An adventure in laminate

Okay, so I realize all photos in this post are complete crap.  But, I'm trying to document our adventures with the carpeting and the laminate, so what's a girl to do?

I started my search online.  I wanted to get an idea of the price range (holy all over the place, Batman) and familiarize myself with the colors and how tree names (oak, birch, walnut) translated to my eyeballs (at least from the perspective of a computer screen).  The room that Blake has utterly defiled has wood paneling on the walls that is going to stay, so the flooring that we choose will need to coordinate.  To make matters even more complicated, we also have a matching wood coffee table and end tables (in a different shade from the paneling, of course) and dark leather furniture.  I'm not even going to mention the cast iron wood stove on the red brick hearth (that I occasionally slip up and refer to as a "fireplace" -- so shoot me).

I had an idea in my head of what was pleasing to my eye based on my computer search, but when I picked up the samples I decided to think outside the box and try not to let that influence me.  Kind of like when you're shopping and you try on clothes that don't look good on the hanger . . . sometimes they look better on.  So we began with about 18 samples covering a vast range of colors.

The different ends of the spectrum that we started with:

Against the wood paneling.

Against the couch.

Our family picture from the Year End Project is the only one I could find that shows our coffee table:

There's the coffee table.  It's not the same as the paneling.

A couple people have said that the lighter of the 2

middle shades looks better with the paneling.

That may be true but it looked terrible with the coffee table.

Good times, good times.

See how the carpet is discolored in the lower left of that first picture with the samples against the paneling?  We have no idea why, but some part of the carpet-cleaning process is to blame.  Probably not the cleaner because there were just patches of discoloration, and of course I cleaned the entire carpet with the solution.  Sigh.

Anyhoo.  Back to the samples.  After looking them over all next to each other, I realized what I had preferred on the computer screen is also what I prefer in the living room with the other factors thrown in.

I made my decision--both by color family and which specific sample--and brought Dan in to look them over and make his decision on his own.  I asked him to just start taking away the ones he didn't like based on his first impression so we could see what was left.  I prayed that his eyeballs wouldn't like something wildly different from mine.

Hot diggity!

We both liked the darker end of the middle tones.  I was so excited when the first ones he started removing were also my least favorites.

Our mutual, blind decision was that the redder cherries coordinated best with the wood paneling, existing furniture, and leather couch.  That is to say, the darker end of the middle-tones.

I know you're loving the shag underneath the samples.

Which, by the way, looks especially orange to me.
Also, note how shockingly different the paneling and carpet look because I must
have had a different angle of the flash or something.  Good grief.

What a relief that we agreed on a color family!!  The samples above are all similar enough that I'm not even concerned.  It's a potayto/potahto decision at this point.  But, if you're curious, we decided on the furthest to the left.

Brazilian Cherry!