Ecofriendlyflooring.com has some fantastic options such as bamboo, cork, tile, reclaimed wood, linoleum and they even will answer all frequently asked questions about each material.  Also, what is more amazing is, you can order samples of all of these options for only a couple of dollars.  When I ordered samples I received them in my mailbox literally the next day!  Not sure how they are so fast, but it is great.  The selections the have are beautiful too!

The cottage style home had a front porch with white rockers, vintage windows and white washed paint accented by light blue shutters. The homeowners had redone the inside. The walls were paneled with dark wood that matched the doors, molding and floors. The curtains were country-looking and ruffled like something you’d see from the 80’s. And the furniture was covered in tapestry-like cloth and brown leather.

Just like a cottage doesn’t lend itself to being decorated with dark wood and heavy furniture, a log cabin wouldn’t cut it with French Provencal décor. Although a unique style is encouraged, a conflicted exterior and interior design of a home is quite the opposite of what most people are decorating towards. If you’re like the majority of homeowners, you want your home to represent your personality while creating a consistent and balanced appearance from outside to indoors and from room to room.

So, how do you create a flow from outdoors to inside?

• House Style and Décor

Be sure to buy a home or choose a plan when house hunting, remodeling or redecorating in which the exterior’s style supports the vision you have for the interior decor. For example, you may love the exterior of a two-story clapboard home in a small town’s historic neighborhood. However, if you’re a minimalist who decorates with ultra-modern furniture and limits your color scheme to black and white, this may not be the house for you.

• Paint and Its Color

Choose colors inside and out that are complementary but not “matchy matchy” since that’s out of style. Coordinating colors are designer smart and visually appealing. Earth tones on your porch and trim will invite earth tones indoors. This isn’t to say you can’t add splashes of color. You just don’t want natural shades outside while bright hues dominate indoors.

• Details, Details, Details

Consider flooring, crown molding, built-ins, the height of the ceilings and the wall texture throughout a home that make it what it is. Look to see if that harmonizes with the outside trim, windows, decks and add-ons. If you want tile floors in your living area with great throw rugs everywhere, a home with a wrap-around porch is most likely not your best pick. However, tile would be the perfect flooring for a Spanish-style stucco house.

Images from http://www.trendir.com

There are plenty of options for redoing concrete that is already underfoot or for pouring new concrete floors and decorating as you go. Here’s an overview of concrete flooring options.

• Stains and Dyes
• Overlays
• Engraving or Etching
• Inlays
• Stenciling

Stains and dyes give you options to add color to that dull gray flooring. Acid stains, although colors are limited to mostly earth tones, offer a more natural look than dyes and water-based acrylic stains. Acid stains give a mottled look that when polished resembles expensive natural stones like marble and granite. Dyes are getting attention because of their broader selection of more vibrant colors and their claim of being easy to use. Water-based acrylic stains offer a wider variety in colors as well. Water-based dyes can look variegated, like stains, whereas solvent-based dyes are usually consistent in color.

A concrete overlay is basically resurfacing your concrete with more of itself. You can change the floor color with an overlay, add decorative finishes or create stamped concrete, also called patterned or imprinted. In this process, stamps are used on the concrete to make it look like something different, like bricks or stones.

Engraving or etching concrete floors is more permanent than overlays since the pattern will never chip off or wear away. That’s because it has been cut into the concrete. After the concrete has been colored and the design is cut out, the lines are uncolored and look distinctive like grout lines. Sometimes floor designers will fill the outline with resin to darken it and create a more dramatic look.

And while professionals are chiseling away at your concrete, why not cut a place for a tile design? Concrete inlays, a stunning and attention-grabbing look, are tiles that find their way into cut out places in concrete.

Finally, stenciling is another method of adding color and character to concrete floors. The stencil can be a free-flowing pattern or actually mimic a decorative item like a Persian rug. For the best of both worlds, concrete and comfort, fashion your floors so that the concrete design complements the coziness of your much-loved furnishings and rugs.

Resource:

http://www.concretenetwork.com/index-s.html