Bedroom flooring: Wood, carpet, laminate and other ideas for your space

Posted on 3rd September 2021

When it comes to choosing bedroom flooring, comfort is key I reckon. Yes, it needs to look good, but for me the bedroom has to feel good too. You don’t want to wake up and put your feet down onto cold, hard surface do you? Or slip and slide your way around a surface on your way to the loo in the middle of the night? Nope, soft, welcoming and atrractive, that’s what we’re going for.

Of course, there is a HUGE array of choice in bedroom flooring – from carpet, wood, laminate, vinyl and some newer innovative materials like cork or eco-friendly sisal so first think about the look you want to create.

Do you want a more rustic design or a cosy scheme with plush carpet? Or maybe you like the look of pattern so fancy a decorative vinyl or bold carpet? The floor is the base for a decorating scheme after all and takes up a large chunk of what you see in a space, so think carefully about the material and colour.

Practicality comes into your bedroom flooring choice too. Admittedly, it’s not as important as when choosing flooring for your kitchen or bathroom, but you will likely still want a flooring choice that lasts a long time, is easy to keep clean and stands up to daily (and sometimes middle of the nightly) treading. So unless you’re super tidy and can safely say you won’t drop anything like make-up onto the floor, you may want to stay away from cream or white carpets…just saying.

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One trend I’ve spotted (thanks to boutique hotels) is having an open-plan bedroom/bathroom where the bath is actually in the bedroom, or there’s no door to the shower area. If you’re creating this look, don’t forget to read Stefanie’s guide to choosing flooring for both spaces.

When buying flooring for your bedroom, measure your space before you start looking and calculte the square metreage of the room. This will help you work out which floor types are in your budget as most are sold by the square metre load or by the metre (such as vinyl). While a low ‘per sq m’ price may seem low at first, once you multiply that, it could quickly stack up.

And, before you buy, it’s a good idea to get a few samples to test out in the room or to simply see what a material looks like in the flesh before you go ahead and order numerous square metres of the stuff.

Now, ready for some ideas? I asked @kbbmagazine journo @alisonaddingstyle to round up her favourite bedroom flooring ideas, handily split by type so you can get an idea for what materials are out there and how you could use them to create your perfect bedroom look.

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Wood bedroom flooring

Wood floors work beautifully in bedrooms. They can really transform the space into a calming and relaxing scheme. And as wood floors have fewer chemicals than plastic-based alternatives, are much healthier to live with, too.

Havwoods’ European Oak floor is sanded and oiled and is suitable for underfloor heating. But don’t just think about what’s under foot and look up, too. Creating a design statement up above, the planks create a high-end designer look which emphasises the link to the outdoors. Venture Plank Blanco board, £67.95 per sq m. Havwoods.

An engineered, natural oiled oak wood floor in a mid hue is stylish, sophisticated and an ideal colour for a more traditional look. Warm in tone, it can also be used with underfloor heating to add that extra level of comfort. Delamere DE210, £116.92 per sq m Kersaint Cobb.

Pale wood floors with a washed look such as this are perfect for a Scandinavian-inspired scheme. Where floor area is of a premium, laying the boards across the width of a room can create the illusion of the room being wider. Project Calico Plank, £59.94 per sq m, Ted Todd. (Pssst…. the linen bedlinen in Calm Grey, is from £40 from Scooms, too)

There is nothing like a reclaimed floor – it has a history and character all of its own. By giving an old floor new life, designs like this one from The Main Company are repaired, dried and finished with raw lacquer to create a strong and durable surface. Perfect for an authentic rustic look. Reclaimed Weathered Barn oak flooring, £153 per sq m, The Main Company.

Wide boards are fast growing in popularity, driven by a desire for less cluttered living spaces. These generous ones not only offer good proportions, but show the wood’s texture and graining better, plus there are fewer visible joins. Harlech Raw Oak engineered wood floor, £92 per sq m, Woodpecker Flooring.

Laminate bedroom flooring

Laminate is a more costeffective flooring option than real or engineered wood, but just as hardwearing.

This planked design has a scraped oak finish, which gives the characterful, authentic look of a hand-crafted timber floor.
Scraped Oak Grey Brown laminate from the Impressive Collection, from £23.99 per sq m, Quick Step.

This classic laying pattern – along with parquet and chevron options – is always on trend and provides the ideal starting point for a timeless bedroom look. Although a laminate, the design shown looks like an antique oak floor, with its realistic wood grain finish and red oak tones. Brecon Herringbone vintage oak Stratex flooring, £45 per sq m, Woodpecker Flooring.

This flooring has a parquet bevelled edge on all four sides to give depth to each plank, making it look like a real oak floor. It also clicks together, so it’s easy to fit and the planks are water-repellent, so no water can seep into the click joints.
Balterio Grande Narrow Laminate in Steel Oak, £25.99 m2, Discount Flooring Depot.

This dark painted laminate adds drama to this bedroom scheme. Easy to fit with a click together design, it is the Painted Oak black laminate from the Signature Collection, £29.99 per sq m, from Quick Step.

This light flooring is ideal for a space short on natural illumination, as it lifts the whole room. A good base for colour, it is suitable for wet areas, so would be a good choice for an ensuite, too. New Traditions Diamond Oak laminate, £27.99 per sq m, Carpetright.

Carpet in the bedroom

A good underlay helps prevent the carpet pile from flattening, meaning it will retain its appearance for longer. It’s also excellent for sound insulation and retaining heat. Some underlays are recycled from the thread and yarn waste from carpet factories so it goes full circle – great stuff!

Patterned carpets are back with a vengeance, and looking at this, it’s easy to see why, a lovely trailing floral design in grey on a pale yellow background. It’s a Woven Axminster 80% wool and 20% nylon carpet so its hardwearing, too. Timorous Beasties Golden Effie, £97.99 m2, Brintons.

Beige is still the most popular colour for carpets. This carpet has a self-colour herringbone design and as it’s 100% wool its fully biodegradable and comfy underfoot too. Wool Herringbone carpet in Zig Zag Button, £49, Higherground.

If you’re a fan of colour, this 100% wool carpet is for you. It’s the base of the jeweltoned scheme with a cutpile finish giving it an almost velvet-like texture. Richelieu Velour 1002 carpet from the Wilton Collection, from £69.99 per sq m, Louis de Poortere.

Whether in fashion or home interiors, stripes never go out of style. This particular design also includes subtle chevrons, so looks great close up as well as at a distance. It’s an 80% wool and 20% nylon Woven Axminster carpet. Quirky B Hot Herring carpet in Teal, £103.35 per sq m, Alternative Flooring.

Ideal for a calm, unfussy scheme that invites you to kick back and wind down, natural tones such as beige or light shades of brown and grey create warmth without overwhelming the room. Galloway Luce carpet in Osprey, £56 per sq m, Brockway.

Vinyl flooring for the bedroom

Luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) are practical, warm, and have a thicker wear layer than normal vinyl in rolls, hence the name, so they feel comfy under foot – ideal for a bedroom. Plus, vinyl is super easy to clean…winner! Vinyl also comes in a wide array of prints so you can recreate the look of tiles, wood, stone and pattern without the price tag or cold feeling of stone.