Unsure where to start - Blinds and Flooring Options

cros13

I'm moving into my first new build home in the new year and I'm struggling a bit with the blank canvas.
It's going to be my home for the foreseeable future and I'd like to start with getting the things I can't easily change right.
I'd be grateful for any and all advice.

A bit of background:

It's a 2-bed ground floor apartment, windows on both sides have reasonably heavily foot traffic as there is a residents only entrance on the path outside the office window.
I value my privacy, it's not the best location in the building for that side of my personality but other factors intruded (finances, place perfect in every other way, looking for almost a year).

There's not a lot of money left in the kitty after stretching to buy the place, but I'd rather do things right and sleep in the bath / couch surf for a few months than compromise on materials quality.
I'm trying to do it all without getting into any debt of any kind.

Whole place is ~85 sq m
I've got ~65 sq m of floor space that's not already tiled (bathrooms, kitchen worktops area and utility) or walls.

Rough Floorplan:



Flooring:

I think the flooring for the hallway & living room will be grey oak or unfinished oak (just clear oiled) (unsure whether to go stained real wood or engineered). I've never used engineered wood before, any opinions vs real wood?

The office will double as a spare room, whatever flooring I use here needs to be easy to clean and hardwearing, furniture will be moved often but I'll also be spending a lot of time in here working too.
I'm unsure whether carpet or wood is more suitable here? Or maybe laminate?

Bedroom - go wood floors too? Or would a cut and loop diamond pattern carpet in a neutral color be a better bet?

Storage - it's got the hot water tank & heat recovery so it's not supposed to be pretty, however I will put in shelving and use this for storage too. so I would like some better flooring material than the bare concrete.
Anyone have any experience with epoxy floor coatings? Since it's a tiny room paying someone is out... are they easy enough to do DIY?

Skirting boards (painted white) have already been nailed in. Replace them?

Blinds and Curtains:

For the patio door/tall window I was thinking white vertical blinds might be the best option.

Bedroom and Office I was thinking wooden blinds, but unsure about the color. Go for the white clean look? Match the floor? Contrast with beech or a much darker grey wood?

The kitchen window is a 30-40cm tall slit window facing the path outside. What options exist for blinds etc that would look good and preserve my privacy?

Curtain Rails above patio door/window, bedroom window and office window... but I'll worry about the curtains later.


And finally, if I have to budget for this month to month, what jobs / rooms should be done first?

PhoenixParker

Go for the same decent quality laminate flooring throughout. Quickstep or similar, whatever you can get the best price on, and do that first.

Having the same flooring will be much cleaner and will make the place feel bigger. Just bead along the skirting boards. Its not worth the hassle of removing them and imo it actually looks better.

After that look at day night blinds. Theyre great for privacy.

cros13

I've had a lot of issues in the past with laminate with spot damage and just plain wear or UV damage.
The reason I'm looking to real wood of some kind is that it handles damage quite well and I can sand it if the worst comes to the worst.
I've kept solid wood floors in the past with no trouble.

The pricey option I have my eye on is wide board grey/smoked oak engineered wood like this:

http://www.mulveys.com/product/single-smoked-white-oak-220mm/

But I'd have a month or two of living on beans and toast to afford Mulvey's prices.

Is it possible to use the engineered wood products without removing the skirting (and almost certainly causing damage somewhere)?
What would re-doing the skirting cost usually?

I like the day night blinds, Id there any shops in Dublin where I could take a look at them in person?

GingerLily

For new builds I believe the skirting is only loosely pinned to the wall so that it is easily removed and put back - but you'll have to see what the situation is with your apartment.

jlm29

Skirting is inexpensive, and quick to fit by someone who knows what they’re at.

Have you thought about vinyl for the floor? Not Lino like your nana probably had, but nice designer vinyl like amtico or karndean? If I had the budget, I’d have it throughout the ground floor of our house, but it’s very expensive! I’ve priced it, for the life of me I can’t remember how much it is, but it’s far more expensive than vinyl or tiles, so it could be on a par with engineered.

jlm29

jlm29 wrote: »

Skirting is inexpensive

Dunno about that. I haven't dug too deeply just yet, but it seems like it's pricy enough for what it is, in fairness. I seen an 8ft length in woodies and it was €17. That wouldn't be long eating up a budget on an entire ground floor.


(I am aware that Woodies aren't the benchmark for pricing, but they seem generally competitive with other products, so im assuming their price is on the high side, but likely not a million miles away from average pricing).

OP, you say you've got 65 sq/m to cover. If you're interested in a laminate, and want a grey oak (which is what I'm doing), Woodies have an unusually good deal on at the moment. (I didn't even realise they sold floors).

I have roughly calculated that I need to cover about 45sq/m (I actually calculated wrongly and i have a bigger area, but that's for another day..!).

These figures are rough, but I'm in Drogheda and checked 3 different floor-specific shops for prices on a 12mm grey laminate withan AC5 rating, and with a foil underlay (as I'm laying on concrete). I got priced at €1,250, €1,250 and €1,270. Woodies comes in at about €1,100 (but you'd save on that I reckon, as you likely don't need the foil underlay and normal underlay would work?).

This is the product;

https://www.woodies.ie/express-floor-12mm-shore-oak-4v-1-293sqm-1127972


It's on sale, but not sure when the price goes up to it's normal price (hopefully not before tomorrow evening as I want to try and haggle one of the shops as i prefer their floor design).

jlm29

Deleted User wrote: »

jlm29 wrote: »

Skirting is inexpensive

Dunno about that. I haven't dug too deeply just yet, but it seems like it's pricy enough for what it is, in fairness. I seen an 8ft length in woodies and it was €17. That wouldn't be long eating up a budget on an entire ground floor.


(I am aware that Woodies aren't the benchmark for pricing, but they seem generally competitive with other products, so im assuming their price is on the high side, but likely not a million miles away from average pricing).

€17 for 8ft is VERY expensive, but you’re right, it does add up quickly. I assume you’re not looking for solid oak, I’ve bought white primed skirting for €28 ish euro for 12m (just under 40 feet). I didn’t do much shopping around, and I wasn’t buying huge quantities, as I’ve been buying it room by room as we’ve needed it, so I could have either a)haggled if I was buying larger quantities, or b) Gone to a builders providers where I have no doubt it would be cheaper again, especially if I wasn’t as fussy about the style

jlm29

jlm29 wrote: »

€17 for 8ft is VERY expensive, but you’re right, it does add up quickly. I assume you’re not looking for solid oak, I’ve bought white primed skirting for €28 ish euro for 12m (just under 40 feet). I didn’t do much shopping around, and I wasn’t buying huge quantities, as I’ve been buying it room by room as we’ve needed it, so I could have either a)haggled if I was buying larger quantities, or b) Gone to a builders providers where I have no doubt it would be cheaper again, especially if I wasn’t as fussy about the style

To be honest, i think I want my skirting white, so what you're describing sounds alright.

Can I ask whereabouts you purchased at that price point, though? I have a DPL on my doorstep and a few floor shops but unsure if floor shops are competitive or if DPL (builder providers) would stock skirting.

jlm29

Any shop that sells doors should have it really.
I can’t seem to pm you, I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention shops on the thread?

yeah you can mention on here, but im not sure why you're having PM difficulties

jlm29

It’s probably my phone, I doubt it’s your account. I’ve bought from murphy Larkin in Waterford/Clonmel, and from handles and hinges in cork.

Payton

Ive just gotten new laminate flooring installed in my house. I paid a good bit extra for a durable roughly E18 per SQ/M. I got the whole downstairs all running from room to room so its all consistent and it looks brillant. Upstairs i got the 3 bedrooms in a good light oak equally its great. And to finish it off 5" white primed skirting which I'll put a satin finish on.
If the budget is an issue take your time and every few months or so think about what you want for each room and shop around on what will suit you. If its worth doing its worth doing right.

Payton

Payton wrote: »

Ive just gotten new laminate flooring installed in my house. I paid a good bit extra for a durable roughly E18 per SQ/M. I got the whole downstairs all running from room to room so its all consistent and it looks brillant. Upstairs i got the 3 bedrooms in a good light oak equally its great. And to finish it off 5" white primed skirting which I'll put a satin finish on.
If the budget is an issue take your time and every few months or so think about what you want for each room and shop around on what will suit you. If its worth doing its worth doing right.

My downstairs consists of a kitchen, sitting room and hallway.

I am laying laminate and im excluding the sitting room, as I was thinking that longer term, i might re-do the floor in there, but wont want it the same colour (im going grey, but think that might be a bit cold for a sitting room).


Do you have a colour scheme or theme or such in your house? and is it all the same or is each room different? A single floor the whole way through seems like a clean job, but not sure if id regret it afterwards.

Payton

[Deleted User] wrote: »

My downstairs consists of a kitchen, sitting room and hallway.

I am laying laminate and im excluding the sitting room, as I was thinking that longer term, i might re-do the floor in there, but wont want it the same colour (im going grey, but think that might be a bit cold for a sitting room).


Do you have a colour scheme or theme or such in your house? and is it all the same or is each room different? A single floor the whole way through seems like a clean job, but not sure if id regret it afterwards.

I recently got all the house replasteted because some of the walls were bad and i disliked the stipple ceilings so at the moment all the ceilings have a Dulux soft sheen white on the and the walls in the entire house is a Dulux Soft sheen evening sunset just so i can move in and over the next few months as the days get brighter ill get a colour scheme for each room. Plus its only when you put paint on a plastered wall can you see some of the little flaws so out with the bit of filler.
The reason i got the whole downstairs all running with the same floor is ive been in some houses with work where different colours/tones of boards were used and it looks like a patchwork quilt so to speak.

For laminate flooring, the best prices I found in all of Ireland (i.e. including the North) were from Hollands in Cork on their Laminate Wood Flooring website. They knocked everybody out of the water (and the price they gave me via email was far less than the stated price on their website). I went for Kronotex Everest Oak Beige 12mm Mammut AC5. Also, ensure you get a very good underlay for it. After reading up on its importance, I paid a bit extra for a good underlay.

I got all my internal doors (Déanta) from Doors and Floors on the Long Mile Road in Dublin. Their online price was ridiculous, but I had gone in to talk to them the previous week and from that I knew what door I wanted so when I rang back and asked could they match the much more attractive online price from Internal Doors.ie, they actually bet it. It definitely pays to ring a bricks and mortar business and not just dismiss them because you think they can't match another online price.