Dabbieri Blog

Best Floors for Home Theaters

Are you looking to create a fun space in your home where you can kick back and relax as if you're at the theaters? Consider installing an at-home theater in your house! Home theaters are a unique space that can bring you and your loved ones together more for quality time. They’re also an ideal area for entertaining guests and friends –and especially great for when you have the extended family over on the holidays. When you’re designing your home theater, there are a few important pieces to think about, especially when it comes to your flooring. Important factors to consider include comfort, acoustics, aesthetics, and, of course, maintenance and durability. Fortunately, we have a few floor recommendations to elevate your home cinema…

Cozy Carpet

If you are looking for a flooring option that’s best for acoustics and comfort, then look no further than carpet. There’s a reason why major movie theaters use carpeting on their floors! Out of all the flooring solutions, carpet offers the best sound control. This is because its soft fibers absorb noise to create the surround-sound experience you’re looking for. Plus, carpeting adds a level of unbeatable warmth and coziness, offering a plush surface for you and your loved ones to cuddle up on for a night-in.

Stylish Hardwood

Exquisite Twilight hardwood by Shaw

Hardwood floors are both beautiful and luxurious, so if you are looking to design a home theater that is elegant, this is the flooring option for you. Hardwood flooring boasts natural beauty and comes in a variety of colors and grain patterns. Not to mention, hardwood adds a sense of warmth to your home theater that’s perfect for a cozy movie marathon. Plus, it’s eclectic enough to match any design style that suits your fancy. One important factor to consider with hardwood floors is that they can reflect the sound from your speakers which might create an echo. However, this can be easily reduced with acoustic wall tiles and area rugs.

Spillproof Luxury Vinyl

Spring Hill in Prairie luxury vinyl by Dabbieri H2O

Known for its strength and durability, luxury vinyl presents itself as an ideal solution for home theaters. Not only can it withstand your spilled soda but it’s less likely to scratch when you’re reconfiguring seating for the best screen view. You can easily clean up most messes with a simple sweep, vacuum or mop. Luxury vinyl is also available in a wide variety of patterns and styles that beautifully mimic natural wood and stone. This flooring is very versatile and can help you achieve your desired style whether it be mid-century modern or a warm minimalism.

When it comes choosing flooring for your home theater, it can be a tough decision, especially when you’re making the choice between the elevated look of a hardwood or the plush factor of a carpet. Sound quality definitely plays a major role in this decision, but rest assured, if you choose hardwood or luxury vinyl as your preferred flooring choice, there are still steps that can be taken to enhance the sound quality and acoustics in your home theater. Area rugs are a great option for this. They add a cozy layer to a hard surface all while absorbing noise, just like carpet does. By adding area rugs, you are also adding more of your unique style to your home theater which makes it more personal to you.

What flooring type have you installed in your home theater and what makes it your favorite choice?

What’s Out of Style?

We’ve all heard the saying: Get rid of what no longer serves you so that you can make room for the new. Well, in the case of interior design, this is also true. To embrace new trends and freshen up your spaces, you’ll need to let go of old styles and design habits. We spend so much of our time thinking about what’s currently trending, what hottest shades are, and what the newest technology is that we often forget to consider what to define our design style against. So what’s out of style, you might be wondering?

All White Interiors

Many are finding all-white interiors to be dull, uninspired, and too minimalist. In a world where there’s so much color, why not infuse your home with a few bright palettes? Out of this, we’ve garnered the dark cabinet trend with green, navy blue, and even gray cabinets dominating kitchen and bathroom interiors. 

Open Floor Plans

Hardwood by Biyork Flooring

Open concept homes have been at the forefront of design for years, but much like accent walls, they’re beginning to look out-of-date. Clients want to have spaces that are more separated and intentional for use. Open concept homes proved to be dysfunctional in a work-from-home and school-from-home environment. Many interior designers are seeing more requests for separate spaces to create designated use zones like home offices, gyms, and entertainment rooms. 

Modern Farmhouse

Modern farmhouse decor has been popular for years with rustic signs, shiplap walls, and sliding barn doors, but now we’re beginning to see that fade. Shiplap is definitely on the outs, as it seems to cheapen and date rooms and is no longer seen as unique. More people are leaning towards textured walls, tile backsplashes, and wallpaper to create visual points of interest. One of the most significant reasons the modern farmhouse style is seeing a decline is due to the increase in maximalist and transitional trends. While mid-century modern plays well with different design styles, modern farmhouse only seems to fit with other modern farmhouse decors, making it harder to update and refresh.

Gray Flooring

Jones Point Breton luxury vinyl by Dabbieri 

Gray floors picked up swift popularity years ago as they came to the forefront as a “new neutral” in home design. However, we’re beginning to see this trend fade as white oak, and more natural-toned woods take center stage. The best way to start straying away from the all-gray trend is by adapting to a more “greige” palette. This incorporates natural brown tones into gray planks to infuse your space with warmer, organic hues.

 

Matching Sets

Acklen Domino carpet by Dabbieri 

In theory, identical furniture and matching sets are great, but they do little to show off personal design style. With the home becoming a central hub for all activities, including eating, exercising, and working, you’ll want to cater your space to your personality. Carefully curate your furniture and select pieces that call out to you, whether it’s a vintage dining set or a contemporary mid-century modern sofa.

Top Floor Trends for Home Gyms

In a year where your gyms may have been closed, and work-from-home office models took shape, it's become more important than ever to remember to take care of yourself. Adopting healthy habits like early yoga morning sessions or afternoon runs are great in theory, but where do you put this exercise into practice? When it comes to working out, home gyms take the cake as they provide a space to exercise from the safety and comfort of your own home. Whether you're looking to renovate your old workout space or finishing the basement and installing new gym equipment, now is the time to invest in new home gym floors. Flooring is the fundamental element to any functional home gym as it needs to be durable enough to withstand impact from not just you but any machines or weight equipment you have installed. Check out this year's top four floors for home gyms: luxury vinyl, tile, hardwood, and soft-surface flooring. 

Resilient Luxury Vinyl Flooring

Thoroughly MO 6 by Shaw Floors in Interstate

Luxury vinyl planks are an easy option for home gyms, with their natural wood-look and resilient features. Since most luxury vinyl is waterproof, these floors have the benefit of being easy to clean, and you don't have to worry about breaking a sweat or spilling your energy drinks during your workout. Luxury vinyl is especially ideal for spaces where you're looking to perform a renovation, as the click-and-seal installation mechanism for this flooring makes it quick to install new floors over existing concrete or old wood floors.

Strong Tile Surfaces

Virtuo by Daltile 

For those looking to install heavy exercise equipment and regularly use dumbbells or lift weights, consider tile floors for your home gym. As the strongest flooring material, porcelain tiles are designed to withstand heavy impact and resist scratching or dents. The strength and density of porcelain tiles allow them to be used as outdoor flooring, which is useful if you have gym space that opens up to the outdoors during the warmer months. Plus, porcelain has slip and skid resistance which is essential for doing those HIIT workouts or using the space as a yoga studio. Instantly elevate your gym space with porcelain tiles available in unlimited colorways, styles, and designs from top brands like Daltile and Emser. 

Timeless Hardwood Flooring

Waterproof engineered hardwood offers a natural solid surface for home gyms that will tie in perfectly with the rest of your home's aesthetic. Choosing engineered hardwood over solid hardwood is a safer option for home gyms as engineered hardwood has a stronger wear layer and can be installed below grade. This material offers strength and flexibility while still allowing you to have a contemporary white oak look or sleek walnut that naturally illuminates your room. Plus, most engineered hardwood has a waterproof rigid core to hold up to sweat and spilled water bottles.

Alternative Soft-Surface Gym Floors

Alternatives to hard surface floors include interlocking foam tiles, rubber flooring, carpet tiles, and cork floors. These floors work two-fold to provide comfort underfoot for long workouts while minimizing impact and risk of injury. Foam tiles provide cushioning for weightlifting and plyometrics, while rubber cushioning gives you a non-slip surface to work out on. Adhesive carpet tiles give you the stain and water resistance of luxury vinyl. They're also simple to replace; however they don't have the stunning wood-look of luxury vinyl that often creates cohesion between the gym space and the rest of your home. 

Show us how you've renovated your home gym and the stunning floors that you use to break a sweat!