As we think about flooring for our new apartment, we have been looking at price, delivery schedules, and longevity. It is such a pain to sand floors - you have to find a place to put everything you own while you empty the space.  It's almost easier to move than deal with fixing floors!

We were all set to choose an engineered wood floor - nice mix of cool and warm grays, attractive grain, dreamy to install.  Then a friend mentioned her niece....who lived with her for a few months in their Manhattan apartment.  This energetic young lady left for her internship every day dressed for Manhattan, which meant Carrie Bradshaw shoes with stilleto heels.

In Manhattan, stiletto heels inevitably mean little metal nails sticking out.  The sidewalks eat the rubber tips on the stilettos, and then the metal nail ends sticks out on their own, ready to leave deep, long grooves on the floor.

There are three solutions to the naked stiletto heel problem:  ask people to remove their shoes when they enter an apartment, bar all women with great legs and the shoes to show them off from entering the apartment, or install flooring that either won't scratch or looks good scratched.

Flooring that doesn't scratch means concrete, tiles, marble.  Flooring that looks good scratch means distressed woods that arrive already dinged up.  Either solution can handle a wounded stiletto with aplomb.

Distressed flooring, here we come.  To paraphrase the TV commercial says, our floors will not be getting older, they will be getting better...Stilettos, bring it on.