Floorsave

There are dozens of flooring categories available to UK homeowners in 2026. Laminate, luxury vinyl, WPC, SPC, and engineered wood in multiple species and there is just a huge range of options available. Since, the range of flooring options is genuinely wide, the terminology can be confusing; as a result, most buyers spend more time researching flooring than they do on almost any other home renovation decision, yet they still feel uncertain when they finally commit.

Most flooring decisions feel big at the time and settle into the background of daily life really soon. The floor is installed, the furniture is placed, life resumes, and the floor becomes the surface beneath our feet rather than the focus of our attention. Whereas, in reality, a desirable floor should be present but not prominent.

Unfinished wood flooring is different. The colour decision you make at the staining stage does not settle into the background. It becomes the foundation on which every other decision in the room is built, such as the wall colour, the furniture choice, and how natural light reads in the space at different times of the day

Most people spend a significant amount of time choosing their wood flooring. They visit showrooms, order samples, hold boards up against wall colours and look at them in different lights at different times of day. They read reviews and compare specifications and agonise over tone and grain and finish. And then they make a decision that feels considered and confident and right.

What Happens to Your Floor When the Heating Goes On

It all starts with a sound, maybe a small creak somewhere near the radiator, followed by a gap that appears between two boards that definitely wasn’t there last spring. Then someone crouches down, runs a finger along the edge of a plank, and says the words that send a mild panic through every homeowner who spent good money on a wood floor.

The Flooring Pattern That Makes Small Rooms Feel Bigger

Interior designers and architects working on small spaces, especially London flats, cottage renovations, and compact new builds, consistently report that engineered herringbone flooring makes rooms feel significantly larger than straight laminate boards of exactly the same material and colour. The effect is most pronounced in square rooms and in rooms where the proportions are awkward; maybe too narrow, too short, or oddly shaped in a way that straight boards tend to emphasise rather than resolve.

Most people approach wood flooring the wrong way. They pick a floor they like, check the price, and then try to make it work everywhere. Fair enough, sometimes that works out.

But, more often, it leads to a kitchen floor that warps within a year, a hallway that shows every scratch within six months, or a bedroom that feels cold when it should feel warm and restful.

There’s a version of this question that every homeowner, when planning for a renovation, keeps on asking on every forum, ranging from every Facebook group to Instagram channels to every kitchen table conversation where someone has just started planning a renovation. It goes something like this: “I love the look of herringbone flooring, but isn’t it costly?”

When I began renovating my hallway two years ago, I honestly believed that selecting wood flooring would be the simplest task. Pick oak, pick a finish, and done. What I didn’t expect was the unending rabbit hole that opens up the moment you start actually looking for the wood flooring options. Herringbone parquet flooring or wide plank engineered boards, which one do you think will be the right choice? Both have real oakwood. Both are beautiful. But they are both completely different in ways that took me far too long to properly understand.

Building your home, getting the interiors done, setting up the lights – oh, such a dream come true family moments. Everything feels cheerful and positive, as somehow things got done and fell into place, right? Well, this joy is the feeling that every person feels when they step for the first time inside their own home. But how was all this done? The problems and confusions you faced are what make this journey worth remembering.

Have you ever been in the same shoes when you went to your friend’s house, maybe for the house-warming ceremony and had this realisation. The house appears stunning, with an aesthetic, inviting, peaceful, and elegant atmosphere that lingers in your memory even after you leave. Fast forward a few months, and you got the same stuff done, and still the house looks different. Despite having the same flooring and wall paints, the vibe of the house is entirely different. Questionable, right?

Flooring of a home might feel like yet another thing that needs to be decided in order to have a finished home before finally moving in. However, in reality, the flooring of a home is much more significant than just another decision to make before moving in. It is something that sets the overall look and the vibe of the entire home. Therefore, choosing the flooring for a house plays a significant role in its overall design.