FLOOR SHOW

The current craze among armchair decorators is to staple a designer sheet here, hang some miniblinds there and put the tape measure away until boredom strikes again. The couch gets reupholstered once in a great while, and the chair bottoms are rewoven when they begin to sag, but unless we’re blessed with substantial wealth or a bourgeois affection for peel-and-stick Congoleum, the floor is swept under the rug and ignored. And with good reason. Impulsively ripping up a layer of Italian tile or bleaching and stenciling a hardwood floor simply for the thrill of the moment is an expensive and usually unrewarding task. But opting for the other extreme-refusing to replace flooring except in the case of a tidal wave or the purchase of a new house-makes for yards and yards of ultrabland dullness underfoot. The alternative is a carefully considered change-an educated decision to replace or enliven existing floors-using color, texture and pattern to their full advantage. The results can work wonders on a room that was once blah beyond tolerance, making it appear brighter, warmer and even larger. Flooring should be dramatic, yet subtly so. It should contribute to the overall mood of the room, complementing furnishings, lighting, windows, doors, walls-even ceilings. If you’re planning to redo an entire room, it’s a good idea to begin with the floors. Although thousands of different styles and colors are available, color selection in flooring is still more limited than in paints or fabrics. And if you’ve already chosen the colors for your walls and furniture, be sure to arrive at the flooring store laden with paint chips, fabric swatches or, if necessary, a drawer from your kitchen. “How-to” books on flooring begin with very basic questions: Where do I want new floors? How much use will these floors have to withstand? What is my budget? It’s also a good idea to keep a checklist while shopping to compare wearability, insulation, cost and difficulty of replacement and cleaning. With those factors in mind -along with plans to spend liberally since quality merchandise means greater expense – you’ll be prepared to make a decision.

All this would be simple were it not for the tempting array of prints and colors. Many decorators warn customers to be leery of strong colors; while there’s certainly nothing wrong with a grape-colored floor, it can be an expensive mistake. It’s impossible to judge what an entire room will look like with new flooring, so even though it may seem boring to play it safe, if you are at all hesitant, think twice about your choice.

Once you choose a flooring, make certain the worker who will be installing it – especially if it’s you -knows exactly what he’s doing. Even the most beautiful, most expensive materials can be applied with the wrong adhesive and end up looking like bad modern art. Take special care to center designs that will include windows and other fixtures.

Flooring expert Kenneth Reiser of Reiser and Associates says flooring can make a 70 percent difference in the appearance of a room. That’s a subjective figure, but it gives an idea of the metamorphosis that new floor covering can work. Dallas stores stock many variations of the standard choices among hardwood, marble, tiles, carpet and rugs. The available materials, colors and textures are extraordinary. Before you decide that the den must have a woven, braided rug because the den has always had a woven, braided rug, take a look at the thousands of options available at some larger Dallas flooring stores.

Ceramic or slate tiles are good flooring choices for rooms with heavy traffic (such as entryways and kitchens). Most glazed tiles are extremely durable and will not fade in sunlight. Tiles can be installed over wood subflooring or over concrete but not on top of hardwood-strip flooring or old ceramic tile. Slab foundations are ideal bases for installing ceramic tiles; pier-and-beam foundations are suitable for tile floors only if they are properly prepared.

Mexican and Italian ceramic tiles are sold in many patterns ranging from mosaics to tiny multicolored flowers, birds and forest animals. Detailed borders are popular, as are tiny French hexagons. Several Dallas stores have coordinating wall coverings. At French-Brown Floors, 7007 Greenville, an artist is available to paint a design similar to your tile pattern on your sink bowl or on bathroom accessories such as towel bars, light switchplates and soap dishes.

Hi-tech vinyl tiles -long a hot item in commercial circles -are becoming more acceptable in residential dwellings. The tiles are tough and often textured in a way that shows few scars. The appearance of vinyl tile is, as Elizabeth Brown of French-Brown describes it, gutsier than the smooth, shiny tiles popular several years ago. And when more and more people have less ground space to call their own, the infinite variety of texture, flamboyant colors and patterns now enables individuals to express themselves more fully in the limited spaces in which they live.

Vinyl tiles come in a variety of solid colors with large or small raised squares, circles and rectangles. Sizes and colors can be combined for a multitude of looks. The tiles are easy to install, stain-resistant, easily cleaned and slip-retardant. Light skips across these textured tiles instead of passing over them in a single beam as it would across smooth tiles. Consequently, the lighting in a room floored in textured tiles has a warmer, more inviting look. But the best thing about vinyl tiles is their durability. Some of them look like they would be soft to the touch, but because of their strong finishes, most are virtually in-destructible.

Wood flooring gives class to a room like no other floor covering, and with improved seals and polyurethane finishes, it’s becoming increasingly popular and easy to maintain. Nowadays, a wood floor with a durable finish is suitable even for a busy kitchen. But before you install hard-wood flooring, be sure to eliminate any possible water problems in your house: loose-fitting doors, excessive humidity or green lumber in the subflooring. If your house is built over a crawl space, protect the floors from excessive moisture; ventilation is necessary.

Parquet and hardwood-strip floors are usually stained, sealed and waxed at the factory. The workers who install your floor won’t sand or finish it in your house unless you’re refinishing an old floor or have opted for a custom-colored floor. A complete line of mesquite parquet flooring is now available. Some attractive combinations of mesquite and oak can be found at French-Brown.

A wide variety of wood inlays is also available, as are wood-look tiles. These appear so authentic (complete with wood-grain and knotholes) that you may expect to stumble across a splinter. Different wood veneers can be fused with vinyl to make Genuwood, a very tough but attractive woodlike flooring.

THE LATEST news in carpeting is a departure from earth tones. Many neutrals are being used, but some designers are warning their customers to avoid trendy colors such as mauve and gray. Reiser says he has a hunch those colors soon will look dated. He suggests choosing a color that will almost fade into the background of your room. He also warns against buying a carpet just because it is deep and bouncy. Shag, the rug of the Sixties, was constructed of yarn longer than it was dense. So even if you raked your carpet every day, the strands soon collapsed and eventually lay flat. Flattened shag wasn’t anyone’s idea of beauty, and the carpeting lost its appeal.

Some customers and designers justify buying a cushy-soft carpet that has a quality guarantee. Reiser warns that such guarantees can be worthless when your carpet begins to look trampled because, even though it looks bad, it isn’t physically worn-out. Instead, he says, buy low, dense cut-pile carpet that is structured for durability.

Most carpets manufactured today are nylon. Wool, of course, is the respected standard, but nylon is less expensive and because of its high quality is becoming just as acceptable as wool. Acrylic carpeting was popular for a while, but it is rarely made today because it is not long-lasting.

The key to high-quality carpeting is the number of yarn rows per inch. Good carpeting has a balanced combination of yarn rows and stitches, and if a manufacturer has skimped on either, the carpet will appear uneven. Again, carpet with high pile feels soft underfoot, but it isn’t necessarily high quality.

Any cut-pile carpeting will shed, but continuous-filament carpet sheds the least. Almost every cut-pile highlights or shows tracks when it is walked upon, but some advanced nylons are now delustered to show less highlighting.

Two kinds of nylon are available in carpeting. Branded nylon has static reduction and soil-repellent additives in the fibers; repellents are topically applied to unbranded nylons. Therefore, unbranded nylons lose their repellency with wear. Branded nylon is more expensive but is well worth the price.

When you shop for carpeting, consider costs such as installation, the moving of furniture and the ripping up of old flooring. The fees for these services shouldn’t be included in the total figure since they differ with each job. You can save money by ripping up old carpeting and moving furniture yourself.

Firm, dense and smooth are the key words in choosing carpet padding. Most padding is made from furniture factory scraps. This type, often called rebond, breaks down easily and falls apart. Waffle pad, another type of padding, provides softness as you walk, but there’s so much air space in the pad that it has a tendency to break down and flatten. Commercial pad and slab pad are firmer, longer-lasting padding.

Oriental rugs, the crème de la crème of floor covering, have changed little in 2,000 years, but these beautiful rugs are no longer exclusively owned by the wealthy. Less expensive rugs are available now, and they’re becoming more popular among people of varying income levels. Authentic Oriental rugs are woven in India, China, Pakistan and Romania, but most are only copies of the best rug weaver’s goods: those that are made by hand in Persia.

Designs for Oriental rugs are usually French, traditional, geometric or contemporary. They’re available in pure wool, silk and wool, and pure silk. Pure wool is the most durable and least expensive. A typical 9-by-12-foot Romanian rug requires one and a half years of workmanship and is priced from about $3,900. An Indian rug of the same size is priced from $2,500.

Before you invest in an Oriental rug, look for a reliable dealer. Be suspicious if you’re offered a rug for a very low price and the dealer says it’s authentic. One way to be sure the rug is handmade is to run your hand across the top; the yarn should stand at 45-degree angles instead of straight up. The knots on the back should be of uneven sizes. Once you’ve purchased the rug, you should receive a certificate stating that the rug is handmade.

Any Oriental rug will fade if it’s exposed to bright sunlight. Don’t vacuum a handmade Oriental rug more than once a month; use a broom between vacuumings.

Flooring choices aren’t as limited as theyused to be; the variety is now tremendously vast. Choose wood or vinyl or slate orcut-pile carpeting, but give the decisionsome thought and try to look upon yourfloors as another means of self-expression. See the selections offered at severalstores and put your imagination into gear.Get a second opinion from a knowledge-able professional before you make yourselections, then relax and prepare yourselffor a dramatic change in the look of yourhome.