I vote bamboo/hardwood (or cork?) We also have a baby on the way and I think that concrete or stone might be too hard/cold. But I agree, anything is better than the green! Post photos when your finished, and congrats on the baby!

We have a 60s modern house in Virginia and are planning concrete for our kitchen. We have a nice slate stone in the entryway which looks great, and hardwood in the living spaces. Agree that concrete or stone in living spaces might be too cold, but if you want to use it you could limit it to kitchen or entry as we have. I've also heard great things about cork; we are considering it for one of our 'transitional' spaces which is currently a linoleum casualty.

I was in the flooring design biz for many years and, being the mother of an 8 month old, I can say that not only is the concrete/stone option cold, it's also sort of dangerous. Babies bump their heads on the floor a lot just learning to sit up, and even if you plan on having rugs, it's a risk once the crawling/ pulling up begins. Hardwoods are always good and usually pretty affordable, depending on what material the sub-floor is. But, cork is cool and very eco-friendly and helps keep pest away from your home and has lot's of other benefits! Congrats on the baby and home!!!

If you have a baby on the way then I think you have to go with wood (which I also think would look terrific). Baby- and toddler-hood involve a lot of falling over, and I'm sure you'd rather he or she was falling onto (relatively) forgiving wood rather than rock hard concrete.

I can't imagine that concrete or stone would be good for a child, especially in the crawling and falling-down-while-trying-to-learn-to-walk stages. :)

I think a nice dark bamboo flooring would be a gorgeous option. Here is a picture of a space that has lots of windows and brick as well, much like yours: http://www.ambientbp.com/strand_woven_bamboo_flooring_cd_4.jpg

Good luck!

Laura
grafxnerd.tumblr.com

I agree that concrete or stone might be too hard/cold for the baby, as Tiffany suggested above,(although maybe you could do radiant floor heating?), but bamboo or hardwood will get marked quite badly by your dog's claws (I grew up with golden retrievers and the hardwood in our cottage is a mess). I don't know about cork but I would think the same thing would happen. Laminate floors hold up MUCH better to dog use, although the claws will make more noise, and I personally hate laminate.

If you choose hardwood, maybe try for a type/finish where scratches and marks won't matter too much, e.g. reclaimed barn boards, which could be sanded down enough for a nice surface for the baby (although I would put a playmat/rug in the nursery) but would just gain "character" from the dog's clawmarks.

I think cork would be a great idea too. Hard wearing with pets and children and a great texture to look at. I also liked your idea of using something that can blend indoors with outdoors since you have those great windows. If money allows, maybe some stone with under-floor heating would be a nice solution?

Beautiful house, I am so jealous. What about terrazzo? Terrazzo would look incredible in this house.

I would worry about the bamboo or cork scratching due to the dog... aren't they relatively soft?

I lived with a concrete floor for a year before putting in cork, and the concrete was *cold*.

I love the cork - nice temperature year-round, soft-but-not-squishy, and environmentally friendly.

The only thing that might give me pause would be the dog. My cats decided that the floor was just a wonderful whole-house scratching post, and the scratches show up dramatically. Can you put a sample down somewhere the dog runs for a while to see if its claws damage it?

Why not celebrate the location in North Carolina and install a pine floor?

You could probably source it locally - and truly integrate the landscape into your interior.

Oh, what a gorgeous place! I think you can do a combo of wood (in some spaces) and concrete (in others). With young kids, all concrete is pretty tough. And, even though you aren't in a cold part of the world, it can get nippy for a couple months of the year. Hardwood warms things up visually and literally.

If you're going to go with hardwood either learn to love scratches or read up on the Janka hardness scale.

I put red oak hardwood in my house, and then got a lab. I chose red oak because it's locally produced where I live, so it's pretty cheap here. Trust me - when your lab decides to turn on a dime and investigate the squirrels in the backyard, your floor will scratch. If you've got wood, the darker the stain, the worse the scratches will show.

If I understand correctly, natural bamboo is harder than red oak, but "carbonized" bamboo is softer. I wouldn't recommend anything softer than red oak.

Some good suggestions here:
http://www.onlyflooring.com/

I agree with Tiffany, go with something easier on baby, like cork or bamboo. great house!

Your baby will be walking within a year, but your Lab will be scratching whatever floor you put in for years and years. It it were me, it'd put in travertine. You would worry less about the dirt tracked in, and you'd enjoy yourself and your family more.

We've got a similar house and have different flooring in different rooms - it helps define the spaces and the flooring reflects the use of the room.

In our TV room it's super-soft carpet. In our dining room & bedrooms it's hardwoods. In the kitchen it's linoleum (hard surfaces in the kitchen are really hard on the back.) In the den that looks over the pool it's colorbody porcelain that matches the old flagstone out on the patio. (no dog nor boy can scratch that stuff, and they have tried! Plus we just drop wet towels and suits right there.) You can always put area rugs down over hard surfaces too.

Lovely home!

I've just been through this exact transition. 1968 house with huge windows looking out onto a pool patio and yard with nearly 3000 sq. ft. of dark green carpet.

1) Love terrazzo, but we had concrete underneath our carpet. Terrazzo is extremely expensive and probably not an option unless it's already under there. If it is, you are LUCKY and you should have it diamond polished no matter how expensive it is.

2) We lived with the bare concrete for a year. Even in Florida, it was very cold in the winter and hard on the joints. The grey also sucks light out of the room dramatically. At one point we wanted to just diamond polish it - extremely messy and expensive - and we would not have been happy with the long-term results.

3) I don't think having a baby should be a factor in possibly choosing concrete floors though. I grew up with terrazzo, and I think you just need to manage the whole learning to walk stage carefully.

4) We looked at cork. Again, a huge light suck, pretty expensive, and I think it would be too soft for a dog.

5) Tile. Hate it. IMO it would destroy the look of a mid-century home. Plus you'd want to have it professsionally installed because larger areas make any imperfections stand out.

6) Wood. We are just wrapping up our installation and we LOVE it. We chose Bruce fold & lock engineered wood in 3/8" thickness in natural oak. It floats over padding over the concrete, and it was a relatively simple installation (much easier than gluing down or gluing together, which we've done). Much better look than laminate, and a great price. Our cost was around $7000 I think (to install ourselves), which was LESS than what it would have costs us to install medium-grade carpet in just our bedrooms. Also, it is TOUGH. When we were cutting it, we'd scratch a line on the surface with a (dull) knife, and it took really jamming it in to get it to scratch. We pushed a fully made up king-sized bed on four wooden legs across it without any scratching. No felt pad or anything. (The same could not be said for a previous floor of BR-111 brazillian cherry.) Also, it is incredibly easy to maintain and does NOT show dust or footprints. (Again, brazillian cherry is the worst.) I walk through with a dust mop a couple times a week and it picks up a full cat's worth of fur - and you'd never have known it was there.

I highly recommend it. Oh, and I also walk through the house in stilletos all the time with no problem. Plus, the oak has some grain/texture to it, so if something (like cat puke) were to create an outline or something if we missed it for a few days, you'd probably never notice it.

Also, if you have a major catastrophe or water emergency, you could take up the floor in that area piece by piece and replace it.

You do know someone is going to suggest leaving the green carpet, don't you? And that person is me!!!
I looooooove shagpile carpet from the 60s. If you must get rid of it, replace it with some fresh green identical carpet... ah it makes me happy... definitely go for option (4)!

Concrete or stone would not only be hard on the baby, it would be hard on you, especially working in the kitchen.

Cork sounds like a good stylish option.

This may sound odd, but I've recently been taken by old fashioned linoleum. When I attended GreenBuild a year ago, I saw some stuff called Marmoleum. Very attractive. Recently I attended a meeting at my alma mater, and admired the 50's vintage red linoleum floors that had just been polished til they glowed. Gorgeous. Just a thought....

what is with all the coddling of the spawn? like babies don't bounce any more?

i love my concrete floors and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. in a few years that baby is going to be a mud-covered four-year-old with a frog in one hand and a paintbrush full of blue paint in the other and then you're going to thank me for putting in nearly indesctructible concrete floors. oh, and the dog will love to lay on them and pant when it's 95 degrees out. just make sure you get them polished to super shiny. then all it takes is some damp mopping to keep them nice.

I am totally down with the cork or bamboo suggestions. That would look like total hotness !

If you do opt for polished concrete, here are a few more thoughts:

You can diamond grind/polish it or just stain and/or seal it. The diamond polishing will last a lot longer and it actually makes the concrete harder. Sealing needs to be repeated every few years, especially with a dog and in traffic areas. Also, the floor will not be as smooth.

If you go for the diamond polish, get several quotes. Ask what they're going to do one the edges and under any cabinets. The big machines won't fit and some will just leave it rough (with a sealer) and some will use hand equipment. And diamond polishing should never require sealing - so if that is mentioned, it means that they are not going to complete enough stages of the polishing process and you'll be stuck with the same need to re-seal. Be sure to ask how many times they will be going over the floor (with finer and finer grit polishers).

Ask about the mess - this is really an application for new construction, usually before the walls and everything else are put up. A lot of the places that do this specialize in big, open retail environments and warehouses, and there per-square-foot prices are going to shoot up dramatically when they consider all your halls/cabinets/etc. that they have to work around.

The dust will be insane too - this is not something you or your furniture can stick around for. I think for our place we were told it would take about a week and we'd need to move everything out.

It will also depend on the density and quality of your floors. There can be cracks, pits, etc. that could add character or look really, really bad. Also, because the floor will not have been poured to be on display, you'll probably see a great variation in how much of the substrate (big chunks) are visible. When the floor is ground down, this can become even more apparent.

If you stain/seal, another thing to keep in mind is the overspray onto the walls, which either you or your contractor will have to prevent. It's a good thing to ask up front.

Oh, and for diamond polishing, I believe they sometimes add a chemical hardener. This is not the same thing as a sealer, but you'll definitely want to ask about it.

I think the bamboo would look fantastic.

Do not put down cork. I did that 18 mos. ago and while I love the look, my dog has scratched it horribly.

I woudl vote for the indoor/outdoor stone. My mother used to claim that my floor-banging "terrible twos" tantrums ceased immediately when we relocated to Florida and gained terrazzo floors.

if you can believe it, hardwood would be the softest option for your family. my church has thin carpeting layed over straight concrete, or so it seems, but everytime my/a kid hits the floor theres always lots of tears and a welt left behind. also, im thinking that hardwood may also absorb some sound unlike stone or concrete.. this is become very important once your lil one learns they can make noise.

happy choice making!

My folks have a huge dog (110 lbs) and both wood floors and slate floors. Don't get wood. Or if you do, get one you'd be ok with having scratched to heck. If it was me, I'd pick an indoor-outdoor tile/slate/stone for the living area that butts up against the patio to give it a continuous feel. Or, if you're that worried about your child hurting itself when learning to walk, just live with the carpet until the kid is older, then replace the flooring.

We had concrete floors in our last apartment and we had to put down rugs everywhere we didn't want bare feet to touch cold floor. Easy to clean but other than that not very nice to live with.

It depends on the house - Is it built on a slab or a crawlspace.

If it's a slab foundation, then I'd go for the concrete or stone - but if not, then wood would be the better option.

Either way, I'd consider installing radiant heat under your floors - it would be less expensive to heat your home as well as a more comfortable heat.

As far as babies - The world is not a cushioned, ouch-free place.

Not knowing what you're budget is, I'd consider Silestone tile (quartz/terrazzo) in Stellar Snow. (Check out e-counters.com for pricing.)

It's $15 a sq. ft., but if you can swing it, God bless ya!

My second option would be bamboo, keeping in mind that bamboo flooring in high traffic areas will need to be replaced sooner than hardwood options.

Gorgeous home, by the way!

1st, Love your house.
Are you dead set on using the same flooring in the entire area? I love wood dining room floors, but this area with the brick, white bookcases, and huge windows would look GREAT in gray stone. I think doing the entire area in one floor treatment would look nice, but you might consider mixing it up.

I think concrete would look fabulous and would be super low-maintenance--you can put down some of those foam puzzle piece relief mats for awhile while your baby is learning to walk. Anyway, kids bounce, don't they?

I agree with the person who warned against installing hard flooring like concrete or slate in the kitchen. I lived with a lovely terra cotta tiled kitchen and after just a few minutes of chopping veggies my back and legs would be aching.

My other suggestion is mildly distressed wood with a European wax finish like Osmo. It's enviro friendly and you won't have to strip and sand the whole floor to get rid of the dog scratches--you can do spot treatments just in places that need it. A slightly weathered look would contrast nicely with your modern home and keep the space from looking too cold.

1. No bamboo. I have bamboo floors in my condo and they looked great. But a single brief visit from one excited golden retriever left them very visibly scratched with no recourse but total refinishing.
2. No dark-stained woods. They're popular now but they really show scratches.
Great house--congrats!

Thanks for all the comments.

I should mention that we don't know what's under the green carpet (we haven't actually closed yet... the photo above is a listing photo). The house is a split level -- the rooms I mentioned in the post are one level. The bedrooms are a half level up (we'll probably go with wood in the bedrooms), and there is a half level down with a laundry room, gameroom with it's own patio and bathroom (we don't really know what to do about the floors there either.) The main level is mostly open, so I'm not sure how it would look to have different types of floors in each space (you can see the entry and dining room in background of the photo above.)

And Tania -- I did know someone would say to keep the green. We were planning on cutting out some squares for a keepsake rug. (:

Understanding now that the house is a split-level - you most likely have slab-concrete subfloors in the lower level and mid-level, and obviously the upper level is a wooden subfloor.

Yes wood or carpet would be appropriate on the bedroom level - but I'd still recommend stained/imprinted concrete, large-scale tile or stone for the two lower levels...
...and to keep the spaces cohesive and unified, I'd keep the same flooring throughout each level and define specific spaces with large area rugs.

LOL!

What a wonderful house, and what a fun problem!

Actually, I was looking for an apartment rental in London last week, and came across this listing:

http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/central-london-zone-2/83848

So you see, your home is very fashion-forward! Who knew that grass-green could make such a great foil for a traditional Persian rug?

This home features rubber flooring, which is a material I think you should seriously consider. The first Smallest Coolest winner, London Urchin, has rubber flooring in her fabulous home (yes, it is big in Europe! The company is called Dalsouple, by the way). It is not expensive, the colours are amazing (I would go with the smooth flat version of rubber flooring, not the one with raised circles), and you can get a glossy finish similar to a poured floor (e.g., epoxy) without the cost. Also, it is amazingly comfortable! We have it in our kitchen, and I can stand for hours cooking without my legs hurting, when things fall, they don't break, and when kids fall, they don't hurt themselves. Great stuff.

http://www.dalsouple.com/Domestic-DalUni.php

Another option is a poured epoxy floor. Much softer than polished concrete, more child-friendly, and gorgeous to boot (and pretty indestructable!)

Another option is slate flooring -- either honed or natural cleft. I am not a big fan of stone flooring (it is cold and hard), especially with children around, but I love ours (we have natural cleft in the entrance of our home, and honed Everlasting Green in our bathrooms). Honed black slate would be beautiful. We got ours from:

http://www.vermontstructuralslate.com/

My suggestion though, would be to go with wood. But not just any wood. Soap-finished Douglas Fir planks from Dinesan:

http://www.dinesen-floors.com/en/douglas/finishing/soap.html

Check out their gallery -- gorgeous, gorgeous floors! I think they really suit the distinctive MCM style of your home.

http://www.dinesen-floors.com/en/inspiration.html

Good luck, and congratulations on your home!

(p.s., not a fan of cork -- don't like the look, and had friends who found it to be a huge disappointment in terms of wear. Ditto bamboo.)

Cork! Its calling out for cork.