Another Q about my new kitchen - this time about the floor

[AssemblySquare]

We’ve chosen handleless very light grey (quite bluish) cabinet doors with stunning cornflower blue tiles on the splash back. We just can’t agree/decide on the flooring. Room faces north east and is approx 11’ by 14’

DH thinks white gloss tiles. I think LVT or similar but no idea on colour/pattern. Current floor is dark brown cheap plasticky laminate - we loathe it!!

White gloss tiles might be really very high maintenance. Look lovely in a brochure, but think of them at the end of a long day.

I'm always torn between LVT and tiles. I'd look for some samples of both in a neutral, matt, abstract pattern, something like marble, in a suitable colour way. Some lighter and some darker.

The rest of your colour scheme sounds lovely and not needing too much of a statement from the floor.

Don't go white gloss tiles. We recently put them in a new bathroom and I hate them. They never look good apart from 20 seconds after being cleaned.

I also hate the tile guy who sold us them.

We put wooden floor board effect ceramic tiles in the other bathroom, love them.

We've gone for LVT in the new kitchen - it's not down yet, but it's wood effect.

Friend has real wood - and it looked lovely 10 years ago but is now looking its age, he's never done anything to it though.

You’ve confirmed my fears about white gloss… 3 kids, 3 cats and a dog don’t make sparkling clean floors easy!!! I’ve seen some wood effect ones and was impressed and also wondering whether to spend a bit more and get LVT

Yes high gloss is asking for daily if not twice a day maintenance! How about a chevron or herringbone of a wood effect tile? Make sure the grout lines are as narrow as possible and the darkest colour to help it look more like wood and like not tiles

Tiles are a pain to keep clean and streak free, and also a right pain if you ever drop anything!

Bamboo. Its sustainable, twice as hard as oak and cheaper than wood. Its warm and good for pets. Ours is chestnut stained herringbone parquet.

Nothing pale. I have white/cream tiles in kitchen and bathroom and honestly they always look so dirty.

They're clean for about 5 minutes and then trashed again.

I would go for a good LVT. Is the kitchen separate or open plan?
What other flooring is downstairs?

@HasaDigaEebowai

Bamboo. Its sustainable, twice as hard as oak and cheaper than wood. Its warm and good for pets. Ours is chestnut stained herringbone parquet.

Yes, we ordered a bamboo sample and I was so impressed with it. Really tough.

We went for oak effect tiles. £17/sqm from Tile Mountain and they're fab.

The rest of the house is light beigey grey carpets!! Boring but neutral. The kitchen is a completely separate room.

DH has been talked out of gloss thank goodness! I really like LVT - he doesn’t trust it

@HasaDigaEebowai where can I find bamboo flooring??? Sounds amazing and the sustainability appeals - we are not as ‘green’ as we should be

LVT is great but it’s all about the floor prep which can be time consuming and costly. We had LVT in our old house and I loved it but in this house the underfloor was so uneven that tiles were the better option.

www.bambooflooringcompany.com/

I have this one

I literally kept our bamboo samples in a bucket of water for days. Nothing changed at all.

Are you planning on having underfloor heating? As this may dictate a little what type of flooring you go for. If no underfloor heating Id be tempted to go with wood/engineered wood. It’s a lot warmer underfoot in the winter than unheated tiles....

@HasaDigaEebowai

I literally kept our bamboo samples in a bucket of water for days. Nothing changed at all.

And we tried to destroy ours with keys.

@AssemblySquare

You’ve confirmed my fears about white gloss… 3 kids, 3 cats and a dog don’t make sparkling clean floors easy!!! I’ve seen some wood effect ones and was impressed and also wondering whether to spend a bit more and get LVT

I had white gloss tiles in one of my houses and had no bother at all with them, but I had no kids or pets then. I also had cream carpets that were fine. With kids and especially pets though, I would opt for something more serviceable. We have amtico now and it is really good, I would recommend it.

And we tried to destroy ours with keys. grin

Yes, I dropped a brick on mine and it was fine!

I also left curry pasta, red wine, mustard, lily pollen and tomato purée on mine. Nothing happens. Once laid it looks like expensive hand scraped hardwood.

Plus its fine with under floor heating.

Do take a look, it’s a really good eco choice.

You can also refinish it like you can with hardwood.

That looks beautiful @HasaDigaEebowai. I wonder if the paler colours are as resilient to staining?

Would definately ly recommend Karndean and underfloor heating and then get yourself a robot vacumn it's a total game changer.

Another question about bamboo flooring please - is it suitable for high traffic areas? It says it is really hard wearing then one of the websites says they recommend you take your shoes off before walking on it

Looking into bamboo flooring too.
Is the parquet reasonably easy to lay? Would probably get a floor fitter to do it might need to talk them into it if they haven't got experience of it - as far as I can tell it is as easy as laying laminate ?

We have wood effect porcelain tiles in large plank size - they are bombproof and hide marks well (but easy to clean).

If you have underfloor heating then tiles are definitely a better option than wood or LVT