Personally I think its hard to beat the original flooring – if you are lucky enough to live in a nice old house with lovely old floorboards or original slate! Combining these beautiful features with tasteful rugs gives you the best of both worlds, after all floorboards and tiles can be cold to the feet and carpets do give that cosy edge if your home is prone to draughts.

So what type of flooring should go where? Does one deck out his house with the same flooring throughout? Or do you carpets some areas and leave others bare? Clearly carpet in the kitchen and bathroom is a no-no (although it is definitely not unknown!) so what do we do here – particularly difficult is the bathroom, as unless underfloor heating is installed, tiles can be far too chilly for bare feet!

Well linoleum is not a bad option if you are on a budget and is ideal for both the kitchen and bathroom – tiles can be extremely pricey, and if you are doing up a house to sell it on then linoleum is a very cost effective way of imitation tiles – nowadays linoleum is often mistaken for the real thing and is thankfully no longer an embarrassing statement. Alternative: Vinyl

Concreting a floor is another budget friendly option and is the easiest way of levelling out uneven flooring or replacing old rotten floorboards – your furnishing will sit nicely on there with no wobbly corners and is very cheap to maintain and keep clean – excellent if you have a young family prone to spilling things! Alternative: Resin

Ceramic tiles make a beautiful feature area and are less expensive than stone tiles, they are not suitable for high traffic areas for this reason, and are likely to suffer a crack is an object is dropped on them, ideal for use in bathrooms, and require no possible floor reinforcement unlike their heavy counterparts. Alternative: Rubber flooring

Hopefully I've given you a taster of the different floor types available, as you can see they are quite varied so it is worth shopping around to see what best suits your taste and budget.

So......flooring out of the way, time to think about how to breathe easy in your home, sure you can opt for expensive air conditioning, fabulous if you have the budget otherwise you may have to make do with unsightly air humidifier units around your home.....well consider an environmentally friendly alternatives – plants – tropical house plants remove many harmful airborne chemicals in our homes as well as the usual oxygen/carbon dioxide benefits. Toxic chemicals commonly found in our homes come from basic materials that have been fire proofed, water repelled, made stiffer or wrinkle resistant and can be anything from paper towels and grocery bags to particle board, pressed wood or foam insulation. Solvents can be found in paints, inks and plastics and other harmful chemicals can be found in varnishes, adhesives and dry cleaning.

These chemicals can cause minor ailments like head aches and allergies like dry itchy skin but can also cause more serious conditions such as asthma, organ damage and birth defects.

So what plants will help keep the levels of chemicals in our homes at bay? Popular plants include Bamboo palm, Gerbera Daisy and Spider plant. It is recommended that one 6 inch plant is placed every 100 square feet.

Additional benefits include maintenance of humidity levels and purifying the air, not to mention creating a natural green area in your home.

A welcoming green plant situated in the entrance hall to your home creates a a nice welcome for guests and makes your home look very inviting.

About the Author

Kay Hammond

Kay is the editor of home & decorating and lives in a very plain and ordinary 1970's house where typically the sun shines at its best in the kitchen all year round. Alas my dream of a designer home has long ago vanished with the arrival of my now very active toddler boy - so I am now content in the knowledge that a very ordinary home can look beautiful with the minimum of effort.