A 4-minute step-by-step guide to go by before choosing your laminate or veneer
Did your friend just tell you how picking the right laminate and veneer was a hard nut to crack? Did they also tell you of the many days and months of confusion and mental chaos they were in, going to different shops and studios but not being able to pick the exact one they were looking for?
Oh yes, if you have an experienced designer and architect, a lot of hassling can be saved. But what if you and your family decided to brave it up yourself? What if you wanted to do it all by yourself?
Then, here is a 4 minute step-by-step easy guide that you can cut you through a lot of dilemma in making the right choice for laminates and veneers. And, what more you’d probably save so much of your precious time and energy too!
You may also keep a diary with you to jot things down as we help you in a sequence of steps to follow.
1. Where?
Firstly, decide on which area is the laminate/veneer for? Is it for residential or a commercial space? Is it the living room? Kitchen? Bedroom? Whose bedroom? Your parents? Yours? Your children? Guest room?
2. What are the color preferences?
Then think about the colour preferences for that area. If it is your children’s room, then maybe you want something bright, lively and vibrant. You may be wanting to have chalk grade or marker grade laminates for children to write to-dos, put on their sticky notes, draw, sketch and doodle! So, basically get the colors pre-decided before you hunt for the right shades and patterns.
3. Floor matters
What is the type of flooring in that room? Flooring matters a lot because your ultimate choice of laminate/veneer will be either enlivened or dimmed by it depending the overall interior style you opt for.
For example, if your room has a floor of a darker shade, you might go in for a laminate or a veneer of a lighter shade to create a sense of contrast and balance in the room. However, you could still go for a darker shade of laminate/ veneer with a darker shade floor, to suit the overall interior style and theme.
4. Natural Light
How bright is the natural light in that room? If the natural light is lesser, softer shades are usually preferred so that the ambience is calm and soothing. However, if the light is quite adequate maybe you can play around with darker and warmer tones.
5. Age
This connects us back to point 1 i.e. where is the laminate/veneer ultimately going to be used.
So, who is going to inhabit the space? What is his age? What is the purpose? How does he/she like his/her space to be? Do they want it to be minimalistic in design? Do they like using the trendiest of patterns? Do they like it subtle and elegant? Do they like it loud and vibrant?
Basically, the preferences will have to be known as clearly and thoroughly as possible according to the age, inclination and utility.
6. Costs and Budgets
Usually, while deciding on laminates/veneers or anything for that matter, people put budgets first and make choices that fit their budget accordingly. And then depending on whether they could it make it within the range, they expand their budgets incrementally.
While this is one way to go about deciding on the right choice of laminates/veneer, we suggest do the following: have a thorough understanding of pointers 1 to 5. Within these preferences, check for options that fit in your budget and then incrementally increase your budget if you haven’t found anything to your satisfaction.
The reason why we suggest taking this approach is this – once you are clear about your choices and preferences, you have fought the battle against confusion. Choosing a laminate or a veneer is a decision that will stay with you for a decade or more. If you compromise on that while keeping budgets as the prime focus, chances are that you won’t be satisfied with what you decide ultimately.
So, here’s a wrap:
Make sure you go thinking through these aspects systematically, rather than making a muddle about it. You could check out our blog. if you are confused about which one to pick. You could also check out our blog on why you should consider wood flooring to complement the over all interior style for a highly elegant and pleasing look and feel here.
Hope this blog helped! Do let us know in the comments if there is something you felt we should add to it!