Wear due to frequent foot traffic on your wood flooring is inevitable. But really, when you think about it, your floor is installed to serve you not the other way around. So, the balance to strike is how to minimize that wear on your wood floor, while also getting the most out of your life while you’re walking on it.
By this point, you’ve taken some simple steps to help you strike this balance. You’ve installed mats at your entrances, to catch the unwanted outdoor materials that will affect your flooring in the long-term. You’ve also taken on a no-shoes-on-floor policy in your space too, to avoid introducing that dirt, grit, and tiny glass fragments that your mats didn’t quite catch.
But, even without the abrasion of soles and the materials that often come with them, the very act of walking on a certain section of a floor can be a source of subtle wear over time. Once again, quality wood floors are made to resist abrasion, and often do so for decades. But the goal here is to be an ally to maintaining the original luster of your flooring. And if you can take some easy steps to do that, why wouldn’t you? So, here’s another couple of choices to undertake that accomplishes this, and then some.
First, there’s area rugs. In a post about area rugs written a couple of months back by Rob Banks, a number of advantages that area rugs offer you were outlined including noise reduction, look, and plain old comfort. Area rugs on your wood flooring can also help you to control the continuity of your space, particularly if it’s an open concept. Area rugs in your space that establishes maximum eye appeal and flow which help make each room unique, even if they’re connected.
Protection is another aspect that area rugs render in areas of your home or office where there is the most foot movement. In this, an area rug can be a strategic element too, cutting down on the contact your floor has with the abrasion of frequent foot traffic.
Second, there’s runners. These additions are basically elongated versions of area rugs placed in transition areas of your space. This specifically means in hallways and foyers. These areas are like the highways of your home or office, because they connect popular destinations – bedroom to bathroom, bathroom to kitchen, kitchen to living room – together. And because of the amount of traffic these transition spaces get, a layer between feet and floor can go a long way in reducing the subtle effects of wear over time.
Runners can even serve in kitchens, along the front of your sinks and kitchen cabinets. Think about how often you’re pacing back and forth in this relatively small space, just doing the dishes or cooking up to three times a day. That’s the level of abrasion your runner will spare your wood floor.
But, like area rugs, runners can serve a visual benefit, too. Style and strategy meet again, and the overall look of your interior on the whole is enhanced, as well as preserved. Magic!
Circling back to how durable your wood floor is, and how great it looks, you really do want to establish a balance when using area rugs and runners. You didn’t invest in wood flooring to cover it with protective surfaces. That would be a waste. But, those surfaces can help to protect your wood floors where you get the most foot traffic, while also serving as complementing textures that help to create an appealing contrast to bring out the best in them.
Cheers,
Rob.
[update, May 2010: we've launched a new line of area rugs. Take a look!]
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