That’s the exact same reason why you have to order flooring samples when shopping for new surfaces so that you can actually stage them inside your rooms: You need to have an accurate idea of how your favorite DuraDecor stylewill look in specific areas and be prepared if the same color, design, and texture appear different in different rooms.
Thankfully, you can get all your favorite DuraDecor samples available online at Home Depot. When you’re ready to spend your hard-earned money on new flooring, which could just as easily be vacation funds, you can look at how natural and artificial light sources will impact your flooring choice before purchase.
Let’s explore four valuable reasons why you need flooring samples to get the most long-term satisfaction with your new flooring investment.
If we have to adult, let’s at least get it right!
Lighting Affects How Your Floors Look
It’s actually kind of crazy how light can change the way that a flooring sample will look in your place. Factors like photo lighting, website color temperature, and computer screen settings will all affect the way flooring appears on your phone, tablet, or laptop. Once you get the actual sample in your hand, you can assess the color much more effectively.
If a room receives plenty of light, then a medium or darker floor color option like Go-Getter Mocha from the Classy Chic Collection (below left) can help balance the overall layout and avoid a washed-out feel. For smaller spaces, a brighter flooring shade such as Pebble Beach from the Modern Maven Collection (below right) will reflect light and make spaces feel more open!
You Can Assess Natural Lighting
There’s nothing more beautiful than gorgeous sun rays, and we love it when they shine through our windows. However, the amount and position of the sunlight changes throughout the day and all the colors inside change ever so slightly.
When you wake up in the morning, the bright, warm sun will illuminate the rooms with windows facing the east first and create a yellow-orangey glow in the space. By lunchtime and afterward, the sun makes a softer, bluer tone that shows flooring closest to its truest tone. In the evening time, the setting sun’s intensity hits the western-facing rooms with a reddish glow.
So, it’s important to see how your flooring samples will look in natural light at various times of the day just in case you don’t love it and it may eliminate a choice from your list!
You Can Assess Your Interior Lighting
It’s also super important to see how your flooring samples look in rooms that don’t receive much sunlight. You can use indoor lighting like overhead lights and lamps to enhance, focus, or diffuse light as you prefer. Try using a lampshade to aim more light toward the floor or wall lighting to add indirect lighting. For more lighting indoors, you can try dimmable lights, under-cabinet lighting, or track lights.
Also, different lightbulbs can create your preferred “glow” for the floors: Fluorescent or halogens bulbs will produce bright white light to match an open color scheme, whereas softer bulbs and accent lighting can better fit a subdued color layout with darker floors.
You Can Observe Day & Night Lighting
With flooring samples, you can move them near windows and observe the color throughout the day as sunlight varies. You can even move the samples around the room, take pictures at various locations, and take pics at different times to make comparisons later.
Once the sun sets, take the same types of flooring sample pics in the same locations, only now you can observe the interior lighting conditions and see if you love how they appear. These tests will also make sure your favorite curtains, paint colors, furnishings, and accessories pair well and don’t clash with your flooring samples!
Explore our DuraDecor Pinterest and Facebook pages for inspiration when selecting a new flooring shade, and remember to get your favorite DuraDecor luxury vinyl flooring samples online and test the lighting in your home and bring your ideas to life.
It’s one thing for a shirt color to be off, but we are all about making sure our favorite floors are picture-perfect!