Sorry for the redundant picture

I love wood look tile, and I love the idea of grey floors for the kitchen, but would it look strange to have a grey wood looking floor next to a laminate or even hardwood floor in the living areas? Even if I found a similar grey....the grain would be different. Would a grey tile (not wood looking) work?

The reason I thought of wood look tile is that it doesn't have grout. I didn't see that you would be putting it next to hardwood.

Marmoleum is probably the most bullet-proof flooring material out there.

Gotta say I've never heard of whatever that is. Marmoleum? I can't even fathom what that might be. Going to google it right now.

CHristina,
Go buy some gray granite look vinyl tiles for your kitchen.
It will look very good matching your counters, not expensive, and if you get a decnt quality, will hold up just fine even with 6 kids.
You can certainly have a different color kitchen floor and then another wood or wood look floor for your other rooms.
It will look fine.
I have heard that STRIATED Bamboo is absolutely awesome as far as wear and tear. That is what I am seriously thinking about installing in my home.
Just something to think about, and it comes in any color or finish you want.
It has to be striated, and Lumber Liquidators sells it.
I hope I was allowed to put that in. LOL
Good Luck!
I have a small home too, your kitchen is pretty.

I do not think it looks that bad. I will do a more thorough look after my client leaves.

I have the following suggestions:

*Area rugs to match the stain that you will do on your island that will pick up a color on the perimeter granite counters (what granite is this... do you have a close-up... sure looks pretty with the cabinets).
*Vinyl or Porcelain Tile going over the other tiles in a gray color or whatever color you will have on the island that will pick up a color on the perimeter. Large tiles in a running bond pattern with skinny grout using a stain resistant grout and a chemical resistant sealer. This is what I did and so far pee wipes right up when my puppy made a mistake on the floor.
*Wood-look tiles that you plan to use in the other room that picks up a color in the perimeter counter that you plan to pick up on the island also.
*I do not think it looks that bad since the floor is so neutral but I gave suggestions on how to make it look better.

'Marmoleum is awesome. Going on two years now. It is the best floor that we have ever had. No grout, soft underfoot so easy on the knees and back, things don't always break if they crash on the floor. And it's pretty.

Butterfly4u: I'll take a peek at that striated bamboo.

Lynn2006: I didn't think it looked that bad either. It definitely wasnt what I wanted to hear right after installing something as expensive as granite, that's for sure. What is a running bond pattern? The granite I have is Bianco antico. Mine does have some pink in it but it looks very taupe in some lights so I'm not overly bothered. I'll post a closer pic. Sorry this picture doesn't have the backsplash in it yet.

Another close up of the granite. Lots of varying shades of grey, which is why I'm hoping to bring the butcherblock to a more ashy brown.

ChristinaPlus6. I love your counters! I asked a neighbor who was helping me pick out counters that I could like so I can see slabs. I showed her a picture of your kitchen I printed and she thought it was beautiful! She told me that many people have wood floors and they don't match the counters. She felt your tile was neutral and fine.

I feel once you repaint the walls and darken the island countertop, the floors may go better and be just a neutral.

If you do not like the floors anyway and want to install a new tile with a neutral grout, then the brick pattern with a skinny grout line that is installed with a stain resistant grout and a sealer would look nice. The brick pattern is the running bond pattern.

You can also install tile that matches your island's darker color that you are going to go with.

I love the brick pattern. I'd definitely want a much larger tile if I go with something new. And likely a vinyl tile as well. Maybe I could manage an interlocking tile that doesn't require grout? I'm just super clumsy and that tile would be broken and chipped in no time. The vinyl serves me well and most people really can't tell it's not real tile.

The area rug idea is good. I had been contemplating that for a while. I can't imagine what a cotton or wool rug would look like after even one dinner.....what an indoor/outdoor rug look too cheap?
It really needs to be super washable and stain resistant. I already have to steam clean my other area rugs at least once a week as it is and I don't think I could handle adding another one to that.

We put bamboo throughout our kitchen/dining/living room as well as the hall and master bedroom. Love it!

HOWEVER, if I had a bunch of little kids, I would seriously consider Marmoleum, which is a name for linoleum. The new stuff looks great and will hold up to whatever the darlings and their pets throw at it. How tough is it? I realized a while ago that the floor of my favorite local grocery store is Marmoleum squares.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marmoleum discussion.

Maybe install over your vinyl tiles stick on tiles or these kind of vinyl tiles with a fake grout line that come in 16 X 16 & 18 X 18 and install them in a brick pattern in the dark color that is in your counters and use that color to stain your island also. Or you could just leave your tile and see how much better the kitchen looks once the counter has been stained darker. Your kitchen is very pretty even if you do nothing more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Maybe a vinyl tile with a fake grout line around it

Maybe these large size Marmoleum tiles that you can install in a brick pattern in the same color and try to match a color in the tile you would like. But I like having the fake grout lines to look like real tile.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marmoleum large size that you can do in a brick pattern

Uuuummmmmm, are those large marmoleum tiles actually $304 each? I think that may be a tad out of budget.....

I like grout lines as well.

All of this flooring stuff will be happening in about 8 months or so. So, I'll have a chance to stain my butcherblock and paint the walls neutral during that time and maybe I'll like it just the way it is and ignore my mother! I just like to give myself plenty of time to research.

Thanks for all the great suggestions and compliments!

Christinaplus6, I agree since that was one of my suggestions to paint your walls, stain your counters and you will see that your floor is a nice neutral just like some of the lighter and medium colored wood floors and it will look nice. If you decide to make any changes you have some good ideas now. I just feel the paint color and the counter color is throwing everything off.

Cork, comes in lots of colors, it's nice to walk on, is warm and very durable. I've had it in the kitchen for about 18 months, love it. Wish I would have done some more, like the bathrooms, however heated floors trumped that. The only problem I've had is when a friend brought over his 120 lbs Rottweiler and it got into a little scuffle w/my small dog in front of the fridge. Made a little gouge in the floor, touched it up w/a marker and can't really tell it's there. I liked the textured look, hides dirt really well, it cleans up good too.

just an fyi on tile; we are in the same flooring dilemma you are in and my cabinet installer warned me that if i was going to do tile or hardwood, it really needs to go under the cabinets. he said if you retro tile especially, the dishwasher may not have room to be pulled out as the tile is thicker than vinyl or a floating floor.
we chose not to got tile as it is cold and hard. we have it in 2 bathrooms and while i love it in the bathrooms, i don't want it in a kitchen. i have knee issues and we have frequent spills/pool drips that would be very slippery on tile.
hardwood was nixed for your reason, kids, dogs equal scratched hardwood like in my dining room.
good luck and will be following to see what you do
ps i have 14 year old wilsonart laminate fake oak and i am in no hurry to change it out as it is still in very good shape and has held up well to life. no water damage at all. it doesn't go perfectly with the new cabs but i may just say "oh well" and move on:)

We have wood in our kitchen with white cabinets and cork in our family room. We went with cork because we needed something durable and we has a slab, Tile was too cold and fake wood would not look good against real wood. We do love the cork, it takes a lot of wear and still looks great after 4 years. I do recommend staying away from Chinese cork, go with something like WE Cork. On the other hand we have red oak floors in our kitchen that are almost 20 years old. We have lived here for 9 years and have lived thru dw floods, cats, dogs, parties and the floors still look great. I went with the natural oak and did not stain. I like to think of my floors as the color of dirt and they hide everything,

Ok, I painted the walls last night. It is so much better! The lavender walls were really making my granite look lavender and it just wasn't good. I still need to do the butcherblock but I'm waiting for the tung oil to come in. The wall colour, in my opinion, really helps to being things together more. The walls compliment the floors AND the counters (I painted it benjamin moores natural cream). I think once I make the island counter more brown and less orange/yellow, the floor will recede even more. I'll post a picture once I've cleaned up, lol.

Not too much of the wall showing here but the granite isn't reading purple anymore, thank goodness (at least not to me). I still need to get that butcherblock and the stools a different colour (technically I wanted different stools but I already had them on hand). I think the honey colour is bringing out any orange/yellow undertones the floor may have in it.

I'll be doing stuff with that blank wall sometime.

I would still prefer wood but with kids.....maybe what I have isn't too bad and I can live with it till they're older or gone? Or some other interlocking vinyl tile if it is bad or I can't handle the grout anymore?

Another angle

So, is cork waterproof?

Christinaplus, I love the way your kitchen looks now with the walls painted so neutral! The floor to me actually now looks like a neutral and is nice. Even with the island's counter the way it is now, I think it looks great!

What paint brand, sheen and color did you use as it looks wonderful!

Waterproof? It keeps the wine in the bottle pretty well :)

Cork is absolutely waterproof, the problem is when it's adhered to something that's not, as in laminated cork tiles. The middle is generally some sort of pressboard which will expand if soaked. However solid cork tiles will not absorb water, it may get between the tiles which why sealing is recommended. We glued solid cork to the sub-floor, the dogs water dish sits on it, it's always wet around it, no problem.

This post was edited by Mistman on Sun, Sep 7, 14 at 18:22

Lynn2006: thank you! I really feel better about it. My husband doesn't mind me changing it so ebay but since we on,y laid it 18 months ago....he'd rather I waited a bit longer to undo all our hard work.
The colour I used is Benjamin Moores natural cream. I had it mixed in benjamin moores ultra spec 500 in eggshell. Just the cheapest one they had. I'd already spent enough on paint! But it went on nicely and is a nice velvety creamy finish. I love it. I'll have to update when I've refinished the wood surfaces.

Mistman: I had to laugh at myself. Duh, Christina. I'll have to look into it!

Mistman: I had to laugh at myself. Duh, Christina. I'll have to look into it!

I agree that when you have darkened the butcherblock and chairs, the floor will recede a bit and look better with the counter. The counter really looks great with your table BTW!

Cork floor in my friends living room with the rug pulled back. Maybe 7 years old.

Some wood will do that also, depends on how intense the sun is. Not sure what type of cork that is but I would be disappointed. Mine is much darker, the kitchen gets very little direct sunlight. I'll try and take a pic of mine this eve if I remember....