Pondering Pergo...

For the past year, we have been tossing around the idea of laying new flooring on the first story of our house. We love watching shows on HGTV and the DIY Network where old homes are restored - wooden floors, bead board, crown molding, oh my! Seeing those transformations has really inspired us. Our house is 20 years old and as such there are certain things in it that don't really appeal to us, like carpet in our dining room. Blah! It will never make sense to me!

Adding older touches to a newer home really increases the cozy, homey factor. We're definite fans of the warmth & charm of wooden flooring. Although we don't have any pets or children, we are leaning toward laminate for it's durability and low maintenance. We want to put it in every room on the main level but leave the family room carpeted. So the rooms that will get the laminate include: laundry room, kitchen, half bath, dining room, foyer and office.

We've been eying Pergo Max Montgomery Apple for a while. We look at it every time we're at Lowe's! The last time we were there, Andrew had the brilliant idea to buy a box so we could take it home and lay a few boards in each room to see if we liked the look. Montgomery Apple is light tan with swirls of dark brown, and more like authentic hardwood than other available options. The underlayment is attached, also. Andrew has previous experience with laying laminate flooring and wanted to try the attached version this time around. It seems like a nice feature.

Here's a swatch:

After testing it out in every room, the verdict is...we like it! It's not too dark, not too light, and compliments our current trim and darker furniture. Eventually I'm going to be painting the kitchen cabinets/trim white and it will look really nice against that, too. Buying a test box was a really good move because it allowed us to truly envision how the flooring would look in our house. Sometimes it's hard to see the big picture when you're just standing in the aisle at the hardware store.

Now comes the harder part - purchasing all of the boxes followed by room-by-room installation. I told Andrew that it will probably test the marriage... HA! We decided it will be our big winter project.

What do you think? We would love to know if any of you have experience with laminate. Give me your feedback! We want the good, the bad, and the ugly so we know what to do and what to avoid.  

Wish us luck!