Carpet Vs. Laminate Flooring in basement?

As the weekend gets closer my to-do list gets longer. I am so excited to be home and get some things done around the house!

Our basement windows were finally finished yesterday. They had to come back and add the casings "aka molding" and now they look finished and beautiful. I am hoping to explore our flooring options in the next couple of months. Carpet vs. Laminate flooring? I go back and forth.

Carpet would be less expensive, easier to install, and make the basement warmer in the winter months--when I put on literally 10 layers of clothing to watch TV. Plus when we have little bambinos they can crawl around. But I would worry people would trek in a lot of dirt coming in through the laundry room from outside. Right now it's nice that you literally can't ruin anything downstairs.

 

Laminate flooring would be more expensive, harder to install, and wouldn't help with heat, you definitely would still have to walk around in socks...or in my case Uggs at all times. But it would look gorgeous and I wouldn't be as worried about trekking in dirt. Plus we have a huge area rug (remember the beautiful anchor link rug from Potterybarn I found on eBay!) and it would be great for resale.

What do you think???

Oh and here are two random images I am drooling over that I thought I'd share...they are from House & Home and are of the Caledon, Ont. home of designer Ingrid Oomen and her husband Asad Wali.

These cabinets are from Ikea! Watch the online episode here.

All images from House & Home