20 Stylish But Cheap Flooring Ideas (With Lots of Photos)
Ugly, outdated, or damaged flooring can really impact how your home looks. But refinishing wood floors, replacing old carpet or installing new tile floors can be expensive. In fact, one of the most expensive things to replace in your home is flooring. Most require a professional installer and come with a seriously hefty price tag. But there are loads of cheap ways you can update your floors that look GORGEOUS (and not at all cheap)! I'm sharing some of my favorite options in this post. As a DIYer, I've tackled many of these affordable flooring ideas myself, so I speak from plenty of experience.
My husband and I are currently renovating our fifth home. Over the past 22 years of our DIY renovations, I can't count how often we have tackled a renovation project or room makeover and simply did not have the budget for new flooring. So we got creative and found affordable materials that were DIY-friendly so that we could also save on installation costs.
In this post, I'm sharing the low-cost flooring methods we have used, along with lots of brilliant ideas I've seen from other DIYers. This list includes painted floors, tile stickers, vinyl plank floors, peel-and-stick floors, DIY wood floors from plywood, and more. Note all of these flooring options are for interior rooms. I have a separate post dedicated to garage flooring options if that is what you are looking for.
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20 Cheap Flooring Options That Are DIY-Friendly
Paint Your Vinyl or Linoleum Floors
Back in 2013, I gave our laundry room a complete makeover for only $71. The laundry room floor was old, outdated, brown vinyl. We couldn't afford to replace them, so I painted our vinyl floor. The paint only cost me $30 and it turned out beautifully (and held up well for 7+ years). Simple stripes gave it a fresh new look that we loved. Again, as long as you use porch and floor paint, your floor will be durable without the need for any topcoat. This project was such a hit I was even invited to appear on the Rachael Ray show to demonstrate how I did it!
Install a Luxury Vinyl Tile Floor Over Outdated or Damaged Floors
If you don't like the idea of painting or reviving your hardwoods, all hope is not lost. You can install a floating floor right over them! It is MUCH quicker and easier than glue-down or nail-down methods. We installed a vinyl tile floating floor in our laundry room and it's beautiful! Best of all, it's incredibly durable and was a great price, costing us just $4 a square foot. This is the floating faux marble tile we used–it's gorgeous and completely waterproof (most are at least water-resistant).
You can see how easy it was to install in the short video below.
Update Tile Flooring With Tile Stickers
Tile stickers allow you to update outdated tile floors without any sort of demo or hard work. Tile stickers are made from vinyl and are completely waterproof. The average cost per square foot for installing tile flooring is between $15 and $20. Vinyl tile stickers, on the other hand, will cost you around $6.00 a square foot and are quick and easy to install yourself–we have installed them three times so far. You can learn everything you need to know about tile stickers here (I even share a video about how the tile stickers are holding up after 16+ months).
Viny tile stickers work beautifully on ceramic tile, porcelain tiles and any other tiles that don't have textures. I would not recommend using tile stickers on travertine, slate or other natural stone tiles. Tile stickers really need a smooth surface to adhere properly. I don't know that I would recommend them for very high-traffic areas, but they are perfect for bathrooms!
You can watch an overview of installing tile stickers below.
In our current home, I have installed tile stickers in Avery's bathroom makeover. Here are the tile stickers we used in Avery's bathroom.
And we also used tile stickers to update the tile floor in Attley's budget-friendly bathroom makeover! Here are the tile stickers we used in Attley's bathroom.
Below are some of the other beautiful tile stickers that I love.
Scroll and click on any image for full product details.
Install Vinyl Sheet Flooring Over Outdated Tile
You can also install sheet vinyl over an outdated tile floor like my friend Lauren of Bless'er House did. Sheet vinyl flooring has always been inexpensive and now it's easy to find modern and trendy designs. Best of all, it generally costs between only $1.00 and $2.00 per square foot.
Install Laminate Flooring that Looks Like Wood
Laminate flooring has come such a long way over the past 15 years. In my opinion, hand-scraped laminate floors are just as pretty as many hardwood floors. And in our experience, they are much more durable than hardwood floors!
We chose to install laminate floors throughout our old home because having hardwoods installed was cost-prohibitive. Installing hardwood floors generally costs between $7 and $25 per square foot. We paid only $1.76 per square foot for the thick, hand-scraped laminate flooring we chose (you can find options for under $1.00 a square foot). They were installed with a simple click-lock method, and the underlayment was attached, so they didn't sound hollow when we walked on them. We installed them ourselves one room at a time, which saved us a ton of money. And we LOVED them!
There are pros and cons to every type of flooring. Our current home has real hardwoods and though they are beautiful, they show scratches from our dogs' toenails that would be a non-issue with our old laminate floors. Yeah, I miss our laminate floors, believe it or not!
Paint and Stencil An Outdated Tile Floor
Painting and stenciling an old tile floor is always an option as well! Just make sure that you use the correct products (porch and floor paint is a must) and prep the surface correctly. As long as you do that, your paint job should last for YEARS. And no, you don't need a topcoat on the floor as long as you useporch and floor paint. Just look at the beautiful painted tile floors below!
Paint Your Damaged Hardwood Floors to Cover Scratching and More
If your hardwood floors are seriously damaged (or you just don't like them) but replacing or refinishing them is not in your budget, you still have some awesome options! Whether you like colorful decor or prefer neutrals, you should definitely consider painting your hardwoods.
I have painted and stenciled hardwood floors myself and can tell you that if you use porch and floor paint and prep your floors correctly, you do NOT need to worry about the paint peeling or chipping! And NO–you really, truly don't need a top coat on them. This is the kind of paint you MUST use for durable painted hardwood floors. Paint is an excellent way to hide stains and even out imperfections in worn-out wood floors! And painted wood floors can look beautiful no matter your style.
Liz Marie painted the hardwoods in her farmhouse the perfect creamy white/cream color. Aren't they stunning with the rest of her neutral decor?
If you prefer a pop of color, then you will love these painted green floors by White Dog Vintage. They add so much depth and character to the space.
And I love how Teri Moore painted her historic hardwoods white in an otherwise colorful space!
Paint Your Concrete Floor to Add Warmth to a Space
Concrete floors are awesome, but some people find that the look is too cold and modern for them. If you don't love look of your concrete floor and want to warm up the space a bit, you can paint your concrete floors to totally transform the look of them. That's exactly what Postbox Designs did in her mudroom and it only cost her $80.
Install Vinyl Tile Planks in a Herringbone Pattern
Luxury vinyl tiles also come in planks that look like hardwood. My friend Lauren installed her LVP flooring in a herringbone pattern to cover her outdated tile floor and it looks gorgeous!
Paint a Plywood Subfloor
It never would have occurred to me to just beautify a plywood subfloor (the cheap material that sits UNDER tile, hardwoods, etc.), but that's exactly what Carrie did. Talk about a cheap but stylish upgrade!
Install Peel & Stick Vinyl Tiles Over Any Flat Floor
Luxury vinyl tiles may look expensive, but you can find lots of options for under $2.00 a square foot and they are very quick and easy to install yourself! We installed peel & stick luxury vinyl tiles as part of our colorful laundry room makeover. The installation only took about an hour and it looked beautiful! This should work on any flat floors–vinyl sheet floors, linoleum floors, hardwood, even bare subfloors. But if you wanted to install this over grouted tile, you would need to fill in/level the grout lines first.
Wallpaper Your Floor
Medina updated the scratched laminate flooring in the entryway of her rental with wallpaper. How cool is that?!
Stain Your Plywood Subfloor
If you really want the look of hardwood floors without the huge price tag, consider this stained plywood subfloor by Ana White!
Create the Look of Hardwood Planks With Plywood
Or you could create your own plywood plank floors. They look beautiful stained or painted!
Make Your Own Geometric Wood Floors
And if you are feeling SUPER adventurous and are patient, then you could install these DIY geometric wood floors like Mandi at Vintage Revivals. I love, love, love these floors so much. Someday I will install them somewhere!
Cover Your Floor With Unusual Materials
Now let's look at some of the most original flooring ideas I've ever seen. Check out his incredible scrabble tile floor. I mean… it's so cool. I've never seen anything like it!
And these gorgeous green art paper floors by Lazy Cozy are like nothing I've ever seen before. So creative!
I am so impressed with all of these affordable flooring ideas! They are so pretty and don't blow your makeover budget out of the water. Which is your favorite? I am seriously in love with those green-painted floors! Also, the scrabble tile floor is so clever and fun. I hope these ideas have you feeling inspired to update the floors in your own home without spending a fortune :)
More FLOORING IDEAS
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“Looking to upgrade your floors on a budget? ’20 Gorgeous Cheap Flooring Ideas That Are DIY-Friendly’ is your ultimate guide. This informative blog provides a curated list of cost-effective flooring options, perfect for DIY enthusiasts. From peel-and-stick vinyl to pallet wood, it’s a treasure trove of ideas for transforming your space affordably and stylishly.”
What’s amazing is many of these look even nicer than expensive flooring. The bold patterns and stripes get me every time. This post has me day dreaming of home ownership so I can paint the floors!
Right?! Aren’t they amazing, Jill?! So glad you find them as inspiring and beautiful as I do!