inform material decisions. (For more on waterproofing, visit letter W.) Once your materials have been delivered, it is important to store them in the space they’ll be used so they can adjust or expand to the present moisture level.

Yes, math skills are an essential tool

There’s no getting around that math is one of the most-used tools in flooring projects. A measuring tape, speed square, pencil and more are just a few of the instruments that you’ll need on hand in order to ensure proper installation. Don’t be afraid to use the backs of floor boards or even underlayment to do a bit of addition, and nobody said you couldn’t use a calculator. More

What’s under your feet (or however you get around) is as important as anything when it comes to home. That’s why this fall, we collaborated with The Home Depot on an A to Z guide that’ll give you the confidence to make flooring choices you’ll love. Check out the A to Z handbook here.

High-end design has leaned toward minimalism for the past several decades, evangelizing a streamlined life and home. (Think: the International Style championed by midcentury architect Mies van der Rohe; the black-and-chrome interiors typified by upmarket 1980s apartments; or Scandinavian-inspired white and wood that rose to popularity in the 2010s.) Fortunately for the more maximalist among us, the tide is beginning to turn—and kitsch is here to help.
A little over-the-top and a whole lot retro, playful kitsch flooring is making a comeback as homeowners liven up their indoor spaces with a winking nod to the past. The Home Depot offers several options that will read fresh, not fusty, when it comes to injecting a little design nostalgia into your home—four of which are delved into below.
“There’s this move currently towards more of the kitschy, weird, almost campy-looking design, particularly among a lot of up and coming edgier designers,” says Hadley Mendelsohn, House Beautiful’s design editor.
The key to kitsch is embracing the idiosyncrasies of your space, and learning to figure out the unique way that seemingly off-beat pieces, colors, or textures might actually work well side-by-side.

The key to kitsch is embracing the idiosyncrasies of your space.

“If you inherit a room with really old-fashioned wallpaper—like toile or something that’s just not your style—but then you mix it with flooring that’s really funky, like an over-dyed Persian rug, the room can actually end up looking more modern,” Mendelsohn says. “It’s taking that wallpaper out of its initial intended context and making it fresh and more useful again.” Read on to learn more about a few of our favorite retro flooring trends.

Terrazzo

Terrazzo is a durable, statement-making type of retro flooring that, in the U.S., hit peak popularity in the 1960s. It’s eye-catching while remaining subtle enough to serve as a foundation for a variety of interior stylings.

Rizzo Gray 24 in. x 24 in. x 9mm Semi Polished Porcelain Floor and Wall Tile (3 pieces / 11.62 sq. ft. / box)
Ivy Hill Tile homedepot.com
$82.39

Terrazzo features chips of marble, glass, or quartz flecked into a cement or epoxy-resin base, allowing for an infinite number of color combinations and a range of size options for the chips themselves. The tiles become individual, shimmering, but understated, works of art.

Terrazzo can be poured like concrete in situ, but most often it’s purchased and installed in tile form, making it ideal for any high-traffic area such as entryways, hallways, or laundry rooms. If you’re looking to ease into a kitschier lifestyle, terrazzo hits that sweet spot between contemporary and vintage.

Parquet
Parquet floors provide the same “everything old is new again” vibe for a home, particularly for those who are interested in installing hardwood but want a little bit more pizzazz.
Select a parquet square and see it populate below

Gothic Engineered Parquet Hardwood Flooring (17.22 sq. ft./case)
Islander homedepot.com
$186.91

A mid-century modern favorite, parquet flooring tiles are made by arranging pieces of hardwood in a repeating geometric pattern (the most popular is herringbone). Parquet floors already come pre-stained, can typically withstand one refinishing, and are far easier to install than traditional hardwood planks: simply glue the tiles to the level, above-grade subfloor.

Much like hardwood floors, parquet can buckle, so it shouldn’t be laid in bathrooms or other moisture-dense areas. But parquet is perfect for adding a throwback foundation to a den or living room.

Concrete or Linoleum
Kitsch also encourages a great deal of creative license, including using more basic forms of flooring in a space and adding the funky elements yourself.
“If you have concrete floors—for example, in a warehouse loft—you could repaint the floors and do something wacky with splatter painting,” Mendelsohn suggests. Concrete floors can also be successfully stained, either in a solid color or variety of colors. “Or, if you’re using a material like a linoleum, take a giant brush and do random abstract swirls. That can end up making it look like a gallery!”
And then there’s the practical side of kitsch: it’s more sustainable.
As an alternative to buying or replacing every element of a room when remodeling—new wallpaper, new hardware, new lighting fixtures—kitsch encourages repurposing and thinking outside the box to create a one-of-a-kind, mix-and-match space that’s yours, and yours alone. More

How to choose the right one for your space. (Hint: go big on personality and style.) More

What’s under your feet (or however you get around) is as important as anything when it comes to home. That’s why this fall, we collaborated with The Home Depot on an A to Z guide that’ll give you the confidence to make flooring choices you’ll love. Check out the A to Z handbook here.

When you think of or are a designing a house fit for kids, the likes of playrooms, backyards and dens come to mind. But one of the most critical ways to make children feel comfortable in their space — from the time they are an infant to when a closed-door policy becomes the norm —is the look of the flooring. (Really!)
The Home Depot has decades of experience lending families a hand to outfit houses that becomes homes. When your own brood expands, here’s what to consider when it comes to flooring that’ll age well for everyone.

Give them a soft place to land

Pure – Color Butternut Pattern 12 ft. Carpet
Lifeproof homedepot.com
$39.51

The physical nature of child’s play — from roughhousing with a sibling to practicing cheerleading jumps indoors — often means young ones spend an extraordinary amount of time in close contact with the floor. Since bare elbows and knees appreciate a soft landing, it’s no wonder that wall-to-wall carpet is a top choice for their areas.
In addition to being far more appealing to crawl around on than, say, laminate, carpet is great for insulation and sound absorption. This means that if your budding diva loves to belt out movie theme songs 40 times a day, you’re less likely to hear it in other parts of the house, or if your toddler jumps for joy (over and over) every time their favorite show comes on, the thuds won’t be quite as noticeable.
Recent developments in carpet technology have also cut down on the previous drawbacks of putting carpet in a kid’s room — most notably, in the spills and messes category.

Opting for carpet that combats pills, messes, and stains is one way to keep things clean when there are kids at home.

Stain-resistant carpet does exactly what it promises in repelling spots and discoloration. Innovations like SoilSheild technology stands up against not only juice box disasters, but everyday dirt and grime that can potentially cause allergies to flare up.
Carpet tiles are another good option for kid-friendly spaces, thanks in particular to being easy to replace. (For more information on carpet and carpet tiles, check out letter C.)

Pair hard surfaces with a soft layer
If your home has hard flooring, like luxury vinyl, hardwood and laminate, an easy fix is to lay down something plush: an area rug (more on that under letter A). Using area rugs also allows for changes over time as preferences shift. You can definitely swap out a powder-pink high-pile rug for a black-and-white swirled one as whims morph — a whole lot easier than tearing out carpet that’s highly-specific to the interests of a five-year-old. (Hello, dinosaurs!)

Interlocking foam or rubber tiles, like those used for home gyms, are also a simple way to keep knees from getting banged up without a permanent change. Adding interlocking foam tiles over other flooring — like hardwood — works especially well if you’re thinking about selling your home in the future and won’t want to replace existing kid-approved flooring with something new to increase curb appeal.

Cork is durable and eases transitions

Burnished Straw Plank Cork 13/32 in. Thick x 5-1/2 in. Width x 36 in. Length Cork Flooring (10.92 sq. ft. / case)
Heritage Mill homedepot.com
$43.46

If you aren’t interested in carpet but still want a softer, full-coverage option, cork is cushiony and resilient but still looks cool. It comes in sheet or tile form, and is also ultra stain-resistant when installed and sealed correctly.

The anti-microbial and anti-static properties of cork work to keep a room as naturally dust-free as possible, and the material can easily smooth the transition from playful kids to teens with overflowing laundry hampers: no complete flooring redesign necessary. More

Radiant heat is fancy and frugal—does it get any better than that? More

What’s under your feet (or however you get around) is as important as anything when it comes to home. That’s why this fall, we collaborated with The Home Depot on an A to Z guide that’ll give you the confidence to make flooring choices you’ll love. Check out the A to Z handbook here.

Think of wall-to-wall carpet, and you’ll likely remember the orange shag your aunt had in her basement growing up; the florescent space-themed flooring of an old bowling alley; the impersonal grey carpet in your first rental apartment. It’s all a little dated.
Fortunately, carpet is making a comeback in a big way, and The Home Depot stocks it all, whether you are looking for a specific color, texture, or feel.
“In years past, carpet was always seen as this plain, neutral flooring underfoot,” says Carisha Swanson, Market Director for House Beautiful. “But if you actually think about why you like standalone rugs, more than likely it’s because it has a great pattern in it. You can also get that great pattern now in a wall-to-wall carpet.”
Let us change your mind about just how refined the material can look—no shag required.

Get your footing with terminology
You wanna talk carpet, the first thing to understand is pile. The pile of a carpet—another word for the height of the carpet fibers—are typically categorized as either low, medium, or high.

Home Decorators Collection Gemini II-Color Artisan Hue Textured 12 ft. Carpet
Home Depot
$22.41

Low-pile carpet has short, dense fibers, which makes it difficult for dirt to get trapped, and is ideal for high-traffic spaces that might require frequent cleaning, like a living room, playroom or entryway.
Often a popular choice for bedrooms, medium-pile carpet has slightly taller, less dense fibers, adding to under-foot comfort while maintaining a relative ease-of-cleaning factor.
And then there’s high-pile carpet—the most lavish, with tall, loose fibers—that works best for less busy parts of the house, or for a smaller space that’s aching for a little bit of luxury.
Next up: choose the carpet construction that’s right for you, which will generally fall into the categories of cut pile or loop pile.

Cut pile refers to carpet where loops of yarn have been cut or shorn after being attached to the backing. The result is soft, and its fibers move more freely, which creates an underfoot experience perfect for a bedroom or family room where you’ll often hang out, sans socks and shoes. Within this category, you’ll find cut pile carpet types like “plush” (extremely soft, but shows footprints), “twist” (in which the yarn pieces are twisted for greater resiliency—currently extremely popular) and “frieze” (in which longer piles are twisted tightly several times so that they create a dense texture—soft and comfortable, but can be hard to clean).
Loop pile carpet, on the other hand, means that a carpet’s yarn loops are not cut after being attached to the backing, making it generally less gentle on feet and better suited to a heavily-trod area like an entryway or staircase. Level loop refers to when the loops are all one height, and “pattern” carpet means the loops form intricate patterns within the carpet’s design. One of the most common loop pile carpets is Berber carpet (which Swanson recommends), a style often made out of nylon and based on the traditional handwoven carpets of Berber peoples in North Africa.

Carpet according to room use

As with most flooring, using your space as a guide to dictate your carpet-of-choice can ensure that you’ll find just the right combination of pile height and construction to meet your needs.

LifeProof Evocative Color Silence Pattern 12 ft. Carpet
Home Depot
$44.00

For example, carpet works well for creating cozy warmth for a child’s playroom—but that isn’t the place for a plush, all-white carpet that’s just asking for a slice of pizza land on it.
For busier spaces that require durability, go with something lower pile that’s built for rough-and-tumble energy, like Lifeproof carpet that has a lifetime warranty against stains and a 25 year warranty against wear. For a more elegant, natural look, explore a higher-pile, yarn-dyed carpet (where the fibers are dyed before being attached to the backing) that will set the mood and provide a touch of low-key sophistication, like many of the options from the Home Decorators Collection.
“Some people think that when they’re making an investment in wall-to-wall carpet that it’s something that they can’t ever change out,” says Swanson. “But if you’re making an investment in a really good area rug, you’re not going to change that either, and wall-to-wall prevents any awkward layouts within a space or rug slippage.”

Leave installation to the professionals
After you’ve landed on the dream carpet for your space, next comes installation. General contractor Mark Clements of My FixItUp Life recommends calling a professional, a far safer bet than trying to measure, cut, and stretch the carpet on your own. “It’s the kind of thing where you’ll say to yourself, ‘Why am I doing this myself, exactly?’” he says, noting that a person tackling the project themselves would have to rent, among other things, a carpet stretcher and install tack stripping—the strips along the edges of a room into which carpet is tacked—to ensure the carpet doesn’t wrinkle.

He does, however, recommend taking up the old carpet on your own, which will save money in the long run. “The trick there is to cut it up into manageable squares—I usually recommend two by three. You use a sharp knife, you cut it into squares, stack them up and carry them out.”

Foss Peel and Stick Hobnail Gunmetal Texture 18 in. x 18 in. Residential Carpet Tile (16 Tiles/Case)
Home Depot
$42.99

Clements also suggests exploring carpet tiles to create the wall-to-wall carpet look with a little bit more flexibility—and if you want to try your hand at a DIY installation. “Carpet tiles are very easy to deal with, they’re beautiful and long-lasting,” Clements says. “Some are solid, some have really cool patterns in them, and you can create any designer pattern you want. They’re easy to cut, to carry, to transport. If one gets stained, you just peel it up and stick down another one.”

And whether your carpeted room becomes the snuggle-on-the-floor, well-loved center of your children’s life, or the high-end bedroom oasis of your dreams, one thing’s for sure: this isn’t your grandma’s carpet. More

Kiss awkward yoga-in-the-laundry-room goodbye. More