Dee,
Our kitchen tile is staggered. I have a creamy-tan tile with a medium brown grout. I have no problems at all with discolored grout as you would tend to get with white on a floor. In my bathroom and bedroom I also have tile with a dark gray grout and I love them both. I would not do a white grout but even a light tan will hide discoloration if you don't want to go darker. I've had my floors five years and they clean up so easily and still look as good as new. I love my tile! Good luck!

If you put in "tile floors" in the search button at the bottom of the page here you will get several posts on that same subject and lots have pictures. Post titled"show me your tile floors" from 5/13/10 is recent and has pics.

There's a pic of our floor in that post. DH did 12 x 12s but in a straight pattern. There are pics of floors with different sized tiles from same family used to create the stagger look. HTH.

Dee - also search for "Show me your kitchen floor!" thread started on Jun 7. Our floor is posted there and it is a pinwheel pattern. We love tile (I know this is in the minority!) - we replaced a tile floor with this tile.

As far as the grout selection.. Previously we had a very light (whitish) tile with dark grey grout. Using this combination, the eye is drawn to the floor. With the new kitchen, I did not want a strong contrast to have the floor noticed (I wanted the granite and backsplash to take center stage). When you select the tile thesr are grout color samples (plastic)you can place next to the tile to have an idea.

My answer isn't really on point, but I wanted to let you know the following in case you don't already: (1)Our KD told me that larger tile make a small kitchen look larger. (2) I find that tile floors are very hard on my feet and knees. I've had to buy gelfoam mats to keep down at all times, which takes away from the look of the floor. I read that tile floors are hard on the feet here on GW but didn't pay attention. Don't make the same mistake I did!

Tile floors are hard, but my DH, who does all the cooking, and who has bad feet due to diabetes, wears crocs in the kitchen and is totally fine. Crocs are THE most comfortable shoe to wear on hard surfaces.

We have really nice travertine looking porceline tile, set on the diagonal, with a creamy colored grout that goes really well with the tiles.

I love most of my tiled floors, but the kitchen one is giving me trouble. I would love it if they had installed it correctly. It came with our home and it's 37 years old. It's a random slate pattern. But they used paneling glue instead of thinset, so we're restoring it one section at a time and there's 1000sf of it. It's quite a chore, but we'll get it done eventually.

We have 800sf of creek slate in our basement. It's beautiful and practically bulletproof. It's set in straight grid lines. But it was installed with the correct materials on a perfectly level floor. I have tile in my bathrooms and love it there too.

Most tile professionals use thinset to glue the tiles down. He might feel insulted, but I always ask the brand names of the products the installers use and I research them online before they start to make sure it's good quality material.

SEAL THE GROUT. Pay extra, if needed, or do it yourself. It's quite easy to seal. It's worth it to have the sealed grout clean up perfectly with minimal effort. Check your floor and make it perfectly level. I wouldn't put tile in an older home unless it was on concrete slabs. A level floor is necessary for tile. If it's not perfectly level, or could be prone to expanding/contracting/shifting, fix it or go with some other flooring.

As far as offset, it's harder to lie tile in a perfect line. Do what you want and what you like. I'm finding that the contractors push what's easier for them. However, they work for you. If you like offset, or diagonal, do that. It's what you like.

FWIW, hopscotch is my favorite pattern:

One tile salesperson told me to measure my smallest aisle in the room and make sure I had at least 3 full tiles there. That was to help pick the size of tile that I should buy for the room. When you buy your tile, ask them how they would lay it and ask them to suggest grout colors. If you need to buy it from a big box store, still, go to a tile store, find something similar and ask for ideas on grout colors and an install. But if you are able to get your tile form a tile store, I would recommend that. They really know about design, materials and anything related to tile. You won't get that from Home Depot and an installer.

Good luck!

We have tile in our kitchen. We went with the brick pattern.

classicalone, I'm going to try some Crocs. I'd love to get rid of those gel mats. Thanks!