All of the flooring in this post was provided by Golden Select, but all opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure statement here.
Over the past few months, we’ve been working hard to transform the upper level of our home. We’ve made some big changes, but I’m completely blown away by the impact new flooring has had. Just getting rid of our old carpet has us feeling like we live in a completely different house.
See how we transformed our living space with Golden Select Smokey Barrel vinyl flooring!
Back in April, we changed the flooring in our kids’ bedrooms (you can see the amazing before and after photos here). We used Golden Select Charcoal Oak vinyl flooring and absolutely loved the outcome – it was a dream to install and looks amazing.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the bedrooms that were covered in decades-old carpet – the living room, dining room, and hallway were as well.
Here’s what the space looked like before…
I could not wait to rip this space apart, and it went much smoother than anticipated. There was no adhesive used on the carpet, which made it possible for us to clear the entire space in a day.
We chose Golden Select Smokey Barrel plank vinyl for the living, dining, and hallway space.
In my previous post, I shared 5 reasons why we loved Installing Golden Select vinyl.
- The underlay is attached, which means the prep work is minimal.
- The click lock system works like a charm.
- Minimal tools are required for installation.
- You can most definitely do this yourself (even as a first timer).
- The flooring is easy to care for and totally waterproof.
Here’s how our experience installing Golden Select Smokey Barrel vinyl compared:
It was equally as easy to install in a large multi-room area as it was in one room.
Our experience installing vinyl flooring in the bedrooms went well, but this was a much bigger project. With the living space, dining space, and hallway all needing to connect, we had our work cut out for us.
My biggest worry was trying to connect multiple rooms around walls. I was concerned that the pattern would be totally off, but we quickly realized that the boards only click together if they are positioned correctly. This made things super easy and in the end, everything worked our perfectly.
The flooring hides imperfections well.
I read countless articles and watched many videos that mentioned having an imperfect sub floor could result in disaster when installing plank flooring.
Between the attached underlay and the vinyl itself having quite a bit of bend, this flooring really adapted. After installation, even the small areas where our sub floor had imperfections or a slight variation in elevation are perfect.
It doesn’t scratch easily, but scratches are an easy repair.
We moved a ton of furniture around on top of this flooring and somewhere along the way ended up with 2 sizable scratches. I used dollar store furniture scratch markers to cover the scratches and now they aren’t even visible.
Beyond the scratches from moving large furniture, this floor hasn’t worn at all over the last 2 months. Our kids play on it every day, and even drive their hoverboard up and down the hallway regularly. For such a dark floor, the texture hides imperfections really well.
All of the technical specs for Golden Select Smokey Barrel vinyl plank flooring can be found here.
…and here’s how the space looks now!
Just changing the flooring has completely transformed this space!
This was our second time using Golden Select flooring, and I would hands-down do it again.
