Flooring, another subject to talk about. We have some areas finished, not sure how many % of the house (Angelo?, I guess less than 50%). To get an overview, I invite you to follow me through the house from the attic to the basement, since this is the chronological order of the renovation.
Everything that needs decision is in red:
Attic:
attic living and kitchen area: white large oak wood panels
the new stairways of the attic (new layout!): travertine steps
Primo Piano:
Remember the
layout inquiry? We have decided to lay the large wooden panels (natural oak) in the above way (changing directions in the corridor between the two bedrooms)
natural oak panels for the corridor and two bedrooms in the second floor
restored and polished old original tiles in our master bedroom
restored old original tiles in the soggiorno
the stairways going down towards the piano terra (ground or first floor)
we use same material as before: travertine
Piano Terra:
small entrance, floor is prepared, but tiles are not chosen yet
creative idea for the flooring of the entrance by Angelo:
using up some old original tiles, leftovers from the now master bath and son's room
DRAFT: it is supposed to look a bit like a "carpet"
Unfortunately we only have a few of the first geometric pattern and would fill the behind area with the floral pattern. We might need a border of terra cotta tiles or wooden panels framing this "carpet".
small entrance from above - new pattern by Angelo forming big white and red crosses
same old tiles used in different room differently
Sorry for the bad picture (above), it's the only I have from the former room where these tiles were used before. Here they are tiled in a different pattern. However, we were told that it is not the right way, it should tiled like in the previous picture in the entrance, a pattern that shows large crosses. Not sure who is right or if there are any rules at all. I prefer the above flooring, although I only see that it is a more calm and small pattern. - Any suggestion, experience from my readers ??
For a better understanding of the piano terra see the floor plan below. We have the small entrance in the middle and an "entrance room" on the left that leads to the living area.
old floor plan of ground floor (kitchen is bigger and bath has been moved)
I think to decide on the flooring, we need to think about our "routing" through the house.
We will not only pass this entrance when coming or leaving home through the main door. We will need to pass this entrance when coming down from the upper sleeping area to the living and dining area and kitchen on the ground floor - and back again. So, my thinking was, that the flooring of the entrance should "connect" the different areas. It is not a common entrance that leads to different apartments. It is a small entrance that belongs to an entire unit. That's why I am hesitating about Angelo's idea of using the old tiles here. How about using terra cotta tiles on these few square meters and the same in the next room, that is our so called "entrance room", the room that leads to the living room ? In other words: Should above purple area gets same flooring? If yes, what to do with the old beautiful left over tiles? - Or two separate flooring?
The living and dining area will get a wooden floor. We just love the warmer touch of wood. The floor screed (Estrich) is ready:
view from living room over dining area to kitchen at the end
The next open point is: do we continue the parquet into the kitchen? If not, where do we stop? Or is a border of tiles around the working area enough?
Corridor between kitchen and bathroom: we have different possibilities: wood like in dining area, tiles like in the entrance (or tiles like maybe in the kitchen).
Semiinterrato:
stairways towards the guest apartment
This is an almost five year old picture, the stairs look still the same, but the walls are already done. The stairs might get the same travertine steps like all the other stairs. Not sure, if Angelo already ordered material here.
in the basement walls are done, but not the floors
the guest appartment with garden access and sea view - it will look so much better soon!
For the guest apartment in the semiinterrato, souterrain or basement, we plan a wooden parquet of large natural oak panels (from the same source like our neighbour?). Although we have to fight humidity, we thought that there are enough stones already on the wall that tiles are not an option. Also, terra cotta tiles would have the same problem with the humidity from below. Anyway, Angelo has a special construction in mind, a ventilation system, that he can better explain than me. When we come to this floor, I will post drawings and photos with more details.
In this post I skipped the five bathroom floors, they are all tiled differently, but I wrote about this before. In case you would like to see more, follow the labels:
bathroom,
flooring,
tiles and
Before & After.
Please send me your suggestion, solution, experience, inspiration via comment below or via email to writing.suzie AT yahoo.com THANK YOU !
