Carpet or Laminate: What’s Best for Bedroom Flooring?
- Introduction
- Exploring The Key Differences Between Carpets And Laminates
- 12 Reasons Laminate Flooring Beats Carpet In Bedrooms
- 1) Laminate Flooring Is Easier To Maintain Than A Carpet
- 2) Laminate Has Greater Durability And Longevity Than Carpets
- 3) Laminate Flooring Is More Affordable Than Carpeted Flooring
- 4) Carpets Store Allergens, Laminate Floors Don’t
- 5) Laminate Floors Are Easier To Install In Bedrooms Than Carpets
- 6) There’s More To Choose From When It Comes To Laminate Flooring
- 7) Carpets Fade In Sunlight; Laminate Doesn’t
- 8) Water And Spill Damage Carpets But Not Laminate
- 9) Laminate Is Better For Pets And Smokers
- 10) Laminate Keeps Your Home Free Of Pests
- 11) Customisable Underlays Give Laminate Floors Additional Qualities
- 12) Maintenance Of Laminate Floors Can Be Localised
- Other Non-Carpet Bedroom Flooring Options Available
- Conclusion: Pairing Rugs And Laminate For The Perfect Bedroom Floor
- Why Tile Merchant?
Introduction
Bedrooms have traditionally been carpeted, especially in Ireland, where long, cold winters make warmth a top priority. However, when choosing between carpet or laminate for bedroom flooring, it's worth considering all the factors.
While carpet offers comfort, it comes with downsides like damp retention, odors, and maintenance challenges—areas where laminate flooring often comes out on top.
In this expert guide, the home improvement specialists at Tile Merchant compare carpet or laminate for bedroom design, highlighting key differences and making a strong case for why laminate flooring could be the perfect upgrade for your next bedroom transformation.
Exploring The Key Differences Between Carpets And Laminates
First things first—what are the biggest differences between carpet or laminate for bedroom flooring? To help you decide, we’ve broken down the six key factors that set these two popular options apart. Let’s dive in!
| Carpets | Laminates | |
| Material | 75-90% synthetic fibre and 10-25% wool | Recycled and compressed wood chips, synthetic image and water-resistance layers |
| Look | Uniform piled look | Variety of looks including wood, stone, marble and plain finishes |
| Feel | Soft, warm and cushioned | Smooth, cool and cushioned |
| Installation | Requires a professional | DIY-friendly |
| Price | €€ to €€€ | € to €€ |
| Variety | Variety limited to colour and pile height | Variety available across colour, finish, style, effect, and underlayment |
12 Reasons Laminate Flooring Beats Carpet In Bedrooms
There’s no denying that when designing or renovating a bedroom, carpeting is probably the first thing that springs to mind when it comes time to choose the flooring.
But just because carpets have historically been the primary material used for bedroom flooring doesn’t mean that they are the best, most sensible nor most budget-friendly option available!
On review, we’ve found carpets to be far less practical for bedroom floors than you might think, whilst bedroom laminate flooring offers a versatile, design-led alternative to the Irish home decorator, tradesperson, or interior designer.
In this section, we explore 12 key areas where laminate trumps carpets in the race to be the best bedroom flooring option available in Ireland. Let’s take a look!
1) Laminate Flooring Is Easier To Maintain Than A Carpet
Carpets are hoarders. They hoard dust, odours, dirt, pet hair, pests and more, making them quite difficult to maintain.
Whilst a regular hoover keeps the worst at bay, carpets require an annual, labour-intensive deep clean in order to be considered really free from germs and bacteria.
On the flip side, laminate floorboards cannot, by design, trap any hairs or dust or the like. Even better, keeping laminate floors perfectly clean requires nothing more than the odd hoover and mop—using inexpensive cleaning materials rather than expensive carpet cleaning solutions and tools.
In response to the question, "Laminate or carpet for bedroom?" Reddit user Zestyclose-Snow9275 shared their opinion: "Laminate for sure—ideally waterproof vinyl. Carpet is ugly, stains easily, and if someone makes a mess, you’re stuck cleaning it. If you have pets, it’s a big NO!"
2) Laminate Has Greater Durability And Longevity Than Carpets
Laminate flooring—especially the superior quality stock at Tile Merchant—can last anywhere from 15 to 20 years if properly looked after.
Unfortunately, the lifespan of a carpet is much lower, at just 5 to 15 years, meaning that in worst-case situations you could go through four carpets in the time it takes a single laminate installation to reach the end of its life!
An added bonus of laminate flooring is the degree to which laminates are resistant to wear and tear!
Unlike carpeting, which can wear thin in high-traffic areas or be ripped at by pets, laminate is highly wear-and-tear-resistant.
3) Laminate Flooring Is More Affordable Than Carpeted Flooring
Generally speaking, laminate flooring is one of the most affordable types of floors your money can buy. And whilst the affordability of laminate was historically hampered by an overall poor quality and shoddy appearance, this is no longer the case!
Today’s laminate floors remain cheaper than carpets, without compromising quality or performance.
DO YOU LIVE IN IRELAND? Order free samples of laminate floors for your bedroom today!
4) Carpets Store Allergens, Laminate Floors Don’t
Have you got household members, flatmates, children, partners or even friends with allergies? Especially allergies to pollen, dust or pet hair? In the case of the mildest to the most serious of allergies, carpets should probably be avoided.
Just like we mentioned before, the pile of carpets is perfect for trapping nasty allergens like dog and cat hair or pollen and dust—meaning installing carpets in the bedroom could keep you, or your guests, up all night sneezing.
Laminate flooring is perfect for bedrooms because it doesn’t trap any allergens and can instead be swept or hoovered free of any allergy-causing particles however often is needed to keep you, your family and friends allergy free.
5) Laminate Floors Are Easier To Install In Bedrooms Than Carpets
Another key advantage laminate has over carpet for bedroom flooring is the ease with which laminate floorboards can be installed. The laminate flooring stocked at Tile Merchant is designed with a unique ‘slide-and-click’ system, by which each board can be clicked into place for a stress-free installation.
Whilst both carpet-laying and laminate installation can be completed either DIY or by a professional installer, our customers report finding laminate much easier to install themselves.
6) There’s More To Choose From When It Comes To Laminate Flooring
Let’s talk diversity. It’s plain to see that with carpeting for your bedroom, all you really have control over is the colour. And whilst colour is key to interior design, it’s far from everything.
With laminate flooring, you can choose from an almost infinite array of colours, styles and finishes.
Laminate floorboards are finished with a photorealistic image layer, which allows them to assume the appearance—kind of camouflage themselves—as other popular (but expensive) flooring materials like wood, natural stone and marble.
Here are a few examples of the wonderful variety of laminate looks you can choose for your bedroom flooring from the Tile Merchant catalogue:
- Rustic, golden brown oak-effect wood laminate floorboards
- Rich, blackened mahogany tones for a weathered wood look
- Mid-grey wood-grained laminate for a more neutral, modern palette
- Super light beige laminate floorboards to lift darker rooms
PRO TIP: When choosing laminate flooring, consider the plank size and texture as well as the colour. Wider planks create a more spacious feel, while embossed textures add a realistic woodgrain effect for extra authenticity. Plus, opting for water-resistant laminate ensures durability—perfect for bedrooms with high humidity levels! 🚀
7) Carpets Fade In Sunlight; Laminate Doesn’t
Thanks to an in-built UV layer in laminate flooring, the style and colour you choose for your bedroom interior are guaranteed never to fade in the sunlight. Unluckily, carpets have no such protection, and so will gradually fade and become discoloured over time wherever they are exposed to natural light.
8) Water And Spill Damage Carpets But Not Laminate
Laminate flooring for bedrooms is also highly water-resistant (though, please note, not 100% waterproof). This means that spills, drips and moisture on laminate floors can be easily wiped dry with a towel or mop, without the flooring sustaining any damage.
Moisture in carpets, on the other hand, is bad news. Water is much harder to dry out of carpets than it is on laminate, and if left to soak in, it can lead to damp mould or worse: rotting of the wooden floorboards or carpet underlay.
9) Laminate Is Better For Pets And Smokers
If you’ve got pets who occasionally have accidents in the house, or spray their territory, or if you smoke indoors or burn incense in your bedroom, then you should be wary of the dangers of installing a bedroom carpet.
Carpets are like giant sponges, soaking up all of the unwanted odours and smells produced in the home. For smokers and pet owners, carpeted bedrooms are a recipe for lingering smells in the bedroom which you can never quite get rid of.
Laminate flooring is your best bet here, since it has no way to retain scents; it leaves your bedroom smelling fresher for longer.
10) Laminate Keeps Your Home Free Of Pests
And speaking of carpets being giant sponges... They can also store a nasty array of bugs and pests such as fleas and carpet beetles—which could ultimately pose a threat to the hygiene, or even safety, of your family and pets. Laminate flooring has a single smooth surface in which those little blighters can’t hide!
11) Customisable Underlays Give Laminate Floors Additional Qualities
The real success of modern laminate floorboards has been the addition of customisable underlays. Underlayment is installed beneath laminate flooring for a number of reasons, including:
- Providing additional soundproofing to dampen the noise of footsteps on the laminate as well as reducing the sounds coming up through the floors from elsewhere in the home.
- Providing cushioning to the laminate floor to make it even more comfortable to walk on (arguably, comfort on par with walking on plush carpet).
- Providing essential insulation beneath the laminate floor to keep your bedroom nice and warm all year round.
We recognise, of course, that carpets can be comfortable, warm and add a little soundproofing on their own. The argument here is not that an underlayment makes a laminated bedroom essentially better than a carpeted bedroom, but that the underlay starts laminate off on a level playing field.
12) Maintenance Of Laminate Floors Can Be Localised
Last but not least, it’s worth considering long-term maintenance when choosing the best flooring solution for your bedrooms.
Accidents happen and damages occur, but when it comes to repairing carpet vs laminate, laminate comes out on top every time. Individual planks or floorboards of wood-effect laminate flooring can be removed, repaired and replaced for localised damage.
However, when a carpet is damaged, it tends to need replacing in its entirety. Thus, carpet maintenance is a much more labour intensive and costly job than laminate maintenance is
Other Non-Carpet Bedroom Flooring Options Available
Before we conclude our guide to the benefits of laminate flooring for bedroom interior design, it’s worth mentioning a few other alternative materials you may choose to consider alongside laminate.
Similar to wood-effect laminate floorboards yet with their own set of pros and cons are:
Additionally, bedroom floor tiles may also be considered to provide Irish homeowners with an even wider array of style, colour, and finish to choose from.
Conclusion: Pairing Rugs And Laminate For The Perfect Bedroom Floor
Carpets remain a completely valid flooring material for bedrooms and other interior spaces, like hallways and stairs. Carpeted floors tend to be warm, comfortable and nice to look at.
Unfortunately, however, there are a lot of downsides and disadvantages to carpets for bedrooms which most of us tend to overlook.
Bedroom carpets can also harbour nasty smells, allergens and bugs, in addition to being hard to maintain, expensive, hard to install, and having much shorter lifespans than even the cheapest laminates.
For these reasons, if someone asks "carpet or laminate floors?"—considering the many benefits of laminate flooring—we highly recommend choosing laminate as the ultimate bedroom flooring solution.
With the appropriate underlay, laminate bedroom floors can be kept warm and comfortable year-round. They are also affordable, super easy to maintain and install, and resistant to all the things carpets aren’t, including fading, wear and tear, spills, stains, and odour retention.
To take your next bedroom design or redesign to the next level, why not pair our superior wood-effect laminates with a tastefully positioned rug—thus enjoying the benefits of both the laminate floorboards and the aesthetic of a carpet without the downsides.
Shop wood laminate flooring on Tile Merchant today, and order yourself some free cut samples of your very favourite floorboards to test at home before you buy! Delivery is fast and secure, 7 days a week, anywhere in Ireland.
Why Tile Merchant?
We offer extremely competitive pricing on our entire range of tiles and likewise. We stock a huge range of wall and floor tiles and our prices are competitive for retail and trade. Our stock is widely available in our tile stores in Ireland which are open 7 days a week.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to shop our tiles online, we can supply you with samples delivered for free.
Article written by Calum
Cal Bannerman is a freelance writer, editor, podcaster and voice actor from the Scottish Borders. He runs the storytelling podcast "Stories from the Hearth" and lives in a wee Glasgow Flat with his partner and their cat".