Best Flooring for Sunny Rooms

Not many UK homes have a designated sun room or sun lounge, but most homes have one or two rooms that tend to get the best of the sun and are usually brighter and lighter than other parts of the home. If you are lucky enough to have a room in your home that always seems to be filled with bright sunshine, you might be wondering what type of flooring is your best option. After all, carpets can fade dramatically over time, making them look tatty and older than they actually are. What about other types of flooring, such as vinyl and laminates? How are they affected by sunlight?

Carpets

Carpet is still one of the nation’s favourite floor coverings, despite heavy competition from laminates and hardwoods in recent decades. It’s warm, versatile and comfortable, not to mention available in just about every colour, pattern and texture you can think of. While it is perfectly fine to use in sunny, bright rooms, you might find it fades considerably over time. This tends to be more noticeable if part of the carpet is in a permanently shaded area, as the difference in the two sections of carpet will be more obvious.

Laminates

Laminates are a great choice for sunny rooms. Most laminates will not fade in the sun, meaning they are suitable for use in bright rooms. It’s usually advisable to lay your laminate flooring with the planks running away from the window, so the sunlight falls along the length of the plank rather than across the width of the plank. Most laminate flooring is suitable for use in conservatories or any other rooms with a lot of windows.

Vinyl

Vinyl is a popular choice in conservatories, as it’s durable, warmer and more affordable than stone or tiles and is very easy to install, clean and maintain. Not all vinyls are create equally, however, and some are more prone to fading than others. If you are thinking of laying vinyl flooring in a room that is exposed to strong sunlight, speak to your supplier or the manufacturers themselves. They should be able to tell you how well the vinyl stands up to bright sunlight. In many cases, you might want to redecorate and replace the floor by the time fading is very noticeable anyway, but it’s worth getting an idea of the lifespan of your chosen flooring.