Mohawk Uniclic Laminate Installation: Before and After

I have always suffered from allergies and asthma but for some reason, this year has been especially rough. At the urging of my allergist, we decided it was time to remove not only the carpet from our home but also the engineered hardwood that had been installed in our living room and dining room. You may be wondering why we would remove a perfectly good and pricey floor to replace it with laminate; isn't that a downgrade? Not for us! The problem was that the previous flooring was installed as a DIY job. It looked fine but over time, there were wide spaces between the planks that held in all sorts of dust and dirt. It seemed like I had to sweep the floor on the hour!

The living room isn't very big and only has one window. With the dark floors and lack of natural light, the space felt very cave-like. I chose Mohawk's Fawn Chestnut in the Rare Vintage Collection because it's light but still a warm-hue. I love that it has the look of naturally time-worn floors. This is a great flooring option if you are on a budget and need to go the DIY route because they are very simple to install. We handled the installation in our living room and dining room and let the pros handle removing the carpet and installing the floors in our bedrooms, thinking the dust would be troublesome for my asthma.

I am absolutely in love with this floor! It has changed not only our clean-up routine, which is so simple now, but it has made the house feel so fresh and inviting. I love the way it feels under foot (clean, ha!) and the lighter color makes this living room feel so much bigger. If you have a small space, I definitely recommend going lighter with the flooring. Here's the before and afters of the upstairs:


Need help adding character to your home? Tell us in the comments below what your design challenges are and I'll try to cover them in a future post!