Our Flooring Consultation With Empire Today®

*Today’s post was sponsored by Empire Today®. All opinions are my own.

I’ll admit that the floors in our mid-century ranch home are a bit of a mishmash. There’s sheet vinyl in the bathrooms, original 1960s oak wood floors in most of the house, and wood-look vinyl planks toward the back of the house where there was an interior add-on. There’s also some kind of vinyl plank flooring in my home office. I, honestly, have no problem with mis-matched floors. It feels eclectic and lived in, but I do wish that we had had the opportunity to pick out our own floors.

All of the flooring was chosen by previous homeowners (there have been two families here before us), and, as a DIY designer, I wish that I could have selected my own style of floors for once. The one room that I think I’d redo first is my office. I’m not sure why the original hardwoods were covered just in this one bedroom, but they were, and a desaturated wood-look vinyl plank was chosen as the cover-up. It’s fine for everyday purposes and has held up great, but the new flooring doesn’t even closely resemble the original hardwood, which makes the room look a little out of place, in my opinion.

Those photos above show what the room looked like when we moved in, and that first image shows a comparison of the vinyl floors (right) against the honey-colored original hardwood flooring in our hallway (left). It wouldn’t have been my first choice, and ever since laying eyes on it I’ve dreamed of transforming it with something new, possibly wall-to-wall carpet.

If you remember, we installed carpet in our old house back in 2018, and really enjoyed it. We had four pets at the time, and it was so nice to be able to plop down on the cushy carpet to play and wrestle with them. Those memories make me want to replicate the experience here in our “new” home, so when Empire Today® reached out to team up, I was all for it! I remember singing along to their commercials as a kid in the ’90s, and loved the idea of learning more about what actually makes their brand so trusted when it comes to flooring. So, I signed up for the campaign, and scheduled a free consultation with one of the sales consultants to get the full scoop.

Mark showed up right on time (with a “30 minutes away” heads-up via text, which was so nice!), and we talked through all things flooring for the next hour. He had an answer for every single one of my questions about Empire® and what they could offer us whenever we’re ready to replace our dated vinyl with fresh carpet. Everything they have available is kept in stock here in the states, so your project can be scheduled for installation as soon as a few days from signing on the dotted line. I was able to see and feel real samples of the floors that caught my eye, which made me feel really good about the potential investment we’d be making later on.

Our consultant was able to measure my space in less than a minute, and then after going through a quick questionnaire about our needs (pet-friendly, stain- and fade-resistant, etc.) the Carpet Choice Guide filtered their collection down to the right styles of carpet for our home. From there, I got to take a closer look at real-life carpet swatches and then move them into my home office to consider colors and patterns to make sure it was the right fit. I think it’s so hard to make a decision under the window-less fluorescent lighting of a commercial flooring showroom, so being able to see the real carpet samples in our actual home made me feel so much better about the investment. In case you’re curious, I currently have my eye on their eco-friendly Starlite carpet in the color “Atlas.”

Just in case you’re not ready to schedule one of their (totally free!) in-home consultations, you can use their Virtual Floor Designer to see how new floors could look in your real life space. Just take a photo with your phone, upload it here, and then you can quickly see how new floors will look in your room. When you’re ready to make a face-to-face appointment with one of their consultants, they’ll have name brand samples in hand to show you. They each travel with hundreds of samples in their vehicles, so you can be confident they have something to show you that you’ll love.

My main take-away was that it was surprisingly affordable (Mark was able to give me a final quote right there at the end of our meeting), and that it would be a really quick turnaround. We met on Monday, and I could have already had new floors installed in my office by the time I’m posting this story. How cool is that? Schedule a free appointment with Empire here and let me know in the comments if you have any questions about our experience. I’m happy to share more details if you’re curious about anything in particular!