We do not have paint charts or digital colour matching in a can to help us choose flooring. In the past, the Flooring Fitter carried his trade with him in the form of a very keen eye and a lot of time spent on his haunches on the floor in the room where the flooring was to be laid.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Firstly, a good flooring fitter always holds samples at floor level. Then turn them to face the window. Observe the light. If a sample looks too bright or too dark when held against a wall in a showroom, it will look even more so in a room. In Edinburgh’s often grey and frequently low angled light, this can make a big difference between a sample and the finished floor.
Why pile direction matters more than colour
Cut pile carpet is another matter entirely as it is cut to form a smooth surface, thereby enabling the carpet to absorb light rather than to scatter it. In a room that is not well lit this type of carpet will appear to be darker and even more heavily coloured than a similar product that is of a loop pile construction. The samples that you see in a showroom will generally be of a loop pile construction and will be laid against a wall and lit from above with bright lights. This can create quite a different impression from that which you get from a sample that has been laid on the floor and viewed from an angle with the light coming from a low position as it would from a north-facing Georgian sash window.
The same is true of timber flooring. Flooring laid in the same colour can look very different once laid. This is particularly the case with timber flooring. Boards laid parallel to a window will generally have a smooth even appearance as the light running along the floor will flatten the grain of the wood. However, boards laid at right angles to a window will have every edge of the board highlighted by the light. This can result in a busier looking floor, with the texture and any unevenness of the timber being more apparent. Some types of timber will look more patchy than others.
Edinburgh’s rooms are unusually honest about this
For flooring in Edinburgh, be it wooden flooring, carpet or even Luxury Vinyl Tiles (LVT), the Edinburgh property can have tall narrow windows and be orientated in a North or East direction. As a result, the light enters at a low level and skims across the floor, leaving nothing to the imagination. As a result, we would always recommend viewing any flooring samples in the specific room where they will be used, in that room’s own lighting, laid on the floor at the exact position where the flooring will be installed. If you want to consider your Flooring Edinburgh options kristoffersencarpets.com is a great place to start.
The old flooring fitters of Edinburgh weren’t pedantic. They would have told you that a floor has to look good in one place only – that place is not a showroom.