Research - Carpet

Picking carpet at Di Lorenzo has been a breeze, thankfully the brief was fairly simple:

• Choose a carpet colour to match our floor tile; Everstone Durastone Grey Steel Honed  
• Choose carpet which is durable and won't need to be replaced in 5 years time
• Choose a carpet which won't get 'crushed' easily

Based on the above brief requirements, we have decided to upgrade the carpet from the builders range to 'Redbook Green Natural Haven 100% Triexta' which costs $57/m2. The good news you do receive a credit back from the builders range, our allowance was $27/m2, so we'll only pay the difference of $30/m2. 

There are plenty of mixed reviews about this new 'corn sugar' carpet, but the majority of my online research was positive. I'll let you make up your own mind!

Redbook Green Natural Haven 100% Triexta

Here are the details about the carpet, we have
chosen 91 Thunder which a grey colour. 

And some more! 

Here is our carpet matched with our floor tile.
The lighting makes the tile look slightly green!  

A birds-eye view of the carpet and
our sample floor tile in direct sunlight. 

Eden Brae's builders range, quite a large range to
choose from. All 100% nylon 5-7yr warranty. 

Don't forget the underlay! Underlay is great for many reasons; improves underfoot comfort, absorbs crushing, overcomes minor imperfections in the floor and improves the acoustic and thermal insulation! There are three main types of underlay: felt, foam and rubber. Although only rubber is offered at Di Lorenzo. 

 
Eden Brae offer as standard 3mm rubber underlay. There are three thickness to choose from, each varying in cost; grey 3mm (standard $0), yellow 5mm ($5/m2), blue 10mm ($8/m2). We're planning to upgrade to the 10mm (blue) option, as there isn't much difference between 3mm and 5mm. Unfortunately it means another upgrade, but we believe it's a worthwhile one! 

Carpet underlay options.

Research - Bathroom Inspiration

Trying to find bathroom inspiration has been challenging! It's a room you usually don't want and can't afford to get wrong! Which does add the extra pressure if you're a perfectionist... 

The bathroom brief (where we started):

• neutral coloured floor tiles (leaning towards a light grey)
• floor tile to also be used throughout the rest of the home
• floor tiles to have a matt or honed finish (not polished) 
• floor tile to preferably be porcelain vs ceramic (ceramic is standard) 
• feature tile to tie in with the floor tile (complementary) 
• feature tile to be large vs mosaic (mosaic too costly)
• feature tile to be unique, contemporary and won't date 

For visual reference of the bathroom and ensuite layout of the Livingstone feel free to click through to my previous post from January 'Display Home' which walks you through each of the rooms.

Building with Eden Brae means we're obligated (to some degree or another) to use their suppliers. Di Lorenzo is a boutique flooring specialist and their Bella Vista (Sydney, NSW) showroom is one of the largest in the country. We were really impressed when visiting the showroom however struggled to find a tile which was A) in our price range and B) what we wanted.

So where we started...

We spent weeks researching trying to find one image which we would use as a reference at our Colour Selection Appointment. We needed to find an image which wasn't over the top with all the luxuries, used grey floor tiles and larger feature tiles on the wall. We ruled out mosaic tiles earlier on as it's just too costly and we weren't prepared to pay $600-$900/m2. Finally after weeks of searching we found an image we both loved, it was on Pinterest, pictured below (and now pinned to my board!) Happy days, now onto the next! 

   

Pinterest Inspiration. 

When we visited the Eden Brae Livingstone 22 Display Home at The Ponds we instantly fell in love with their floor tiles. At this stage we hadn't visited Di Lorenzo and were unaware of costs. These tiles are called 'Velvet' they're an Italian made porcelain tile and for an 800 x 800 costs $110/m2. The allowance in the tender/contract is only $24/m2, so technically you only pay the difference, which would then be $86/m2. Regardless of the credit, we needed a new plan! 

Pictured: Velvet (Italian) Porcelain Tiles 800 x 800.

Our closest option to 'Velvet' was the Grey Natural Porcelain Tile 600 x 600 (tile pictured on-top, far right in the picture, code: DC2463) which costs $46/m2. We were lucky to find this option in the Di Lorenzo library on our first visit. Then on our subsequent visit the sample tile had 'disappeared'. Di Lorenzo did a big clean up and moved the tile library from one end of the building to the other and some of the tiles were thrown out in the clean up. They still had a smaller version of the tile 300 x 600. But now visualising the smaller tile made us question our original selection and we had trouble matching it to any feature tiles...

Pictured: Grey Natural Porcelain Tile 600 x 600
(tile pictured on-top far right, code: DC2463).

After another few visits we found this beautiful tile, Charcoal Matt Porcelain Tile 600 x 600 (code: DC2579) which costs $48/m2. We weren't 100% convinced and in the end felt it was too 'cold' and too 'blue' for our liking. We continued the search further... 

Pictured: Charcoal Matt Porcelain Tile 600 x 600 (code: DC2579).

Incase you didn't know, Di Lorenzo also have a store in Redfern. After our 8th or 9th visit (you do start to lose count after awhile) to the Di Lorenzo store in Bella Vista we decided we should give the Redfern store a visit to see if they had the magical tile we were after. The showroom is significantly smaller in comparison but it delivered! We received fantastic service and advice from the sales consultant and found both our new floor tile for throughout the home and feature tile for the bathroom (hallelujah!). 

So it turned out, we needed to find a floor tile which was going to complement our feature tile rather then compete (which would have been the case for our original selections). The winning floor tile is the Everstone Durastone Grey Steel Honed tile 600 x 600 which costs approx. $55/m2. We also decided to use a white satin tile 300 x 600 from the builders range for the rest of the walls in the bathroom. If budget permits we'd like these to go from floor to ceiling verses what comes standard.

Pictured: Everstone Durastone Grey Steel Honed Tile 300 x 600
& Casa Dolce Casa Wooden Grey Reclaimed Tile 150 x 900.

Here is a close-up of the floor tile along side our newly chosen feature tile called Casa Dolce Casa Wooden Grey Reclaimed Tile 150 x 900 which costs $103/m2. As you can see the tile also has texture for added authenticity. I'm in love...

Pictured: Everstone Durastone Grey Steel Honed Tile 300 x 600
& Casa Dolce Casa Wooden Grey Reclaimed Tile 150 x 900.

Also featured below is our stone benchtop sample Essastone New Crystal Salt and Laminex Lustrous Elm and Laminex Polar White samples for the cupboards. I think they all work well together! 

Our selections coming together nicely!   

Feature tile from Di Lorenzo in Bella Vista.
The Reclaimed version is featured on the bottom run here in this picture!