Kitchen floor tiles - limestone vs marble vs slate vs porcelain? Tumbled or honed?!

[amazonianwoman]

I need to order kitchen floor tiles ASAP and can't make a decision with so much choice available.

I've been to Mandarin Stone and they tried to steer me towards tumbled limestone. It's beautiful but most of it seemed too rustic for my 1930s house... As much as I'd love to, we aren't living in a French farmhouse.

The kitchen will be a hand painted shaker, Martin Moore lookalike with a cream range. The run of units on either side of the range will have a honed granite worktop (not quite black, Nero something) and will probably be painted a very pale neutral colour.

The island has a teak worktop - I'm thinking of painting the island a greenish grey sort of colour. Not a definite green though.

I'd planned fairly pale kitchen tiles - not grey but not beige and not totally plain as we have a dog.

I've read a few horror stories about limestone staining (wine, ketchup, dog vomit!) - how hardy is it when it's sealed and how often would I need to reseal? Does anything exist which isn't as tumbled as tumbled but not as clean cut and bathroomy as honed?!

Or is slate more hardwearing? I'm trying to find a lighter slate.

Or should I just go with porcelain? Can anyone recommend any natural looking porcelain tiles?

Thanks in anticipation, I hate choosing tiles!!

Amazonian.

Got your PM. I've emailed you

Yep - Le Creuset will kill anything

I have a range cooker too, but ditched all my Le Creuset last year as I found the weight too much for my poor (old) wrists.

Can't help on the cost I'm afraid, we had them put down about 6 years ago. But they were fine on the sturdiness front- we had them in the hall, boot room/utility and kitchen and they took everything that 2 children, dog, country living etc could throw at them and looked as good as new when we moved out earlier this year.

www.casadolcecasa.com/en/prods-159-1.asp

I had these which are a volcanic rock compound (apparently )

They look more natural than porcelain or ceramic but more 'urban' than tumbled limestone and are not porous.
I had a limestone bathroom floor and it stained easily (it was honed - I think that's the smooth one - , however , not tumbled) . We took it out and replaced it

Others have obviously got on well but I personally wouldn't have limestone in a kitchen (caveat never had the tumbled stuff. )

Crumpet-We have the Marlborough tiles -they are lovely.We replaced slate floors as I found them depressingly dark and they always looked dirty.

Amazon your new kitchen sounds fabulous.

Thanks everyone

I've bought the Dijon brushed limestone from Mandarin Stone.

I'll be back soon asking for advice on cupboard colours . And hopefully not advice on how to get rid of dog vomit stains

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I'm wondering how you're getting on with Dijon limestone amazonian? I have a sample of the tumbled in front of me and I'm very tempted..

I always for for the marble flooring for my kitchen or any other part of my house as marble looks elegant and beautiful.

Only just read this thread and realise that I'm a few months out - but to those that say Le Creuset will smash your porcelain tiles and kill anything - my porcelain tiles withstood the lid being dropped, a mark on the tile that cleaned off and a big crack through the lid of my Le Creuset casserole dish!!!

Old thread but:

My parents have beautiful top of the range limestone. It's spalling (flaking) near the door where water got in. And they have to run to clear up any spills.

my friends have got Stontech tiles. They look fabulous. I was unconvinced by mock stone tiles till I saw these. Wonderful large format too.

I'd choose tiles.

You should really try Natural Stone Tiles Ltd in Oxford they have some beautiful limestone tiles and they look fab in our kitchen. www.nst-oxford.com

We went for these in dragon beige in our kitchen and so far they've been great. Look like stone but are easy care.

Cost and maintenance were a factor for us as we knew the kitchen would be very busy and as it's a working farm they had to be easy to clean. They are also very large tiles, so less grouting!

I've just RTFT, should've done that to start off with instead of posting useless information!!

Could you send me picture please