I LOVE picking out flooring. I think flooring can make or break a space, and it can change the character + feel of a house SO much… for better or worse. This felt like the biggest decision we’d have to make in designing our house, and we definitely felt the pressure.

In our last house, we installed click-lock engineered hardwood flooring, and we really liked it. But that house was very much a “just for a few years” house, so we chose something inexpensive that would make the house easy to sell one day.

But we’re planning to be in our current house for at least a little while. So this time, we wanted floors that *we* wanted, not just that a potential buyer might like. We ordered almost 100 flooring samples (I know. And you thought 30+ paint samples was a bit much.) because we knew we wanted the flooring in most of our house to match, so this was a big decision… about a 2000 sqf sized decision. Yikes.

We also knew we wanted click lock engineered hardwood flooring because of how quick and easy it is to install – plain and simple. When you have a whole house of flooring to DIY, this makes a massive difference. 

Enter Stuga Studios. We found them through Chris Loves Julia, and immediately fell in love. Here’s why. (And you should know, this isn’t sponsored. We just have a small love affair with these floors.)

1. The oil finish on their floors. This is the main reason we decided on Stuga. We’re not exactly easy on our stuff. We have a large, energetic dog and we spend a lot of time in our home… and it shows. But with a matte, oil finished floor, the wood ages like leather – scratches are less obvious, and they really just add character to the natural wood. With a more traditionally finished floor, scratches are more noticeable because you see them in the clearcoat. But because our floors have such a raw earthy feel to them, scratches just look like character marks in the wood. (And really – we’re a year in and there are very few scratches to speak off. All of them have almost completely buffed out with a splash of Stuga’s finishing oil.
2. The warranty. First of all, if you’re interested in buying Kahrs floors, know that buying Kahrs products from SOME third party companies voids their *very good* warranty. As of the writing of this blog post, Stuga is not one of those companies. If you buy floors from Stuga, you get the Kahrs warranty, and that was important to us.
3. Refinishability. Is that a word? I’m making it one. If you’re shopping for floors, you know that there aren’t many click lock engineered hardwood products that you can refinish. Most of Stuga’s floors can be refinished at least once – some up to 5 times. 

We went with Cortado, which is actually considered one of their budget floors… but it was by far our favorite. In person, I have to say it’s a *bit* more earthy and a bit darker than we originally hoped it would be, but we really do love it. It’s a true neutral, and looks great in any light. I’d definitely recommend ordering some of Stuga’s larger samples once you narrow down to a few floors you love!