There’s no other way to say it: Flooring samples are one of the most important components of the entire shopping process. To truly learn about a product’s color, texture, sheen, and variation, there is no replacement for bringing an actual piece into the home! Eliminate surprises by getting FREE flooring samples from Twenty & Oak of your favorite styles sent directly to your door. If you have been wondering how to test flooring samples in the home once you receive them, here’s our quick expert guide to the best tips, tricks, and tests.
Why Are Flooring Samples Important?
Simply put, flooring samples will prevent buyer’s remorse and ensure long-term satisfaction for such a large home and style investment! Make sure your flooring looks the way you want it to, feels the way you want it to, and passes the tests that mean the most to you to guarantee a confident purchase decision. When using flooring samples in the home, you can also compare them against your curtains, match the paint colors on your walls, and see how they pair with your furniture, accessories, accent pieces, and artwork.
Bigger Flooring Samples Are Better
Using larger flooring samples is always the way to go! Whether you are in a showroom or you want to order flooring samples online, try to get the largest flooring samples available of your top options to see more of the shade, texture, character, and variation displayed. In addition to making it easier to envision each style installed on a larger scale, you can get a better idea of how they feel underfoot by actually walking on them in bare feet and in socks. Bigger flooring samples will allow you to spray or drip water, create spills and clean them up, drop items on the surface, scuff with footwear, and mimic all the typical offenders and common wear and tear in your household.
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How Lighting Affects Flooring Choices
Since lighting will change the way that flooring looks in your home, you definitely need to acquire flooring samples! It never fails, an actual sample will look different in your rooms than on a website or in-store setting. Natural sunlight that pours through your windows will constantly change throughout the day, creating a yellow-to-orange glow early, casting a truer, bluer tone later, and giving a reddish glow as the sun sets. Artificial lighting is equally important to measure in finding lighting solutions that allow you to enhance, focus, or diffuse light as needed. Lampshades, sconces, wall lighting, dimmable recessed lights, under-cabinet lighting, task lighting, track lights, pendants, as well as fluorescent or halogen bulbs will all enhance your flooring samples. See how they look in all types of lighting at various times of the day to help balance your overall layout or avoid a washed-out visual.
Flooring Samples Minimize Risk Of Fading
If your rooms receive strong natural light that shines through for most of the day, it’s important to use flooring samples to gauge how the constant sun can potentially fade your floors. If your flooring samples, whether light or dark, appear much brighter in your rooms, you will need to shop for this specific consideration. Look for flooring options treated to resist damage from ultraviolet light and utilize UV-cured materials for added layers of protection. These products will stand up better to ample natural light over time. If your flooring samples indicate you receive more light than you initially realized, remember as a rule of thumb that dark floors won’t absorb as much ultraviolet light and will fade less than lighter floors.
Create A Mood Board
To really exercise your creativity and land on a look you love, create a mood board with flooring samples inspired by your favorite aesthetic. Whether you love vintage pieces or touches of nature, add your favorite fabric swatches, paint colors, tiles, metal hardware, and materials to your flooring sample mood board to see how colors and textures work with each other. Envision your dream interior and visualize how you want the finished vibe to feel. Eliminate the flooring samples that don’t serve your design goals to help narrow your flooring search. Also, mood boards are a super fun project in general!
Testing Flooring Samples Effectively
When it comes to testing flooring samples, you absolutely want to experiment with lighting. We always recommend placing flooring samples near windows and observing them at different times as the daylight changes. After it gets dark, try different lighting combinations to observe how the flooring samples appear. In addition to making mental notes, take pictures of the flooring samples during these tests and compare them to each other later. ALL of these valuable steps will help avoid unforeseen clashes and visuals once you bring home your favorite style.
How to Find A Dealer to View Larger Samples
Use our dealer locator to visit a showroom and see an even larger display of your favorite styles! Also, reach out to our Flooring Pros for more information on the floors you love. It’s time to bring your design vision to life!