To match or not to match that is the question.

A lot of folks working through a remodeling project are faced with a dilemma. They are remodeling and changing floors in part of the home, but not all of it. So the question of how to replace the kitchen, entry, hallway while still coordinating with the dining and living room which are existing floors is a common challenge.

There is one basic way I would offer advice when it comes to this very normal situation:

1. YOU CAN NOT MATCH THE FLOOR EXACTLY. – unless the exact flooring you have in the existing areas is still being made you will not find a match. You can try, but there will be no precise match. Natural products will change with exposure to light anyway so even if it is available it may still not match perfectly. However, if you can find the same exact product ID# etc… that is your only hope of matching the floor.

2. SINCE YOU CAN’T MATCH – LET’S COORDINATE. – Coordination with your flooring can take on two basic concepts typically. The first and most common I see used is to use the new flooring to contrast the old flooring in an obvious way. The two can still coexist together have have elements that coordinate in your greater design scheme, but when people see your two floors together they will see that you did not try to match and fail, you in fact chose a BOLD route and faced the challenge head on and contrasted the prior design. Olay!

If you are not into a contrast then the next most common method of coordination is using a similar base color tone, but changing the grain or pattern enough to look different. This is much easier than getting an exact match.

To me the most important thing is to avoid the “Swing anna Miss” potential in trying to match exactly. When people see two floors that kind of seem like they are the same, but on a close examination they are clearly not the same it would be seen as a design strike out. Avoid that if you can.

That’s my Tip ‘O the Day.