Hardwood floors are the number one item on our house wish list right now. Ideally, they would be in every room in the house, because carpet is horrible for people with allergies (me). Of course, cost won’t allow that, but we are planning for doing our entire first floor in the future. We are looking into bamboo, cork, and hand scraped wood.

I found this image of cork flooring right here, and think it looks so warm and inviting. It’s also pretty unique, I really don’t know many people who have it in their homes, whereas hand scraped wood is on trend right now. Bamboo seems more unique as well. However, I have never actually seen cork in person (in a room that is).

Other things that I like about cork is that it’s considered “green” because it’s fast growing. It’s also supposed to be very soft to walk on, keep it shape well, and heal from scrapes easily. You don’t have to refinish it the same way as other woods, which is appealing too.

For an all over the home choice, cork sounds good too, because it’s supposed to be great at absorbing sounds, and good for keeping things warmer, which is very appealing for our family room which is always cold, even in the summer (it feels good then though). Of course, finding cork locally hasn’t been easy, especially because we would like to install everything ourselves.

We do love hardwood, including bamboo too. It’s been fun to research and dream about what we can eventually do (once that piggy bank fills up enough). Of course the second we do get our dream floors, you can bet that the next thing on my house wish list will find it’s way home. I really want a Roomba!

Do any of you have cork floors or have had them before? What kind of flooring do you have (if not carpet)? Do you like it?