Anonymous wrote:I'd never, ever put carpet over hardwoods. Carpet just looks cheap. I'd do an area rug instead.

I agree.

Do what I did and get a really big area rug. I got a 10x12 for my living room and a 9x12 for my family room (or perhaps vice versa) and they are terrific. They warm up the floor, they warm up the look of the room and we have never tripped over them. I found one rug at Home Depot and one at Overstock and each was about $300.

and yes, do an energy audit - the cold is probably coming from around windows and/or doors, or from below the floor. (our family room extension is raised off the ground and poorly insulated - hope to have that improved soon.)

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to these morons. High grade, high end carpet is definitely ok to do in a family room. From Houzz:

This one is made of a linen and wool mixture. Gotta go with taupe! Warm, luxurious and classic…
<div></div><div style='color:#444;'><small>Traditional Bedroom by Minneapolis Interior Designers & Decorators Billy Beson Company</small></div>

These textured carpets will go out of style like shag very quickly. Better stick with your standard.

It won't fix your heating problem.

You will want to refinish the hardwood floors after they remove the tack strips.

We put it down when we had kids.

Eww, no.

Don't listen to these morons. High grade, high end carpet is definitely ok to do in a family room. From Houzz:

This one is made of a linen and wool mixture. Gotta go with taupe! Warm, luxurious and classic…
<div></div><div style='color:#444;'><small>Traditional Bedroom by Minneapolis Interior Designers & Decorators Billy Beson Company</small></div>

Cold or warm floors: Carpet is warmer to the touch, sitting on, walking on, laying on because it resists transferring the heat from your body..... and as a result it feels warmer. Hardwood, ceramic , metal etc takes heat from your body quickly and transfers the heat quickly (metal being the worst) to itself and therefore it feels colder - it is literally taking heat from your body. Since your body is much warmer than your floor - the floor is taking heat from your body and it feels cold. Clean carpets are a great alternative to hardwood for this reason. (no, I am not in the carpet business or any trade for that matter. Hardwood, ceramic and metal also do not absorb sound very well - so that is why is can seem very noisy in those rooms with hard surfaces. Not only do they not absorb sound but they also reflect the noise but they help to transfer the sound from one room to another - whereas carpets absorb sound (changes the sound to heat) and the room seems much quieter, because you are hearing the sound in the room only once and not several times as it is bounced off of the floor, bounced off of the walls etc. Carpet wins hands down when there are children around who like to make noise without being yelled at to quiet down. Hardwood, ceramic flooring adds to the stress of living in a noisy household. Large area rugs are often found on hardwood floors for both of the above reasons.

Some people think with the new type of flooring (ones with cracks - ie pre-finished flooring) that there won't be a problem with off gassing of floors..... find out what kind of finish is on the floor - you may not smell the off gassing materials - but the gases are there just the same. Carpet has off gassing as well. Both are annoying to your health - and perhaps to your nose as well. Pre-finished hardwood foors have cracks..... water in the liquid form will go between the cracks from a spill - unless you are an very fast runner with a paper towel in your hand at all times, and are in close proximity to the spill. Water in vapor from will also find its' way into the cracks of the wood as well..............and from all that we get mold..... that you cannot clean out. With area rugs you have a chance of cleaning the rug or getting a new one. One thing more: with the old way of doing hardwood floors..... with finishing them after you have laid them.... at least the protective covering stops all liquid water and most vapor from entering the cracks.

Anonymous wrote:if you have anyone with allergies or who is asthma prone, skip any carpet attached to the floor. They collect everything.

Also, new carpets are full of chemicals that I wouldn't want my children sitting/playing on. It takes a long time for them to stop off-gassing. Actually, it's not just the kids- I wouldn't want to breathe that in voluntarily either. There are many ways to make a room look inviting other than everything being carpeted. I doubt that that alone will make the difference.

Ditto. This is why I have floor cloths.

if you have anyone with allergies or who is asthma prone, skip any carpet attached to the floor. They collect everything.

Also, new carpets are full of chemicals that I wouldn't want my children sitting/playing on. It takes a long time for them to stop off-gassing. Actually, it's not just the kids- I wouldn't want to breathe that in voluntarily either. There are many ways to make a room look inviting other than everything being carpeted. I doubt that that alone will make the difference.

There's a reason, folks, that people of yesteryear opted to move away from their wood floors used for decades and decades.

The reason was the hardwood floors of yesteryear had to be WAXED as they were not sealed w/ polyurethane. A long, difficult, messy job that had to be done at least a couple times a year and usually required a man to manage the buffing machine (a man had to do housework?!?! This is women's work!). Also, carpet was wool and therefore expensive so not alot of people could afford it. Once synthetic carpet became available you can bet that every middle class family in America covered up that poor people wood floor and bought a Hoover.

DO NOT install wall-to-wall carpet. Along with the reasons above, the biggest problem will be water damage that you/future owners won't know about until that carpet (and the tack strips, argh!) comes out. Spills, accidents, pets-- you may think it's cleaned up, you'll probably even steam the carpets a few times, and voila-- water stains that are impossible to remove w/o refinishing and even then likely having to replace sections. Plus, it's never clean.

Anonymous wrote:For those of us who live in the north where winters are very cold, hardwood floors are beautiful but hard to live with. Unless you run heaters under the floor, walking on them during the cold months -- which here far exceed several months of warm -- is unbearable. You'll need to get out of bed and immediately put on socks and shoes and keep them on. That's the temperature side. Personally, I have walked into many homes in many areas with wide expanses of uncovered floor and the homes do not feel inviting, cozy, or like you want to settle in. Sterile comes to mind. Contemporary and cold in feeling, not temperature. Plus there is no noise reduction possible from those bare floors. Even throw rugs don't accomplish noise reduction and they break up a large room. A friend put in berber in her large living room. That looks really nice and does help with the noise reduction. It buts up to a walkway area that they tiled with a dark stone. Looks great.

There's a reason, folks, that people of yesteryear opted to move away from their wood floors used for decades and decades.

Personally, I'd never live in a modernistic, contemporary home filled with wood floors and tiles. I'd also never buy a new modern home. Ugh. Doesn't feel like a nest at all.

When was that? 1970?

For those of us who live in the north where winters are very cold, hardwood floors are beautiful but hard to live with. Unless you run heaters under the floor, walking on them during the cold months -- which here far exceed several months of warm -- is unbearable. You'll need to get out of bed and immediately put on socks and shoes and keep them on. That's the temperature side. Personally, I have walked into many homes in many areas with wide expanses of uncovered floor and the homes do not feel inviting, cozy, or like you want to settle in. Sterile comes to mind. Contemporary and cold in feeling, not temperature. Plus there is no noise reduction possible from those bare floors. Even throw rugs don't accomplish noise reduction and they break up a large room. A friend put in berber in her large living room. That looks really nice and does help with the noise reduction. It buts up to a walkway area that they tiled with a dark stone. Looks great.

There's a reason, folks, that people of yesteryear opted to move away from their wood floors used for decades and decades.

Personally, I'd never live in a modernistic, contemporary home filled with wood floors and tiles. I'd also never buy a new modern home. Ugh. Doesn't feel like a nest at all.

Anonymous wrote:Yep, I agree...I don't understand how anyone could willingly choose to put down carpet over hardwood floors.

Noise in the house, neighbouring houses and warmth!

it's not because I'm a snob that I don't think OP should put wall-to-wall. It's because it's:

more expensive
gets dirty easy
difficult to replace
silly if you already have beautiful hardwoods

As for an interior designer not being able to help, I think you're wrong. A good one would be able to help with space planning, which is what you need. You clearly have some obstacles and an oddly shaped room or fixtures, and a good designer would help you minimize the flaws, before you go spending a lot of money the wrong way.

There are a ton of good designers in this area, use this site to find one. http://www.asid.org/