6'X12' flooring? Le Crete

13 years ago

Hi,

My contractor will be starting my kitchen in a week and I have to make final decisions...and so the second guessing begins! The kitchen is at the beach and we want a casual, comfortable, low maintenance look. We are painting the cabinets a cream color (not sure what BM color yet), a light millennium cream granite, farm sink (kohler or shaw), and a porcelain floor.

For the flooring, we were thinking of using Le Crete tabacco tiles (a warm brown). My husband loves the 6X12" tile and would like to do the whole floor in a "V" shape. I'm thinking it might be too busy looking. Plus there will be more grout (thinking about the sand issue and although everyone should shower first, I'm a realist). Any thoughts? I haven't seen too many pictures of just a 6X12" tiled floor so I am having a hard time visualizing this. One tile place said that larger tiles make a room seem bigger. Yes? It is a long, big kitchen (about 15 feet by 22 feet).

Any pictures or advice? Has anyone used this tile? There's such an expense in the installation that I don't mind paying more for the tile if there is something better or nicer. I like travertine but don't want to have to seal it every year. Wood was ruled out because of water. So porcelain seemed logical. Thanks so much!

Here is a link that might be useful: Le Crete

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Comments (8)

xc60
13 years ago
6x12" is getting more popular, we are using this size tile in several of our rooms. The layout we are using and what I see usually is a brick like pattern or staggered.
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txpepper
13 years ago
Hmmmm. I just installed 12x36" rectified, porcelain, travertine-look tile in my kitchen/breakfast area. ~ Those tiles are really heavy suckers.

I did it in a straight-on pattern with 1/16 spacing which I think created a slightly more contemporary look.

I thought I had a pic of the finished floor but I only have one showing it being installed. Right now it is covered up with a rubber protection mat but I'll see if I can uncover it and take a pic of it tomorrow if you are interested.

Pepper
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xc60
13 years ago
Oops, I meant we did 12x24" but I think the rectangle look is popular in any size or layout :)
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teachjr
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi Pepper - if it isn't too much trouble, I would love to see your floor - sounds lovely. If you have the maker too that would be helpful.
THANKS!
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txpepper
13 years ago
Good Morning!

Here are some pics of my kitchen floor, 12x36 porcelain tiles with 1/16 grout lines....that hasn't been cleaned up yet as my kitchen is still a work in delayed progress. LOL

To give you a sense of proportion, my kitchen is approximately 9'x20' galley style which includes a breakfast area that opens onto a teeny, tiny balcony. [We moved to sliding glass door to shift the space to the inside.] You are seeing mainly the breakfast area and the refrig alcove.

I shot the pics with two different camera White Balance settings...Auto and Daylight. You can see how important light influences color...as both of them are fairly accurate depending on if I have the sliding glass door open (it's tinted with solar film) or the overhead lights on.

I tried looking up the name/mfg of the tile but I didn't have a lot of success. My invoice shows the name to be Travertino-Natural. I remember reading the boxes and thinking the tile was made in Italy but when I did my initial online research, I came with being made in Spain. And now, I can't even find those links and my GC threw away the remaining boxes as we didn't want the red ink from the boxes possibly staining the tile where we have the left-overs stored (outside).

If you are interested in them and can't find something locally, I live in Texas (obviously) and I can give you the name and phone number of the place I purchased them.
You can email me via my profile page.

Please let me know if I can be of further help.

Pepper

White Balance Setting: Daylight

White Balance Setting: Auto
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teachjr
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi Pepper,

Just beautiful! The pictures are very helpful. I've seen this type of flooring in the stores so I am pretty sure that I can find it here, in Philadelphia. Your floor has great tonality and I really the length - it seems to compliment a long kitchen (much like what I am doing). I wish that the stores were open today so that I could go searching. Thank you for the inspiration and ENJOY!
I'll e-mail you if I don't have any luck!
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txpepper
13 years ago
Teach,

My GC is a very natural stone kind of guy and was very skeptical if he would like it or not. *Not like it really mattered, but I do value his opinion.*

After it was installed, he very grudgingly admitted that it was fantastic looking and that he would put it in his own home.

One thing that sets this particular material apart - and I looked at lots and lots - it really does look natural. I've had a few people view it and they thought it was natural travertine. They couldn't believe it when I told them it was porcelain. At the time I purchased it, it was brand new to the market. I think my supplier had just gotten it in like two weeks prior. I did my install back at the end of December.

Side story: I had purchased natural travertine 12x24 and had it on site. Three days before the install, I decided to re-check the tile to make sure the color was fairly even. Good thing I did as it was TOTALLY wrong. It was much more gold/brown rather than the grayish taupe sample that I had based my purchase on. After a few frantic phone calls to the tile supplier, and a mad dash to the store...this porcelain tile was the result. In retrospect, I'm glad I found this porcelain. My hubby is much happier with the material, I have less worry with maintenance and I really like the larger format look.

I wish I had a pic of the box, but as well as I remember, the logo and much of the graphics was in a dark-ish red color and the boxing material was regular corrugated box brown color.

Good luck in your shopping.

Pepper

Better closeup, not accurate color, taken at the store:
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teachjr
Original Author
13 years ago
Pepper,
I/m glad that you are such a good shopper. I'm going tomorrow. I love the look of travertine but really do not want to do the maintenance. I had a similar incident when we did our kitchen at home. We purchased boxes of tile and rented a truck from HD. My husband unloaded it and carted it into the house. When I looked at it, I thought that the color was wrong. He reloaded the truck, returned the tiles and we went to a marble and granite store and bought a really nice porcelain. I'm so glad that we checked and then took the extra effort. Oh, and he's still speaking to me!

Good for you for following your instincts and going against the GC. A brave but scary thing to do! I'm so glad that it worked out for you. Love the shape of your tiles and look forward to seeing your kitchen when it is completed.

Thanks again!
teach
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6'X12' flooring? Le Crete

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6'X12' flooring? Le Crete

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xc60

txpepper

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