From the subject I was imagining a hardwood grid filled with terracotta tiles that I saw somewhere and I got very excited at the prospect of someone doing that in new construction... but that's besides the point. Usually the flooring line would line up with your cabinetry I would think. If you have a layout you could post I'm sure others could easily offer boundary suggestions.

sorry, here is the floor layout

Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen in open concept

Here's one I did a while back. I'll be doing another one starting the end of next week. If this thread's still alive at that time, I'll post pics of it.

That is one of the reasons we decided to do hardwoods throughout. Can you put some sort of header or arch to define the kitchen?

My SIL has a wood floor in her den and a tiled floor in the kitchen. To transition between the two she has a diamond pattern of wood planks running between the tiles (each wood diamond filled with about four tiles). The look is very pretty.

It doesn't matter at all if you make a big deal of the transition. Rather than just the thin strip of wood like in Bill's picture, if you do a contrast strip that's made of both tile and wood, either the same/simlar design on both sides of the transition, or even a single strip of mixed tile and wood, you can make the transition really anywhere at all.

There isn't a natural line in your layout. On the left it looks like it would make sense to tile the foyer as well and have it stop at the end of the stairs. On the right, it would make sense at the end of the fridge run, but then it's past the bottom of the island, which might not be a look you like.

If you just do the L from the foyer wall to the fridge run wall, the kitchen will look siphoned off somehow. Like it was either supposed to be wood, or like the walls are missing.

So decide on the look you want, and work from there.

What Pllog said.

Also consider the bar seating footprint. Awkward if the transition runs under the stools, they need to be on one surface or the other.

plllog-- it's actually not a thin strip of wood. It's a full board used as a border, because you can't end on the "bitter ends" of the boards up against another material.

Bill, I'm sorry I used the wrong words. What I meant was rather than using a single board for the border, a wider border, perhaps with a pattern, possibly repeated on both sides, will make the transition look purposeful wherever it is. In the room you just did it I can see in my mind's eye exactly how things will (or should) lay out, following the shapes of the room(s) being put in.

In Crazyone's plan, where all the logical start and end points don't really make sense as a whole, the tile could be something like the arc of a basketball court (three point line maybe?), though a lot shorter, encompassing the foyer, and ending past the stair wall. Any other shape I can think of is going to need a more decorative transition.

I agree-- the arc would look good, but boy, I'd hate to be the hardwood guy!! LOL

let me ask you-- why couldn't the tile come straight off the outside wall by the fridge, come out under the overhang of the island, flush to the outside edge, and then again from the perpendicular outside edge of the island back to the end of the cabinets by the foyer? Looks to me like perfectly natural deliniation.