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If you are anything like me, when it comes to making decisions for your build (or anything in life for that matter) you like to weigh up the pros and cons of the options in front of you to ensure you make an informed decision. While this is very practical, it can be rather time-consuming and sometimes manages to confuse you about your decision even more.

We knew we wanted a polished concrete floor in our Jacks Point building in Queenstown from the beginning, we had seen it in friends’ homes and really like the interior design effect it had on a large open space. For me, it was perfect for a big open space like ours, as it provided a ‘blank canvas’ if you like to unify the area, that you could then break up with textures and colours through the use of rugs and furnishings. It also appealed to my cleanly self- when the kids spilled their food and drink, or the dog peed herself with excitement every time someone came to the door, or the cat coughed up a furball (my life… seriously) or the husband hurried in in his work boots or carried the crumbs from his late-night snack through the room. OR to be fair, if my regular evening Pinot Noir jumped out of the glass onto the floor (because I would never spill it so it must jump!), anyway point being, that if all of this happened it was as easy as pulling out a baby wipe-which are always on tap round here, and wiping up the mess until there was no trace left- EASY. Not to mention the fact that all that dust that gets soaked up into your carpet- has nowhere to go on a concrete floor but to sit on top- making it super easy to clean.
It did worry me a little with kids though- would it be warm enough for them (see the previous post), would it be hard on their wee bodies when they go flying into it (as they do on the daily!), if they ever dropped something on it it would be sooooooo unforgiving… and the list went on.

Well… assessment time:
-I’ll admit, it is terribly unforgiving for dropping hard objects on, BUT in 4 months we have maybe had one scenario where we have tested the forgiving nature of the floor and if that is all then it is not really worth worrying about that point.
-The kids seem only as fazed about slamming into the concrete ground as they do about slamming into the carpeted areas upstairs (carpet burn or a bruise, they aren’t sure which is better- we raise them tough around here hehe). They run into more table tops and corners of tables than they run into the ground anyway and I ain’t taking the tables out of our house, so again- not so valid a point just now in my world.
-It is lovely and warm, much warmer than I thought it would be, so warm my 1 year old can often be found hugging the floor… often. Perhaps she is lacking in the hugs department if her hugging option is our concrete floor?
-Cleaning up spills is as amazing as I thought it would be- baby wipes galore just here… BUT .. if I don’t know about the spill, and someone else ‘discovers it’ first- it can be a little lethal- it turns into a scene similar to me trying to ice skate.
-Cleaning in general- AMAZING- once I left it two weeks without cleaning it (shame on me) and no one would have known a thing !!!

And as an added bonus- I love the way the light bounces off the concrete floor- it adds a feeling of warmth to the room and makes space feel even more open and light!

Does it look good? It looks fab! Check more of it out on @fergbuild on instagram.
Does it suit our families day to day living- hell yes! Actually surprisingly more than I thought it would.
What would I change if we could do it again?
I would upgrade to the salt and pepper look I think next time. (Purely a personal design choice that though)

So if you are a concrete floor lover like us, try not to let any of the cons get in your way of living your polsihed conrete floor dream, take the plunge do it- it’ll save you some decent coin in the build process, save you time later in life and will look great.

We of course do have carpet in the rest of our home and we invested in a carpet rug to add a different feel to the living part of our room- more on these in the next few blog posts.