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Thank you to Lumber Liquidators for partnering with us on our kitchen makeover. We are beyond thrilled with our new hardwood floors!
We’re back today with the first progress report on our Kitchen Makeover – and my husband Jack and I have made some huge changes by installing new hardwood floors!
As we mentioned earlier, we wanted (needed) to replace our old, builders-grade vinyl flooring which was well-worn and impossible to clean after more than 11 years in our house (including almost 3 years of cooking all the food you see here on A Family Feast).
After years of debating whether to go with tile flooring or hardwood in our kitchen – we decided on hardwood. Not only did we love the look of hardwood, but we also had a great experience installing hardwood flooring from Lumber Liquidators in two other rooms in our house – so we knew we could do the work ourselves in the kitchen as well.
Thanks to the folks at our local Lumber Liquidators store, we found the perfect floor for our kitchen. Whether you are looking for hardwood, laminate, tile or something else, chances are Lumber Liquidators will have something you’ll love! We visited the Lumber Liquidators store in Plymouth, MA more times than I can remember. (Mostly because it took my husband Jack and I awhile to agree on flooring that we both liked!)
Chris, the Lumber Liquidators store manager was a huge help to us through the entire process. He was always able to answer our questions and guided us both in selecting a hardwood floor that was durable and could stand up to very heavy traffic in our kitchen.
We selected a gorgeous hand-scraped acacia floor. It is from a short-leaf acacia tree which is an extremely hard wood and super durable. We chose the “Tobacco Road” finish – and it has a ton of natural color variation from the tree. With both dark and light coloring (a rustic style that is very popular and ‘on-trend’ these days) it coordinates beautifully with our existing maple kitchen cabinets and really warms up the look and feel of our kitchen.
Lumber Liquidators also has all of the tools and supplies you’ll need to do the installation yourself – or they can recommend a local flooring installer if floor installation DIY isn’t your thing.
Below are a few photos of our floor installation process – plus the finished results of course!
Before you begin laying your hardwood floor, you need to let the boxes of flooring acclimate to the climate in your home. You can see above, we spread the boxes of flooring out in our dining room (right off our kitchen) for about two weeks.
After pulling up our old vinyl flooring, we laid down an underlayment that provides padding, sound proofing, and insulation under the wood floor.
We wrote some “secret messages” on the underlayment under the floor that will be rediscovered someday – years down the road by some future owner of our house. 🙂
And here is Jack working very hard to lay down the flooring. (Yes – I’m so lucky – not only is my husband a great cook, he’s also very skilled working on DIY projects around the house!)
We are thrilled with the look of the new floors!
As a reminder, here’s the Before photo…
And with our new hardwood floors in place – our kitchen has been transformed!
Coming up next in Our Kitchen Makeover: Appliance research and inspiration, new countertops and sink, as well as new lighting fixtures. We’ll share those photos in the coming weeks!
Disclosure: Lumber Liquidators has generously provided us with hardwood flooring for our kitchen makeover. However, all opinions stated here are 100% ours, and both Jack and I would gladly share a positive mention of our shopping experience even without their partnership in this project.
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Wendy Cartright says
Wow, that transformation was incredible! It is so amazing how replacing the flooring can make it look like a brand new kitchen. I have also been seriously thinking about replacing my kitchen linoleum with hardwood. After seeing the hardwood in your kitchen, I think I am definitely going to do it. Thanks for sharing!
Martha says
Thanks Wendy!
Deanna R. Jones says
Your hardwood floors came together really great. It definitely looks better than the tile that was used for your floor. I liked that you and your husband decided to write secret messages in the underlayment for people to find if the floor is ever torn out. I’ve always wanted to do something like that. Seeing your cute messages has inspired me to write my own messages underneath the underlayment under my floors that I’m going to install. Thanks for the post!
Martha says
Thanks Deanna!
bryan flake says
I wouldn’t have thought that I’d like dark paneled wood floors as much as I do. Yours have made me change my mind rather significantly. The way that each shade can contrast and complement the others is very striking. I love it.
Martha says
Thanks Bryan! We love the floors. And with the new countertops we recently installed, the color variation of the floors look even better!
Shonda Babin says
You made a great decision. The color is beautiful and the hardwood floor looks so good in your kitchen! I love hardwood floor! Me and my husband have bought a house two months ago and now we are renovating everything and the next thing to do is to choose the right hardwood for us. My parents have everywhere in the house and it is so easy to clean.. Thank you for the post! I thought that is harder to put it yourself. It is definitely a DIY work! Greets!
Martha says
Thanks Shonda!
Lily de Grey says
Your hardwood floors look amazing, Martha! I’ve been trying to convince my husband to let me remodel my kitchen, but, so far, he hasn’t bitten the bait. I think if he saw your before and afters, he would change his mind. How much money did yours end up costing? Thanks for sharing! You’re awesome!
Martha says
Thanks Lily – If you click on the link in the post for the hand-scraped acacia, it will bring you to the Lumber Liquidators site where you can see the per square foot price. I’m sure you know, the pricing for your kitchen versus ours will vary based on the number of square feet. And there were some other costs – underlayment, nails, trim and transition pieces, and any tools you might need to rent or buy. Hope that helps!
Guy Gardener says
That floor looks really good! I haven’t seen coloring like it before. I wonder how they made it look like that. I hope that the rest of your remodel matches this hardwood floor.
Martha says
Thanks Guy! We hadn’t seen acacia hardwood flooring before either – and we love it! The dark and light is natural coloration from the tree.
Wally West says
I really love that hardwood flooring, it looks so nice. My wife and I have been looking into getting our kitchen remodeled, and one of the main things that we want to replaced, is our linoleum flooring. I have been looking into getting some dark wood, like what you installed, and I think that it will look great.
Martha says
Thanks Wally! Good luck with your remodel!
Mary Kay Michaels says
Lumber Liquidators is the company 60 minutes did the expose on. They discussed how their flooring products had formaldehyde in them and how the products were producing toxic fumes.
Martha says
Thanks Mary Kay – we did hear about that. The flooring we installed is hardwood and not the laminate that was the subject of the 60 minutes story.
Marty says
Wow, you guys definitely take something which seems rather daunting and make it seem relatively simple and fun. I really enjoyed following along here, and its got my wheels spinning now, so thanks! 🙂
Martha says
Thanks Marty! It does take some planning and lots of measuring and of course this post doesn’t share every step to laying a hardwood floor – but if you are a DIY type and have the right tools – it is totally doable! And we really did get a lot of guidance from the store manager too – we asked a lot of questions all along the way! Good luck!
Katie says
Love it! We have hardwood floors in our kitchen/dining room and I’m always looking for tips on how to keep them clean. If you have any to share, I’d love to hear them!
Martha says
Thanks Katie! We vacuum a lot! We have a rechargeable cordless vac that we keep in a closet next to the kitchen that is easy to pull out to vacuum up the crumbs etc. And we are careful to wipe up any spills so it doesn’t stain the wood. So – just cleaning as we go seems to work for us! Hope that helps!