How to Move From One Floor to Another

When planning a home makeover, floor transitions may not be the first thing that comes to mind. You're probably caught up in the vinyl vs. laminate argument, debating whether carpet is too dangerous for your dirty home, or attempting to find the right tile. We comprehend! Transitions between floors, on the other hand, are a vital component in any house to ensure that all of your floor design decisions mix seamlessly from room to room.

So, what exactly do we mean by floor transitions? Consider a traditional door threshold—that elevated strip you walk on or over when entering a room. We would have had ragged carpet edges running up against unfinished hardwood planks or tile grout if we hadn't used floor transitions. Thresholds—both the thing and the word—are derived from medieval farmhouse floors covered with straw and hay. The debris (thresh) would disperse as the wind blew through the entrance, so they fixed planks across the bottom of the entryway to keep the thresh out—hence the term "threshold" was coined.

Although contemporary floors are cleaner than those of medieval farmhouses, floor transitions are still necessary when switching between different types of floors.

The days of having the same type of floor in every room of the house are long gone. With alternatives to meet your demands in every area of your house, you're likely to have at least three different floor types, and each of them necessitates a transition.

The good news is that there are many types of floor transition strips available that allow for a safe transition between all types of flooring—no tripping dangers here.

Your initial impulse may be to pick the least obvious floor transition so that it does not detract from your gorgeous flooring, but clearly indicated floor transitions have an advantage. While floor trims may cause many toddler trips, a visible floor transition helps us anticipate a change in flooring texture and elevation, preventing us from tripping.

Transitioning Between Differently Elevated Floors

When designing a carpet-to-tile transition (such as from your living room to your kitchen), you'll need a door transition with an aluminum strip that holds the carpet and accommodates the height difference between the carpet and the tile. Floor transition strips are available in vinyl or hardwood, with the latter being able to be stained to match the color of the next floor.

Transition strips are also available to allow a smooth transition from laminate to tile flooring. They have molding that matches the varied thicknesses of the flooring, allowing you to easily moonwalk from room to room. With the right floor trim, even a transition between uneven floors may be made smooth.

Transitioning Between Same-Height Floors

Because open floor plans are popular these days, you may require a different transition between floors than the standard doorway threshold. Here are a few examples:

Perpendicular Planks: A perpendicular plank of wood or tile is generally enough to create a visually appealing transition, but when the floors are the same height, there are more distinctive design possibilities to consider.

Border Accents:A small accent border might serve to soften the transition between two different types of flooring. This border can be built of the same materials as one of the floors, or it can be accented with bold or mosaic tiles.

Interlocking flooring: Another option is to cut your wood flooring to interlock with the edges of the tile to create an intriguing transition from tile to wood—or a wood mimic. This technique is applicable to square, diagonal, hexagonal, and even scalloped tiles.