Solid wood is milled from one solid ¾" piece of wood. Solid hardwood floors expand and contract more than engineered woods and are particularly susceptible to moisture. As wood expands and contracts, it may buckle or it may leave gaps. Two common methods of counteracting these gaps include beveled edges and leaving expansion gaps—gaps between wood and wall—hidden by base molding.

You'll find most of popular wood species, such as oak, maple, cherry and others available in engineered wood. Sometimes called pressed wood, engineered wood comes in 3-ply or 5-ply versions—three or five bonded layers of wood. Engineered wood floors succumb to little, if any expansion and contraction and are perfectly suited for rooms susceptible to moisture. If you want wood floors in bathroom, kitchen or in any room where moisture accumulates, consider engineered wood for its greater stability. If you plan to lay a wood floor directly over concrete, you must install engineered wood to maintain structural integrity.

Wood Styles

Once you've determined species, wood grade and decided between solid and engineered wood, you can move on to fun stuff—the style. Common wood styles include:

 Parquet  Plank  Strip

Strips and planks are long, linear cuts of woods. The main difference is width of wood. Strips range from widths of 1 ½" to 2 ¼", while planks range from widths of 3" to 8". Consider strips if your goal is to create illusion of a larger room. Series of small wood pieces create parquet's geometrical design. Parquet floors complement large, airy rooms.

Select your hardwood floors with care; they can add beauty and warmth to your surroundings for a very long time, even a lifetime.

4.Go For A Molding

Want a new cabinet look but new cabinets aren’t in your budget? You can buy moldings for sides, top and doors of your cabinet that will enhance and change look of any kitchen. You can even buy little bun feet to put on edges to give your kitchen a country look. While these might cost a bit more than some of these other ideas it is well worth it for dramatic change it has on your cabinets. Fancy rope trim, and fluted moldings can be glued on to your cabinets to give them a little pizzaz. Decorative crown moldings can be added to top. If your doors are too plain, you can even buy moldings to add interest to door panels.

5. Vinyl Tiles

If your floor is outdated, dirty and grungy then getting a new floor will make a huge difference in look of your kitchen. You may not even notice how dingy floor looks and may be reluctant to budget in any money for a floor but try to take a fresh look at it and really notice what it looks like. When I sold my house I thought my kitchen floor was a little old but just fine – my realtor took one look and convinced me that a new floor would help me get more for house. I put a new floor in and couldn’t believe difference! You can install vinyl tiles yourself for as little as 50 cents a square foot, of course more you pay better quality floor you will get and longer it will last so a mid range price of $3.00 a square foot is probably more realistic.