The house we’re buying is a step up from our current one in terms of space, but not character, so we need to do some work to inject that ourselves.

This is the floor plan for the new house…

Bathroom tiles have been chosen and kitchen units upgraded, but the new house doesn’t come with flooring as standard, so we’re starting there. We decided against using the house builder’s options as they seemed costly for the quality you get, and there’s a lack of options. However, a HUGE plus for them is that it’s in before you move in. We’re moving into concrete floors and MDF stairs. Here’s what we’re thinking we’ll order as soon as we’re in.

Parquet

We bought 70m2 reclaimed parquet last summer for the cottage we’re in, but then decided to move instead. We considered taking it with us, but the sapele was too red to translate well into a new build, or would have to be stained to pretty much black, so we’re selling this parquet… and buying new stuff.

All being well (that is, the floor being level and even and not damp), we’re planning on laying this smoked oak stuff in a herringbone pattern in the kitchen, study and hall downstairs, with these blue tiles for about a metre of the entrance.

However, because we don’t like to do things by halves, we’ll be fitting that ourselves. Having had a quote for the reclaimed parquet to be fitted, we picked our jaws up off the floors and did our usual trick of heading straight over to YouTube to teach ourselves how to fit parquet flooring. Yes, it’s time-consuming, but how hard can it be? I shall report back on that one.

Tiles

Oh, I have had many, many tile samples through my door. Our current thinking is that the same tiles as the hallway will be going in the utility room – they’re Mozzafiato Pitigliano from Claybrook Studio. We’ve pretty much decided that these Dwell tiles from Porcelain Superstore will be going on the downstairs WC floor (almost certainly the emerald). Although the WC is a small room, we’ve chosen white-grey marble effect tiles for the walls, so it needs a shot of colour for our visitors.

For the upstairs bathrooms, we’re keeping it a bit more classic. The first is Antique Marble, again from Porcelain Superstore, which will be set in a herringbone pattern in our ensuite, fingers crossed with our first ever heated flooring. The second is Marmi Hex, for the main bathroom, which will be used by Jude most of the time, and guests who stay over. These might seem a bit boring colour-wise, but it’s the shapes and layout that will make these ones special.

LVT

First of all, I totally agree with my friend who said “what seven year old gets their own ensuite?”, I agree, it is ridiculous, yet here we are.

Our next door neighbour uses LVT to great effect. Luxury Vinyl Tiling is sometimes not actually any cheaper than just getting tiles, so this is only on the cards if it keeps being on sale in a couple of months. This is Luvanto White Sparkle and Scarlett loves it. It looks tile-like when it’s laid, and is hard-wearing with a bajillion year warranty.

Carpet

The rest of the house will be carpeted, although we’ve only been to the one carpet shop so far. We’re thinking grey. All grey. Everything.

I wanted navy herringbone (I know, I’m going to have a herringbone house, shh) as a stair runner, but we ran into some issues. Firstly, we’ve had wildly varying quotes from joiners on converting the steps to solid wood – I’m talking thousands of pounds of difference. And the other issue is that Barry hates the idea of navy herringbone and even repeatedly showing images on Pinterest haven’t changed his mind. We did see this lovely boucle though (which is also grey), and I love the idea of having texture if I can’t have colour, so somewhat of a compromise. Whether it’ll be a stair runner or not is TBD.

Once we’ve exchanged, we’ll be able to have a conversation about whether the carpeting company can come in before moving day to lay the carpet. It’ll be a much easier task to do in empty rooms before we move in, and much nicer for going to bed on that first night!