Decorative features, including 100-year-old moldings and a staircase, have been preserved in a wonderful old townhouse we recently bought. Our plan is to use the entire first floor, which is about 40 feet long, as an open and combined kitchen-dining-and-living area. The narrow space has a pair of tall windows at one end and a pair of doors at the other end, opening onto what's now a dining room.
We removed the carpeting in hopes of finding wood flooring that could be refinished. To our dismay, we found sub-flooring. We probably can't afford to install a wooden floor, so should we just re-carpet? Our household includes children and dogs.
You shouldn't have been surprised to find sub-flooring under a wall-to-wall carpet. At the time your home was built, broadloom carpeting had become quite fashionable in the United States. It was often wildly patterned, in keeping with the Victorian-style interiors of the second half of the 19th century.
Out of simple respect for the past, the planning for a renovation should include at least an effort to become acquainted with a home's original architecture and detailing before they're destroyed or replaced.
In your case, it turns out that re-installing carpeting would be most appropriate, although I recommend a comparatively subdued pattern - possibly something contemporary and geometric. Such a choice will mitigate the visual effect that results from elongating the space by joining the dining room with the other rooms. Today's carpeting will also prove easy to clean and maintain.
You should consider other floor treatments, however, before proceeding with this option. One that I find especially worthy of notice is an alternative to a standard wooden floor. Handsome, authentic-looking and affordable laminate floors can be installed without nails or glue. Their planks simply click together.
One example is Pergo's "World Traveler and Global Passage" collection. It's inspired by the look of tropical wood species such as bamboo and pallisander, a rare species similar to teak or mahogany. Environmental considerations might dictate that laminates are now an essential alternative to contributing to the destruction of tropical forests. Please keep in mind that decorative area rugs can be added to a wooden or laminate floor to delineate the functional segments of a large open space.
Rita St. Clair is a Baltimore-based interior designer. Readers with general interior design questions can e-mail her at rsca@ritastclair.com.