Phew!  What a whirlwind the last 3 months of 2014 were for us.  I feel like I should be wearing a neck brace from being whipped all around from all of the frenetic activities!

I thought I would start off the New Year with pictures of our home’s new floors and wall color.

I LOVE the Garrison Laminate Floors (in Avignon) that we choose. Why laminate floors over real hardwood?  We choose laminate because for our lifestyle/ house activity it was going to serve us better over the long haul.

Remember, we live in an 1,176 sg. ft. house, so that does not give us a lot of options when it comes to traffic patterns.  It would not take long for our “patterns” to wear on hardwood and the thought of the mess and expense of having to re-finish the floors was not appealing.  At all.  Plus with a black lab and kids coming and going, the floors would be distressed whether I wanted them to or not.

The other main reason was cost.  It always seems to come down to the old mighty dollar, doesn’t it?  Laminate is typically about a third of the cost of hardwood.  I don’t know about you, but that is a BIG deciding factor for us.  We could re-do our floors a couple of times and still be under what hardwood would have cost us.

I know.  I know.  “You choose laminate over real hardwood?”  Yup.  And I would do it again.  In fact, I did.  We had laminate in our kitchen/ dining area for nearly 13 years and I LOVED it!!!  We did not have ONE scratch, divot, or mark.  There was no fading (even though the we are flooded with late afternoon sunlight).  I could only imagine what our 80 pound dog would have done to hardwood floors coming in and out of our slider.

The Laminate vs. Hardwood debate can go on and on.  Laminate (a good quality product) does not scratch, fade, warp, and as stated earlier was way easier on our budget.  Plus, have you seen the selection of laminates available today?  Truly beautiful options are available.  Check out Garrison, SHAW, US Floors to name a few.  (I am now selling flooring as a consultant for Sterling Carpet & Flooring.)

We also repainted the entire house except for our master bedroom and Baby Girl’s room.  We used Dunne Edwards “Crisp Muslin”.  I loved our HD Behr “Butter Cookie” paint which was a warm, creamy yellow and going with a cooler gray took some time to get used to.  Which is partly why I did not post pics immediately.  I just needed to fall in love with the new look.  Good news is I fell in love, hard!  I hope you like the new look too!

So without further ado, here are our new look~

{Dunn Edwards “Crisp Muslin”}

{Garrison Laminate “Avignon”. STERLING CARPET & FLOORING}

{This hutch was natural pine that I painted ASCP Pure White and distressed a bit.}

{Next on our “Wish List” is a new sectional. Baby Girl loves arranging the pillows. Sometimes I just do not have the heart to re-arrange them after she is finished.}

Until next time,
Butterscotch Lady

{Follow me on Instagram @ butterscotch_lady}