Kitchen floor - slate or ceramic tiles?

[swedishmum]

Our kitchen is north facing. Work starts on it tomorrow - we're keeping oak units, will have granite worktops and cream tiles. Choices for floor - slate or a creamy/beige ceramic option.
I'm worried slate will look too dark - anyone have a slate floor in a dark room and how does it look? Thanks - my mind has gone blank!

I would always go darker for a floor...it won't show the bits and dirt and you will be mopping the light tiles constantly. do you have to oil slate tiles at all?

Not sure about having to oil slate, but a friend of mine got it and says it is a bugger to clean due to the uneven surface. The dirt sort of sticks in the layers if you try to sweep it.

I think it looks fab though.

We have a slate floor in the hallway, I second what themoon says about cleaning.

We had ceramic tiles in the kitchen in our last house, horrible. It is hard and so cold you can barely walk barefeet on it, not even in summer (are you getting underfloor heating?), and you can be certain that anything you drop on the floor will break, and you will have glass flying everywhere. Also, dirt and goo will stick to the "filler" in between the tiles, cant remember what it is called. We will have oak flooring in the new house.

Ditto the bugger to clean comment on riven surfaces. Not worth the hassle. Would now recommend to go for a smooth finish every time. I will never do it again.

i love our ceramic tiles in the kitchen. so good that i have just bought some to do the bathroom floor with too

I hate my slate floor.

It is bastard to keep clean

Slate everytime... I have dark grey slate in my kitchen and absolutely love it. It is lovely and warm in the summer and winter (and I am always bare foot), and we don't have underfloor heating. Not too grim on the cleaning front either - yep, the uneven surface is great for capturing crumbs, but it really isn't too bad....

Yep. Slate here too.

Too dark, ie black, and it will show the dirt, imo.

Thanks - having moved the table out I think it really will be too dark in our N facing kitchen, so we've decided on ceramic. Anything's better than the vile brown vinyl that came with the house!

Cream gets dirty in seconds, and the grouting is worse. Have resigned myself to a permanently slatternly kitchen

I've bought some lovely ivory porcelain tiles for the bathroom, was going to use the same ones in the kitchen, does it really get too grimy looking quickly, should I go for the black/ darker ones? I'm not so keen as the kitchen units will be white and I don't want such a sharp contrast. In our house we have marble look ones so you can't see everyday grime easily, meaning coming in from the garden. In the flat there is no garden so it should stay cleaner?