Kitchen flooring - advice needed

[Honu]

In my old, small kitchen I had quarry tiles for years and loved them. Our new extension has a mahoosive kitchen (5m x 5m) with an island in the middle and, being a creature of habit, I was happily going to have my 6" flame quarries again. However, several friends have indicated that this might not look so good in a big area, so what to have? Friends with textured tiles say they are hard to clean, white floors seem a bad idea (dogs, cats, kids), don't like beige - I've been staring at kitchen pics in magazines and nothing I really fancy. Units will be cream. Any ideas?
TIA

Have you thought about a seamless finish like this? The price should be comparable to tiles, plus there are no joints for dirt to hide in.

I like the look of that seamless flooring :)

I like that ! Is it like the hospital/hotel 'stuff'?

Thanks Cuddy. Before anybody asks, no, I don't work for any flooring co, I just love the finish. It's cleaner than tiling for a start.

Harbinger, most hospitals use vinyl floors which are jointed at whatever the roll width is. What I linked to is a trowelled on product which only has joints where the underlying substrate has a joint. So if the concrete slab you're overlaying has no joints, neither will the finish. And you can form skirting using the same product. So you basically have a tanked floor.

I'm definitely going to look into that when we eventually sell our house and offer on a new one. Would you have it laid before or after fitting a new kitchen? In other words is it better to have the room completely empty?

I'd get the floor done first. Actually, the skirting is done first, then the floor, then the kitchen. Then you don't have to patch the floor if you change the kitchen.

Hi Honu-I've started numerous threads on kitchens including flooring and have decided to go for engineered oak which would work well with your cream units I think?

OP my kitchen is the same size as yours and I also have cream units and a central island. My floor is stuff like Amtico or Karndean in a light oak finish. It looks superb, is easy to clean and apparently very hard wearing (although it's only been down about 6 months so I can't swear to that personally)

Your friends may be right about the tiles. I saw Kelly Hoppen say on her interiors show that you should always go for the largest tiles possible to get the best effect.