Why Your Small Home Needs Hardwood Flooring

When you bought a home, you had a list of things you absolutely needed it to have. Unlike the astronaut, space was not one of them. Okay that's a bad joke, but our point stands that small homes have always been a popular choice for a variety of people.

Without a lot of room (or rooms for that matter), small homes give occupants feelings of closeness, warmth and togetherness.

Let’s talk about tiny homes

Homes that are tiny, or smaller than average, have been around forever. For our purposes, though, what we mean when we talk about tiny homes are homes with 600 square feet or less. These homes have seen a surge in popularity due to their seamless and affordable marriage of minimalism and style.

Their trendy rise has been encouraged by TV shows like “Tiny House Hunters,” “Tiny House Nation,” and “Tiny House Builders.” Entire companies have been formed to address the high demand for these small wonders.

 Image credit to Nicolás Boullosa | Flickr

Your small home needs hardwood flooring

What makes tiny homes so cool isn't just their lower environmental impact, or transforming rooms, it's the amount of thought that goes into every square inch of their design.

When you see a tiny home, you know it's a tiny home and not just because of its size.

They're cool.

 Credit to Payton Chung | Flickr

Really really cool

 Credit to Tiny House Big Journey

Tiny homes take the interior design elements that make the huge Brooklyn lofts or San Francisco terraced houses worthy of magazine covers and shrink them down. They combine modern, cutting edge design and decor and with a footprint conscious space. They really are amazing.

Small homes vs tiny homes

You may be wondering what this has to do with your house. You clicked this article because it said “small house,” and, instead, here we are droning on and on about how cool tiny homes are.

Well this actually has a lot to do with your small house.

Because small houses can be just as well-designed, beautifully decorated, and all-around cool as tiny houses.

They just don't usually come that way.

It's the thought that counts

Tiny houses do something that not even many big houses do:

They think about things.

Tiny homes are often set apart from small homes, or even mobile homes by their complete lack of deferred decisions. Nothing was has been added or removed simply because it was the cheapest or easiest installed.

Everything serves a purpose, and does so looking beautiful and in line with modern design trends.

This is why small homes need hardwood floors. Small homes can be just as attractive and design-friendly as tiny homes but with more space. The foundation and starting point for beautiful interior design is hardwood flooring.

Here are a few reasons:

1. Hardwood flooring is timeless

Ever since its first usage in the United States of America some 200 years ago, hardwood flooring has been at the top of the “preferred flooring charts.” It works in a variety of interior settings and...

2. Hardwood flooring increases your home value

Hardwood flooring is one of the smartest home renovation projects you can take on, seeing an average return on investment of 100% to 150% when a home is resold.

Additionally, it’s ease of cleaning and ability to be sanded and refinished before sale make it even more attractive to prospective buyers when the time comes to sell your small home.

Caption: Hardwood has a higher initial cost to install, but its value increases over its lifetime, whereas carpet stays steady and then decreases at 20 years.

3. Hardwood flooring opens up your home

Hardwood flooring often gives a room either a dramatic depth (darker wood), or a light airiness (lighter wood). In either case, it is great at adding dimension to small rooms, and a layer of character that can’t be achieved with carpeting, linoleum or vinyl flooring.

 This narrow room feels 100% more open and spacious with a hardwood floor than it would with even a light carpet. Credit to IHA Holiday Ads.

4. It’s thoughtful

Environmentally friendly hardwood flooring is a thoughtful alternative to plastic (vinyl) or carpet (whose maximum lifespan of 20 years is about 80 less than the average for hardwood). Additionally, hardwood flooring gives you the ability to add decoration with an ornamental rug or contrasting furniture (see our post on “decorating for hardwood flooring” here).

Above all, the elegance of hardwood flooring communicates how much thought you’ve put into designing your interior.

Let us help you decide

Think we’re crazy about hardwood flooring? You’re right! We absolutely love seeing how much it opens up narrow rooms in small homes. We believe in its transformative power because we see it at work every day.

If your small home needs a thoughtful dimension, contact us today. Click below to set up a complimentary consultation. We’d love to help you find a floor that can sell your house someday.

Contact us now

Questions about flooring, or topics you’d like to see us write about? Let us know in the comment section below.