Flooring in kitchen- advice please!

[SnaggleFlap]

DP and I have just moved into what we hope will be our proper 'family home', and are about to start the process of gutting the place and doing it up, and this includes knocking through the current kitchen into the dining room to make a spacious kitchen/diner.

As we have so much work to do on the house, we are trying to cut some costs where possible, and I am wondering if we can get some cheaper kitchen flooring i.e. lino, without it looking naff?

Has anyone here used lino in their kitchen that looks like wood? Or maybe lino that looks very much like tiles? Or is it best to just invest in tiles from the word go? If we did use lino, then it needs to be hard-wearing and hopefully last us a few years until we could afford to do proper tiling. Any shop/website recommendations?

TIA!

When we had our extension built, we decided to go with lino for our extended kitchen/dining room.

We have one that looks like slate tiles in different sizes and it doesn't look naff and was about half the price of tiles!

Was going to do a link but can't remember what make it is...had it laid when I was 8 months pregnant! Can't give any recommendations for shops though sorry as we used a local floorer who was recommended by our builder.

HTH

I'd like to hear some recommendations for really good-looking vinyl flooring. Want something dropped items will just bounce off as I'm sick of shattered crockery, but am worried that it will look - as you say - naff.

I don't think u mean lino as that is quite expensive. Comes in great patterns and colours. Very hardwearing.

marking place...I had a look for vinyl flooring "for now" in Carpet Right, and it was gopping

then I drifted in to looking at marmoleum, which is lovely, (I think) 'proper' lino, but it's more expensive than tiles

Thanks for your replies! So is lino just as expensive as tiles then? What's the difference between lino and vinyl? Does lino look ok/good and vinyl grim?

Angelpuss - liking the sound of your lino, might be something i'd be interested in

Really didn't think lino would be more expensive than proper tiles

I had an Amtico 'slate' floor put in the kitchen where I used to live (sort of high quality Lino) It wasn't cheap and it always looked 'faux' to me, though it was hard wearing. I never really liked it. I would always go for real stone or tiles in a kitchen now and look to economise elsewhere. I suppose we spend a lot of time in our kitchen - it's also an entertaining space and toddler play-date zone, so a good kitchen floor is high on my priority list. It does all depend on your budget though I guess.

We had marmoleum in our utility room and I wouldn't have it again - found it difficult to really get clean. Am replacing it with Gerflor tiles like this.

I think that's what i'm worried about Rhubarbgarden with lino/vinyl, even if it looks more expensive that the norm, but it might have to do as temp measure. However, our space will be used a lot for kiddies and entertaining, and I can envisage spending a lot of time there, so it might be worth the investment of 'proper' tiles. Although hardwearing lino sounds practical too...

Anyone know anywhere we could get cheap/discounted tiles from? I'm guessing somewhere like 'Tops Tiles' would be quite expensive?

As you can tell, I really don't have a clue about buying materials/fixtures for our new place, I just don't know what would be deemed expensive, and what would be deemed cheap- becoming a massive headache and struggling to find the time to source things!

I would just go for tiles.I've bought loads of tiles from Wickes when they have had tile offers on.Also you can sometimes get discount codes for internet shopping.I got nearly 50% off at one point.We bought about 70 metres of travertine and lemon marble and also faux stone tiles for aour bathroom.I have been really happy with the quality for the money.Lino always looks cheap to be honest.

We have a Wickes down the road so think i'll have a mosey round there as a starting point.

teta - where do you get discount codes from for this sort of shopping? Can you recommend any good websites please?

I get reductions e mailed to me regularly by Wickes [register for e mails].Also Voucher Codes often have discount codes.I actually got the best deal from mumsnet-from this diy section [or try the discount codes spot].I used to wait until there was at least a 30 % discount and then buy a massive amount[sometimes several months before it was needed].If you buy too much you can return it to the local store.

Thanks!

Not a fan of tiles due to breakage potential for dropped items and general coldness/hardness when there are crawling toddlers around. Also the grounting getting manky with time issue....
I considered Amtico but it was too expensive.
We have high quality tile laminate like this sort of thing in our kitchen. We got heavy duty underlay and was laid by my DH who is a meticulous carpenter so we don't get squeaking, creaking, creeping or other issues you get with cheap or badly laid laminate. Has been down for 7 years and and still looks good - hardly any scratches and cleans up well.
HTH.

We've got Amtico Linear (with underfloor heating) throughout our kitchen/dining/living space. It's easy to keep clean although we have broken a few glasses. Maybe because it's a concrete floor underneath.

There are some great Amtico bargains on Ebay. Stuff that's left over from shopfitting jobs. My DH got small abounts of 3 different designs for him Mum's hall, cloaks & bathroom. It was all about half price.

Didn't work out so well for us as we needed a massive area.