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Flooring Trends For 2020
Updated: Oct 11, 2022
Flooring Trends For 2020
It's that time! You have walked around your house long enough, only to see the same old floors. You have talked everyone in the family into investing in some new flooring projects. Now, the question is: where to start?
If you walk into any flooring store unprepared, you will soon learn the process will be quite overwhelming. You need to have a plan. "How To Buy Flooring For Your Home," is a great article that will give you some insight into the steps you should take before you start the shopping process.
It's 2020, and you want to make sure you pick products that are popular, trending, and will add value to your home. Well, you've come to the right place!
Flooring Trends For 2020
Top Selling Flooring Trends 2020 Product Categories
Luxury Vinyl Tile & Plank
Walk into any floor covering store and observe how much of the retail space is dedicated to luxury vinyl tile & plank (commonly referred to as "LVT"). You will find stores have rows and rows of product displays and samples. LVT has easily become the fastest-growing floor-covering product.
Customers always ask, "Is LVT a good product for my home value?" Many customers confuse LVT with the old laminate products from 20 years ago. Cheap laminate products used to be in every floor covering store, as a cash and carry the product. $0.99 a square foot. 20 years ago, laminate used to be extremely popular. However, all kinds of claims started to occur. Besides having a cheap look, the laminate products of old were not very durable. Fast forward to 2020, and customers tend to relate luxury vinyl tile & plank to this old laminate product. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As we mentioned earlier, LVT is exploding as a product category. Manufacturers have made their product lines to be very durable, and waterproof, and are offering incredible warranties. LVT is great for every area of your home. Being a waterproof product, home builders have now started using wood-looking products ("LVP," luxury vinyl plank) in every area of the home. Let's take a look at some of the popular 2020 patterns and colors:
For bathrooms, the tile-looking LVT patterns are extremely popular. Customers are trending in 2020 to the 12" x 24" tile look. One of the advantages of LVT over ceramic in a bathroom or kitchen is on your foot. LVT is much warmer than ceramic or porcelain tile. Trending in 2020, here are some hot colors:
With the wood-looking planks, wide and long boards are very popular. The "grey family" of colors has become very popular in 2020 (see below). Along with "grey," customers are finding distressed patterns with multiple colors to be very popular. For example:
We have a blog post that discusses some of the most popular questions regarding luxury vinyl tile & plank here: Vinyl Plank Flooring FAQ - Questions That Get Asked All Of The Time....
You might be asking yourself, "Which brand of LVT/LVP is the best?" The simple answer is: there is no "best brand." There are many manufacturers of vinyl tile & plank. Each manufacturer has its goods own line of good, better, best products. They all have their own product names and warranty names. When shopping, the best thing to do is meet with your flooring professional and have them show you the products in their store. If you need more information on the buying process, and how to get the right price, please check out: How To Buy Flooring For Your Home.
Click-Together Or Glue-Down Installation
Most of the LVT & LVP products will either be a click-together installation or a glue-down installation. The click-together products are the most popular. You can install it over other floors, the products are waterproof, and with a click-together process, you avoid spreading adhesive on your floor.
Glue-down installations are usually done in commercial environments, or in high-traffic areas of the home.
Say "Goodbye To Linoleum
With the rise of LVT & LVP, the old fashion sheet vinyl (linoleum) has taken a serious hit. Go into any floor-covering store and look around the store's showroom. How much space is dedicated to LVT? How much space is dedicated to linoleum? You might find 1 linoleum display somewhere in a corner. That's about it.
Large Format Ceramic/Porcelain Tiles
Ceramic and porcelain tile is still very popular. Tiles are used the most for bathrooms, kitchens, mudrooms, and laundry rooms. Customers have gotten away from the standard 12" x 12" tile and have started purchasing the large format tile of 12" x 24". Installation is usually done in a brick pattern or a 1/3rd offset pattern.
Grey tiles are becoming the new popular color in the marketplace. Stores are finding best sellers in the tiles with variations in grey colors and textures:
Larger format tiles are being used quite a bit in small bathroom spaces. One of the common mistakes customers believe is: "small floor tiles need to be used in small spaces." Floor covering stores are doing a much better job in explaining to their customers that large format tiles look beautiful in a smaller area.
We have a blog post that might be useful, "Bathroom Flooring Options - DIY." This article does a great job of explaining the trending products you can explore for your bathroom remodel.
When shopping for ceramic tile, as with any flooring product, it is critical that you get your flooring professional involved with the product. Installing ceramic tile can be a tricky product, and you want to make sure you understand the installation issues before you make a purchase.
Hardwood - Long Planks & Multiple Widths
Hardwood flooring, both solid and engineered, are still popular and are a great purchase to add value to your home. In 2020, customers are loving products that have longboards, as well as products that have multiple widths. For example, Mohawk has a product, Weathered Portrait, that comes in boards that are 7", 5", and 3." It is a very popular floor that looks awesome!
New home builders are using hardwood for every room of the house. Hardwood is especially popular in the "main areas" of the home, entryways, dens, libraries, and even bedrooms.
Do you know what the difference is between solid hardwood and engineered hardwood? We have a great article that might help you with your shopping: How to Shop for Hardwood Floors.
The long plank hardwood boards are very popular in 2020. Customers are finding their hardwood installation looks beautiful with boards that are 6' and above. Take, for example, Kentwood Flooring, which offers a product that comes with boards that are 73" long:
There are so many different types of flooring in the market place, manufacturer's constantly fight for market share. You can be pleasantly surprised with the cost of a new hardwood floor. Ultimately, when picking a hardwood floor, it should come down to price, style, and color.
As with other types of flooring, there is not one manufacturer that we would consider to be "the best." There are many different manufacturers of hardwood, each offering their own good, better, best products. As with any floor covering project, it is best to consult with your flooring professional for product ideas.
Here's An Added Bonus (That Most People Don't Know About...)
Have you ever heard of a "Room Visualizer?" Most manufacturers have put this feature on their websites. You can literally take a picture of your room, upload it to a website, and have different products inserted into your picture. It's an incredible way to get a jump start on your shopping.
Let's say you are shopping for hardwood. You call one of your local floor covering stores and ask them which manufacturers of hardwood they have in the store. The store informs you that, Kentwood Flooring, is one of their largest suppliers. You go to the Kentwood Website Room Visualizer Page and upload your room picture. Now, you can shop for their products while sitting at your computer. You write down the names of 3-4 products that you like, go to your flooring store, and check out those samples to look at. Talk about a time-savor! This is a great newer feature that most people don't know about.
Stain Resistant Carpet
The flooring trends for 2020 in carpet have been taken over by stain-resistant styles and colors. Customers are trending to "pet-friendly" carpets and those carpets that have stain protection. One of the big sellers in the marketplace is the Mohawk SmartStrand Carpets. We have a related article: Reviews of SmartStrand Carpet. This article goes into great detail about what SmartStrand carpet is all about, and why it has become so popular.
Shaw Floors has its R2X Carpet Stain & Soil Resistance System that has also trended in 2020. You can learn more about the R2X System here: R2X Carpet Stain & Soil Resistance System.
Neutral frieze carpet colors are trending in 2020. Customers are purchasing carpet that not only has stain protection but have a color design that will help to hide dirt and stains.
Carpet still remains the most affordable type of flooring. However, many homes are moving to hard surface products (like a luxury vinyl plank). Customers are very concerned about how long their carpet will last. This is one of the reasons why "stain protection warranties" have become so popular.
Area Rugs On The Rise
With products like luxury vinyl plank & hardwood trending in 2020, area rugs have become a very popular selling item. Interestingly enough, most local floor-covering stores have gotten out of the area rug business. Stores decided many years ago their retail space would be more profitable if they removed the area rugs, and dedicated that space to putting up more flooring displays of LVT, ceramic, and hardwood.