Our bedrooms are meant to be peaceful havens where we come to rest after a long and tiring day. We want them to be quiet, comforting and somewhere that makes relaxation easy. Sometimes though, how we furnish the room can play a huge part in just how calming or tranquil it is. The acoustics of a room can really transform how you feel within a room. A loud booming echo, for example, isn’t going to make you feel particularly calm and thin walls and floors can carry noise a lot further than you may wish. Furthermore, if minimalism is your chosen aesthetic, you have to take into consideration that the fewer items of furniture there are, the more space there is for noise to travel.
In this blog, we look at how bedroom flooring types can help or hinder your attempts at making your room a more peaceful and quiet space to enjoy. Some flooring types absorb sound well allowing you to be as noisy or quiet as you like without it becoming too invasive. Others don’t soak up the sound too well and carry noise through to other rooms or make the bedroom a slightly more uncomfortable place to be.
If you get the right balance of acoustics in your bedroom, you can enjoy a better night’s sleep, have a more ambient room and, when it comes to selling the home, have a potentially additional sales feature to shout about!
Understanding bedroom acoustics
Sound travels and reverberates through the bedroom due to the way it interacts with surfaces and objects within it. The sound waves generated by speech, movement, doors opening and closing, radios, TVs and more travel through the air and as they meet with other surfaces are reflected, absorbed or transmitted. This could mean sound bounces through and around the room or have its intensity reduced. It could also, in some cases pass through items and be carried further until it meets a surface that absorbs it.
Sounds are reflected when they meet hard surfaces such as a hardwood floor, this sees them bounce around the room and cause an echo and increased levels of noise.
Softer materials absorb sound and reduce their intensity. This stops them from bouncing around and reduces or removes any echo. Upholstered furniture, for example, will soak up sound and help reduce overall noise levels in a room.
Where materials are too thin, sound is transmitted further than may have been intended. The sound waves will pass through thin walls, doors and windows and see the sound from your bedroom being heard in other rooms.
Reverberation is where noise is where a sound continues to be hard even after the source of the sound has stopped creating one. Rooms that allow sound to reverberate will be uncomfortable to relax in due to the extended presence of sound. Large rooms, for example, may see increased levels of reverberation due to the sound being able to travel further before it reflects or is absorbed. As a result, managing reverberation through furniture placement, flooring choices and your doors and windows is essential if you want to create a quieter, more calming bedroom.
How do different flooring types affect your bedroom acoustics?
If you are considering a new flooring option in your bedroom, you’ll want to know not only the pros and cons of its durability, its cost, and its general maintenance but you’ll probably also want to know if it helps create the ambience you are after.
Let’s look at the common flooring types chosen for the bedroom and how they fare with handling sound.
Carpet
Carpet has excellent absorption properties and is really popular with those keen to keep the noise levels reduced. From footsteps to moving furniture, the carpet helps reduce the amount of noise that can reach other rooms.
Sound-wise, it’s a great choice, it just has the possibility of getting stained, requires more frequent cleaning and can be difficult to install.
Hardwood
Hardwood is liked by many people due to its authentic, vintage qualities. Ideal if you are looking for a farmhouse style or something a little classical. It just doesn’t handle sound well. Hardwood flooring reflects more sound than most floor types leading to echoes and noise in the room.
You can look to add rugs or an underlay to help reduce the amount of sound moving from room to room.
Laminate
Laminate flooring is another popular choice for many thanks to the array of options you can find in styles, patterns and colours. Unfortunately, it is very similar to hardwood in how it reflects sound.
Like with hardwood, you could add an underlay to help absorb some of the sound if need be.
Vinyl
Vinyl, or LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) is perhaps the next best option after carpet. It offers a decent level of sound absorption and can be enhanced with the addition of rugs or by installing insulation boards underneath.
Despite it being less sound absorbent than carpet, its easy-to-clean nature, its simple installation and its incredible durability make it a good choice if you feel carpet is not the vibe you are looking for in the bedroom.
Tile
Tile isn’t seen in a huge number of bedrooms, but it is a popular option. It could be said it adds a touch of class to a bedroom but at what cost? Tile is extremely reflective, so it creates a significant echo. You’d need rugs and other sound-absorbing materials in the room to cover up the large amount of echo the room may endure.
How can you enhance the acoustic comfort in your bedroom?
Regardless of flooring type, there are always more ways to reduce the amount of sound being carried around a room. Rugs, as we mentioned earlier, are a great choice but you should look at where they are placed. By the side of the bed can be handy, especially in a kid’s room where jumping out of bed may be a preference rather than gently stepping out. When shopping for rugs, look to see what they are made of so you get a better idea of the potential sound reduction you could benefit from.
You could then look at underlay options. Some flooring types could really benefit from having this added. Even carpet can have its capabilities enhanced with the addition of an underlay.
You can also look at the introduction of acoustic panels and curtains. Both soak up the sound to help your room become a little more calming.
Ultimately, you want to enjoy your bedroom, whether that be as a tranquil place of relaxation or a hive of frenetic activity, but sound levels can harm that enjoyment. Looking for the best flooring options that suit your needs will ensure you have a bedroom you feel happy and comfortable in.
