Should I Choose Flooring Before or After Decorating?
When you’re renovating a room, it’s tempting to choose your paint, wallpaper and furniture first and leave the flooring until the end.
At Floor Coverings, in most cases, we’d recommend choosing your flooring before you finalise your decorating scheme.
That doesn’t necessarily mean installing it first. It simply means making the flooring part of the design from the beginning, rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Why choose flooring first?
Flooring covers a large area of your room, so it can have a bigger impact on the finished look than you might expect.
A warm-toned wood floor, patterned LVT or soft neutral carpet will all influence the colours and textures that work around them.
Once you’ve chosen your flooring, you can use it as the starting point for your walls, furniture, curtains and accessories.
It also gives you more choice. If you’ve already committed to a particular paint colour or wallpaper, you may find yourself trying to find flooring that works around it.
It's not just about colour
Before choosing a floor, think about how the room will actually be used.
Ask yourself:
- Is it a busy family room?
- Do you have children or pets?
- How much maintenance are you prepared to do?
- Does the room get lots of natural light?
- Do you have underfloor heating?
- How hard-wearing does the flooring need to be?
- What is your budget?
- How will it work with the rooms next to it?
What if I've already chosen my paint?
That’s absolutely fine.
If you’ve already painted or chosen your colours, take paint samples or colour references with you when looking at flooring.
This is particularly important with neutral shades. A beige, grey or warm white can look very different depending on the flooring next to it and the light in the room.
Equally, flooring can look different in a showroom than it does at home. If possible, look at larger samples in the room where the flooring will be fitted. We offer a service where you can take your samples home with you, free of charge and look at them in your own space.
Should flooring be fitted before decorating?
For many projects, it’s sensible to complete the messy work such as plastering, painting and decorating before the final flooring is installed. You don’t want your new carpet or flooring covered in paint splashes and dust.
However, the order can depend on the type of flooring you’re choosing and the work required underneath it.
For LVT, wood and other hard flooring, floor preparation is particularly important. Your existing floor may need levelling or other preparation before installation.
That’s why it’s worth speaking to your flooring specialist early in the project, rather than leaving the flooring decision until the very end.
What about carpet?
Carpet is often installed towards the end of a renovation, but that doesn’t mean you should leave choosing it until then.
Choosing your carpet early means you can use it as part of your colour scheme and select your paint and furnishings around it.
The same applies to patterned carpets and stair runners, where the flooring can become a key feature of the room.
A simple way to plan your renovation
If you’re starting from scratch, this is a good order to follow:
- Think about how you’ll use the room.
- Choose your flooring and consider samples in your home.
- Use the flooring to help choose your wall colours.
- Choose furniture, fabrics and accessories.
- Complete decorating and other messy work.
- Have your flooring professionally installed.
The exact order may change depending on your project, but the important thing is to think about flooring early.
So, should flooring come before decorating?
Choose your flooring before you finalise your decorating scheme, but don’t necessarily install it first.
Giving your flooring some thought at the beginning means you can create the room around it, rather than trying to make your floor work with decisions that have already been made.
If you’re unsure, get some advice from our expert team before you buy.
At Floor Coverings, we can help you look at the practical side of flooring as well as the design from choosing the right material for the room to considering subfloor preparation and installation.
Our showroom just outside Cambridge has a wide range of carpet, LVT, laminate and wood flooring, with real installations you can see and walk on.
Come and see us before you make your final flooring decision. No appointment needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it better to choose flooring before paint?
Usually, yes. Choosing the flooring first gives you a colour, texture and pattern to work around when selecting your paint and other finishes.
Should flooring be installed before decorating?
Not necessarily. In many projects, decorating is completed before the final flooring is installed to protect the new floor from paint, dust and other work.
Can I choose flooring after I’ve painted?
Yes. Take your paint colour or a sample with you when choosing flooring so you can see how the two work together.
What should I consider before choosing flooring?
Think about how the room is used, traffic levels, children and pets, maintenance, natural light, underfloor heating, durability and budget.
At Floor Coverings in Dry Drayton, just five miles from Cambridge city centre, you can see our flooring properly, walk on it, compare different products and talk through what will work for your home and lifestyle.
With two floors of flooring and one of the largest flooring showrooms in the Cambridge area, there’s plenty to explore and no appointment is needed.
Come and visit us in Dry Drayton and let’s find a floor that’s worth the investment.