What’s New in Flooring for 2022

See the flooring trends for 2022 in this Houzz article by Julie Sheer.  This article covers all the luxury vinyl, hardwood, faux wood, and stone flooring products debuting this year

Flooring Trends 2022

The new flooring on display at this month’s The International Surface Event trade show reflected the continuing dominance of luxury vinyl, porcelain and laminate wood-look flooring, with stone imitations popping up all over. In general, flooring colors are warming up, with cool grays giving way to browner tones and more rustic finishes in both real and imitation wood and stone. The move to more waterproof products, bigger tiles, and wider and longer planks continues as well.

“Everything’s going a little bit cleaner. There’s a lot of Scandinavian influence, which is not new, but it’s a mix with Japanese design and that clean-lined look,” says Kathryn Gluibizzi, senior designer for Armstrong Flooring. “You can’t forget that Nordic design has a lot of craftsmanship to it, and there’s a lot of rustic in Nordic design.” Along with freshened-up colors, there was more tile with a stronger rigid core and anti-slip surfaces. Here are some of the flooring highlights of the trade show for the tile, stone, and floor coverings industries, held Feb. 1-3 in Las Vegas. The new collections will be rolling out throughout 2022.

Flooring Trends 2022

  1. Gray Warms UpOne of the most noticeable trends at the Surfaces event was the lack of cool-toned driftwood gray in the flooring samples. There was plenty of gray, but it had warmer undertones. Some designers consider that part of the so-called Japandi design trend, which melds the Japanese interior style of warm tones and natural elements with a clean, minimalist Scandinavian influence.“You’ll see an element of nature in there, combined with a Scandinavian, more minimal look to achieve that Japandi look,” Gluibizzi says. “From a color point of view, it’s less about the cool grays and more about the warm grays.” Shown here is Armstrong Flooring’s Vantage Premier, a new collection of rigid-core luxury vinyl planks that includes the style pictured: Canyon Face Brushstroke in gray with brown undertones.Flooring Trends 2022

Shown here is Provenza Floors’ Moda Living waterproof luxury vinyl planks in Starlit Sea, a warmer gray, with a 20-mil-thick wear layer on the surface and measuring 9.06 inches wide and 72 inches long. The thickness of a luxury tile’s wear layer is measured in mils, with 1 mil equal to one-thousandth of an inch. (One millimeter equals about 40 mils.) The thicker the wear layer, the more durable and long-lasting the tile or plank. Most residential vinyl wear layers are from 8 to 12 mils thick. Experts recommend at least a 20-mil-thick wear layer for heavily used areas. Some of the tiles at the Surfaces event had beefy 30-mil wear layers.

Flooring Trends 2022

Surface Art‘s display reflected the warmer gray trend in both wall and floor tile. Here’s Brio, glazed porcelain in 8½-by-10-inch solid hexagonal tiles, available in seven colors, along with four 8-by-8-inch patterned options, all suitable for flooring.

Flooring Trends 2022

The warmer grays of Armstrong Flooring’s Beach-Sand Beige color are seen here in its faux wood Hermosa Rigid Core planks, from the Essentials Plus collection of luxury vinyl planks. They have a 20-mil wear layer and measure 7 by 60 inches. The tile behind it is from the same collection, in Provincial Life-Rose-Thorn Umber.

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Flooring Trends 2022

Armstrong’s stone-look Alterna luxury vinyl tile, shown here in Grain Directions, achieves a new warmer gray using multiple tones. “These crackled washed concretes we’re seeing everywhere,” Gluibizzi says. “It has just a little bit more crackle detail that allows for it to be more multicolored. There’s a lot of different tones of gray, which makes it interesting.”

Flooring Trends 2022

Johnson Hardwood’s new Green Mountain series of solid hardwoods include this oak in a warm gray called Craftsbury. Planks are available in maple or oak.

Flooring Trends 2022

Airy coastal colors are trending right alongside grays, and porcelain tile is still a strong alternative to faux wood flooring. Emser Tile’s new Heirloom collection is a handsome choice for floors and walls. Shown here in Larch, it’s available in 8-by-35-inch tiles and in three colors.

Flooring Trends 2022

  1. Luxury Vinyl DominatesLuxury planks and tiles. Vinyl planks and tiles were seen in abundance at the Surfaces event, nearly overshadowing other types of flooring on display. Improved digital technology has resulted in ever more realistic imitations of wood and stone. The trend toward rigid cores in tiles and planks, along with thicker wear layers on the surface, has made these products more durable.“Rigid core” is the luxury vinyl tile (LVT) feature of the moment. Higher-quality luxury vinyl flooring constructed with this type of core offers more stability. Many products are now being constructed with a stone polymer composite (SBC) core rather than a wood polymer composite (WBC). Shown here is the new color Viking Hickory Pearl River from Armstrong’s Empower collection, which features vinyl planks with a rigid stone core.What to Know About Luxury Vinyl Flooring

Flooring Trends 2022

A variety of luxury vinyl planks from Mannington’s Adura Apex collections were on display at the event.

Flooring Trends 2022

Here’s Armstrong Flooring’s Essentials Plus Hermosa Rigid Core in a new color called Golden Sunset. The wood-look planks have a rigid stone polymer composite core and 20-mil wear layer for increased durability and scratch and stain protection. The planks are 7 inches wide and 60 inches long.

Flooring Trends 2022

Karndean Designflooring had plenty of its luxury vinyl flooring on display, including some new colors in its Korlok Reserve collection. Luxury vinyl is increasingly popular for its ease of use and improved look, Karndean’s Jennifer Uhlemann says. “I think it’s simplicity. People are busy and want something they don’t have to worry about,” she says. “They don’t want something too fussy. With LVT you can clean it easily. It simplifies your life.”

Flooring Trends 2022

Here are Karndean’s new chevron luxury vinyl planks in Pale Limed Oak. Having the chevrons already incorporated in a plank makes for easier installation, Uhlemann notes. All of Karndean’s products are Floor Score-certified, meaning they’ve been third-party-tested to ensure that their elements, including adhesives and underlayment, meet indoor air quality standards.

Flooring Trends 2022

Provenza’s Uptown Chic luxury vinyl plank, shown here in Brown Sugar, has a 20-mil wear layer and measures 7 by 60 inches. It’s a good example of today’s more popular warm colors, with a surface that benefits from improved digital technology that shows knots and grooves.

Flooring Trends 2022

Provenza’s MaxCore luxury vinyl flooring is 100% waterproof. The company’s new MaxCore collections will include wider planks and longer lengths; the New Wave collection features wide, long planks and 12 pattern selections derived from the company’s hardwood collections.

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Flooring Trends 2022

Sheet vinyl. Some of today’s sheet vinyl flooring borrows looks from natural stone and wood, complete with faux grouting. Armstrong’s Continuity Comfort, shown here in Unstrained Sunny Beige, is a vinyl sheet flooring with a wood-and-stone look. “We’re playing around with different gradations of a color,” Gluibizzi says. “This is a nice mixed-media idea where we have the Carrara and wood look mixed together.”

Flooring Trends 2022

Here’s a wood-look sheet vinyl from Armstrong’s Continuity Comfort line called Cypress Grove Greige. The collection has designs that mimic wood, stone, and encaustic patterns, along with hexagons and other geometric designs.

Flooring Trends 2022

Armstrong’s Continuity Comfort Unstrained vinyl sheet flooring in Geo Gem has strong patterning for a bold look. “I’d put it in a smaller room, but we love the geometry of this,” Gluibizzi says. “It’s a charcoal and not a true black, so that makes it softer and a little more livable.”

Flooring Trends 2022

Armstrong’s Continuity Comfort Unstrained Sunny Beige vinyl sheet flooring has an almost retro look. The vinyl features Armstrong’s Diamond 10 Technology to make it scratch- and stain-resistant.

Flooring Trends 2022

  1. The Rise of LaminateIf you’ve experienced only cheap laminate with its shiny plastic look and feel, you’re in for a surprise. Today’s quality laminate flooring has come a long way. It’s still constructed of a layered composite of compressed wood fiber atop a durable fiberwood base, but improved technology means the image layer looks far more realistic. Products with bevels and an embossed texture that mimics real wood can easily compete with the best luxury vinyl planks.Some companies keep the word “laminate” in small print, preferring terms like “high-performance flooring,” a reference to the surface’s sturdiness and ease of maintenance. The German company Inhaus calls its new-generation laminate Lamdura, of which there was plenty on display at Surfaces, including this sample called Buckthorn, from the company’s Visions collection.

Flooring Trends 2022

This Inhaus display of Lamdura flooring shows the variety of on-trend tones available in its laminate offerings. Lamdura includes three collections, with varying plank sizes and color variations. None of Inhaus’ products have PVC and all of its wood comes from sustainably harvested forests in Germany.

Flooring Trends 2022

Johnson Hardwood’s Public House collection is laminate flooring with a stone polymer composite rigid core, registered embossing and a 30-mil wear layer.

Flooring Trends 2022

Johnson Hardwood also has a new collection of laminate planks called Olde Tavern. The series includes shades that mimic reclaimed hardwood, shown here in the trending warmer gray tones.

Flooring Trends 2022

  1. Wood Is Still GoodFor those who want the real thing, there were plenty of hardwood flooring samples on display at Surfaces. These also reflected the trends of moving away from cool grays and toward warmer tones, richer browns, and hand-scraped rustic surfaces. When lighter shades did turn up, they tended to be airy and coastal-feeling. Similar to luxury vinyl products, hardwood planks are trending wider and longer. Shown here is the Prato color from Provenza’s new Volterra collection of European oak, ranging from light to rustic color variations, with hand scraping, knots, and cracks to evoke a timeworn feel.

Flooring Trends 2022

Engineered wood, an increasingly substantial segment of the hardwood market, was a popular offering at the show. Consisting of natural wood on the surface with a composite of wood fibers, particles, strands, and veneers forming the rest of the plank, engineered wood tends to be less expensive than hardwood. But unlike solid wood, it can be refinished only a certain number of times. This display from Johnson Hardwood showed its English Pub engineered hardwood, available in hickory or maple.

What to Know About Engineered Wood Floors

Flooring Trends 2022

Provenza’s new Volterra collection of engineered European oak is shown here in Lombardy.

Flooring Trends 2022

Johnson Hardwood’s Victorian series of engineered hardwood is available in acacia or hickory.

Flooring Trends 2022

Provenza’s display of its Old World collection of engineered hardwood featured wire-brushed, hand-distressed, and hand-scraped solid oak and ash. Planks are 7.44 inches wide and up to 6 feet long.

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Flooring Trends 2022

  1. Stone Looks AboundStone looks were on display in abundance at the Surfaces event. Stone-like porcelain and luxury vinyl are showing up in a variety of room settings, from living rooms to laundry rooms, and natural stone also remains a durable and elegant choice. Here’s Emser Tile’s new travertine-like Livorno glazed porcelain tile in the Ulivo color.

Flooring Trends 2022

Here’s a closer look at Emser’s Livorno, travertine-look glazed porcelain available in four muted shades and two sizes.

Flooring Trends 2022

Daltile’s Wanderwise is a new collection of glazed porcelain tile that mimics limestone in three neutral colors, including Drift, shown here in 6-by-24-inch matte-finish planks installed in a herringbone pattern.

Flooring Trends 2022

Terrazzo, a midcentury throwback, is having a moment again. The real thing is a composite of quartz, marble, metals or glass set in resin or cement, and today’s porcelain imitations look pretty convincing. Daltile’s Modernist collection in Pearsall is shown here in a 24-by-24-inch grid pattern.

Flooring Trends 2022

Here’s a closer view of Daltile’s Modernist terrazzo-look porcelain. The existing collection added a 36-by-36-inch tile this season.

Flooring Trends 2022

Photo from Quality Marble and Granite

For some, nothing can compete with real stone, such as the Perla Venata quartzite slabs shown here in trending neutral tones. At a Surfaces event session called Trending Natural Stones, moderated by Sarah Gregg of the Natural Stone Institute, the latest looks in stone included numerous beige tones, making a comeback after many years when just about everything was white and gray.

Flooring Trends 2022

Photo from Artistic Tile

For those who crave the ultimate in luxury flooring, real marble is their No. 1 option. Shown here are squares of Invisible Blue marble, featuring a shimmery blue background with soft gray veins and taupe tones. Striking patterns in natural stone have been in demand, Gregg says, adding that the current preference is for soft and subdued veining and larger tile sizes.

Flooring Trends 2022

The concrete look is ever popular in flooring. Here it gets warmed up in a luxury vinyl tile from Armstrong Flooring’s Essentials Plus collection, shown in Caledonia Celtic Fog. The rigid-core tiles measure 9 inches wide by 60 inches long.

Flooring Trends 2022

As part of its porcelain tile display, American Olean showed its limestone- and wood-mimicking Historic Limestone Landmark Hex 12-by-10-inch tile in Native Blend, along with Native color floor tile.

Flooring Trends 2022

 

Armstrong Flooring’s Lost Empire Amber Sagebrush, from its Alterna stone-look luxury vinyl tile collection, is a cooler gray with hints of a distressed-rug, faded encaustic pattern. “It’s a new classic that can go with pretty much anything, for folks that really love the new graphic way things are going but can’t quite make the commitment to go with black-and-white encaustic tiles. This is a way to do something softer,” Gluibizzi says. The groutable engineered tiles come in a variety of styles, including imitation slate, travertine, concrete, and marble in three sizes.

Flooring Trends 2022

Here’s a view of Armstrong’s Alterna Lost Empire in Amber Sagebrush luxury vinyl tiles in the 16-by-16-inch size.

Flooring Trends 2022

Emser’s Erosion concrete-look porcelain tile is available in three sizes and four colors.

Flooring Trends 2022

Daltile’s Articulo line of imitation travertine porcelain tiles includes this polished 12-by-24-inch tile in Column Grey. The collection’s chevron mosaic polished tiles are on the fireplace wall.

Flooring Trends 2022

Marble looks in vinyl flooring are hitting critical mass — they were seen everywhere at the Surfaces show. Here’s a selection of stone-look samples from Karndean’s Korlok Select luxury vinyl tile with a rigid core.

Flooring Trends 2022

Provenza’s Stonescape collection of stone-look luxury vinyl tiles with a waterproof rigid core features a variety of shades.

Article by Julie Sheer, Houzz Contributor February 25, 2022

The original can be found here.

Home Remodeling in the Greater Phoenix Area

For high-end home design, build, and remodeling in the greater Phoenix area that reflects your vision, Homework Remodels will help you love your home again. Start your project by calling us at (480) 895-3442 or email [email protected] to discuss your remodeling project.  We offer no-obligation in-home consultation. Our NARI-certified award-winning designers and craftsman are eager to work with you to make your vision for your home a reality!  See our portfolio here.

5 Remodels That Make Good Resale Value Sense – and 5 That Don’t

We are sharing this Houzz blog by Matt Clawson because we know you value your home remodel investment.  This blog has some great information about which home renovation projects can increase your remodel resale value. Houzz is a great resource where you can design your home, and browse 20 million interior design photos, home decor, decorating ideas, and home professionals online.  We are a member of Houzz and have won consecutive Best of Houzz awards!  With our design phase and remodeling processes, we can confidently help you set your goals within your budget adding a great resale value to your home. 

 

Repeat after me: I am the master of my remodel. Perhaps you should say it again because sadly, it’s not always so. Remodels sometimes have a tendency to develop their own inertia, as decisions lead to new dilemmas, unintended consequences, and surprising outcomes. In some cases, these flights of fancy are perfectly acceptable, provided the design and completed execution truly align with the vision and budget.

But if your budget is a concern and the wise investment of limited home improvement dollars matters, then there are a few basic guidelines you should familiarize yourself with before planning your remodel. Today we review five remodels that typically make good financial sense, providing a nice return on the investment at the time of resale — and five that don’t.

 

Remodel Resale Value

27 Diamonds Interior Design, Transitional Kitchen

 

Remodeling Projects That Offer Good Resale Value

1. Kitchens. 
Updating a tired old kitchen is one of the wisest methods, and a tried-and-true one, of increasing the value of your home. When planning a kitchen remodel, and making design decisions and selections for plumbing fixtures, appliances, cabinets, and countertop materials, you should determine whether you are prioritizing your own design aesthetic or the return on your investment.

Either priority is perfectly acceptable, but you should understand which is your priority, or strike a balance between the two that you can feel good about.

For example, using the existing kitchen layout and affordable cosmetic materials is a sure way to keep the cost of your kitchen remodel manageable. When you start tearing out walls, bumping out the exterior home footprint to gain a few feet, and moving plumbing fixtures and appliances, the cost of the remodel will jump and your dollars will be less efficiently spent.

Remodel Resale Value

FineCraft Contractors, Inc., Transitional Family Room

2. Adding living space. A straightforward addition of a new living room space is typically a very good investment.

Newly added square footage generally increases your home’s value. There are certain costs that will be associated with your addition regardless of the size. New square footage will require the demolition of existing exterior walls, a new foundation, a new roof, new exterior siding, and probably new windows. If you are going to incur these expenses, it’s important to get some bang for your buck. It’s important that the added room is sized so that the space can be efficiently produced.

Remodel Resale Value

Tree 2 Key Builders, Traditional Exterior

3. Curb appeal. You have heard not to judge a book by its cover, but smart money recognizes the cover’s value. Your front elevation is more than just a first impression. It’s the only impression available to just about all of your home’s potential buyers.

The good news is that there are a number of very affordable projects that can improve curb appeal and some more extensive improvements that can likely pay off as well. Simply cleaning out overgrown brush and making a few new planting additions to your landscape can go a long way toward improving curb appeal at a very low cost.

Repainting is another low-cost, high-impact improvement. Costlier changes such as changing out old windows or an aged entry door are things that potential buyers will notice and value. Even more extensive front-elevation remodels, such as added dormers and front porches, can prove wise from an investment standpoint.

Remodel Resale Value

Jameson Design Group, Contemporary Bedroom

4. Primary suites. Sorry, kids. Homebuying decisions are in the hands of adults, and adults care about the environment where they sleep. Updating a primary bedroom or remodeling and adding a new primary suite is money well spent. The buyers will picture themselves living in their private space, and it’s of quantitative value when they like what they see.

Remodel Resale Value

Denman Construction, Farmhouse Bathroom

5. Bathrooms. Homebuyers notice bathrooms, and although all the bathrooms are important, a priority should be placed on the powder room and master bath, followed by a guest bathroom and any other secondary baths (the kids don’t need to know).

The same rules apply to a bathroom remodel as to the kitchen. Cosmetic changes are safer from an investment standpoint than modifications involving changed layouts or minor additions, which can result in inefficient expenses.

Remodeling Projects That Typically Offer Poor Resale Value

1. Kids’ spaces. 
If your kids have a climbing wall, for example, the fantastic addition will probably lead to hours of fun, increased strength, and perhaps even a sense of accomplishment. But there is no assurance your homebuyer will feel the same way. A rock-climbing wall might actually represent a negative value to a buyer who sees this space as his man cave.

2. Pools. The National Swimming Pool Foundation estimates that there are more than 10 million swimming pools in the United States. Can 10 million pool owners possibly be wrong? Backyard pools are loved by millions, and while this appreciation is well-founded, they should be constructed for their many virtues that are not investment-related. A pool might increase the value of your home but is unlikely to pay for itself, as some buyers will perceive the pool as a negative maintenance expense.

3. Wine rooms. Some of the coolest remodels are the least savvy from an investment perspective. A wine room wouldn’t appeal to someone who does not love wine, for example. Original designs rarely appeal to everyone, so when adding spaces to a home you know you will sell, consider how personal it is and if others will feel as strongly as you do.

4. Removing features. Do not remove features for investment reasons. If you never use the fireplace in your basement, removing it might make perfect sense to you and your family. Just make sure you understand that the next homeowner might wish it were still there, and the money you spent demolishing the fireplace and reworking the space will not be reclaimed.

5. Minor additions. Adding a few square feet — say, to expand a bathroom or secondary bedroom — is rarely money well spent. The reason is simple. If you bump out a bedroom wall by a few feet, you might make that bedroom much more comfortable. That benefit alone might make it worthwhile in your circumstance. But the cost of the added elements, including foundation, roof, framing and drywall, will result in only a small gain in square footage. Say your 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom home becomes a three-bedroom home with 2,440 square feet. It’s unlikely that you’ll recover the cost of the addition.

Remodel Resale Value

Michele Johnson Design, Traditional Kitchen

 

The Bottom Line

This exercise is not intended to dissuade you from pursuing a specific remodeling idea. The enjoyment and functionality get from a new space may make the project worthwhile even if it doesn’t provide good resale value. The decision is yours to make. Just be sure you make it with a full understanding of the investment value for every dollar you spend.

Written by Matt Clawson, a Houzz contributor. Realtor. Homebuilder, project consultant, and writer/March 15, 2022.

You can read the blog with its additional links on Houzz here.

Home Remodeling in the Greater Phoenix Area

For high-end home design, build, and remodeling in the greater Phoenix area that reflects your vision, Homework Remodels will help you love your home again. Start your project by calling us at (480) 895-3442 or email [email protected] to discuss your remodeling project.  We offer no-obligation in-home consultation. Our NARI-certified award-winning designers and craftsman are eager to work with you to make your vision for your home a reality!  See our portfolio here.

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