If there are no heated floors and you have cold winters, I'd skip the tile. I have heated floors in the whole house except for a small area where the pantry is. We also have tile. The difference in temperature is HUGE in winter.

Other than that I love our tile. It's easy to clean (I always drop bits and pieces on the floor, drips from the diswasher or sink etc). It's not slippery at all and it looks great (it imitates travertine). If you want a warmer look, you could always go with tile that imitates wood.

I had wooden floor in a rental some time ago and I hated them, mostly because I always had to be careful and wipe every drop immediately.

Do porcelain wood plank tiles. You mentioned no heating mat, but may want to reconsider. My wood floors around my house take a beating, could not imagine them in my kitchen. Just seems we are always spilling or dropping something. Plus a dog does not help. I am in the middle of a kitchen redo and used these 4"x24" tiles:

I think the wood look tile are very pretty. However if you are constantly standing in your kitchen I find tile very very hard on my back, legs and feet. I put wood in my kitchen, and I love how it feels under foot. Warm and comfortable even in winter with no slippers. If I am coking and dripping a lot than I put a little towel on the floor to wipe up drips, but I don't go nuts about it. I have two big dogs and one drips her water all over after she drinks (ugh!) and that hasn't been an issue either. From what I have read getting the floors finished on site is more durable than prefinished. I did prefinished because my DH did not want to stay away from the house for a few days while the floor dried.

I prefer wood. I've had both and the wood is much easier to stand on for long periods of time in the kitchen. The tiles are very hard on your back and cold on your feet.

Also anything heavy or sharp that is dropped on the tile will most likely put at least a noticeable ding in it if not crack it. The wood might get scratches on it, but they aren't nearly as noticeable as they are in tiles.

It is true that water could be a problem with the wood, but only if there is a lot of water and it isn't cleaned up right away.

We got rid of tile in the kitchen in favor of site-finished hardwood floors. They are so much better! Those tiles were cold, hard on our feet and tough to keep clean (the grout). The hardwood floors are so much physically warmer, easier on our feet and more warm in appearance as well. They have been in use for 2 years without any damage from water or other things. I don't regret the change for a minute.

I've had wood floors in my kitchen for more than 25 years. They are still in pretty good shape (better than the rest of the house). There are a few dings where somebody dropped a can or other heavy object, but I'm pretty sure that a tile would have chipped more easily.

I've only ever had wood - but have stayed in vacation homes with tile. I find the tile very hard to stand on, not to mention cold. Wood has a little "give" if you will.

As for your wood getting scratched - it completely depends on the stain you use. Dark stain = lots of upkeep. Everything shows.

I hate tile floors in the kitchen. Cold on bare feet; hard to stand on for any length of time; and the dips where the grout is collect all the dirt, crumbs and dust.

We have done cork in two previous homes and loved it. This house, which was built in 1925, came with orginal hardwood. The hardwood is in good shape and we gladly kept it.

I would definiteky choose wood over tile.

I've had hardwood in my kitchen for 9 years, including during a kitchen remodel. It still looks great. I haven't had any major leaks, but plenty of spills that get wiped up with no damage. There are a few dings here and there but they're hard to see. It's a beautiful floor to behold and stand on.

Flip a coin.

I've had wood floors in kitchen for 8 years and the only damage they suffered was from my high heels! I have kids and we didn't baby our floors, clean messes up immediately or do anything special to take care of them and they still look brand new!

I've lived with both and will take wood every time. Easier on the feet, warmer, and more forgiving when you drop stuff. No grout to collect nasty stuff.

I have always had wood, and don't have any issues with unusual damage or water stains or anything (no more than the rest of our house). But the real reason i prefer wood is that the rest of my house is hardwood and i highly highly dislike the look of switching over floor styles. It looks horrible and choppy in an open floor plan or even moderately open plan.

GF went around and around on this and ended up with cork flooring. It is very nice, very durable and much softer under foot than tile.

I just put in tile on herringbone pattern- I do not think it's hard on your feet, maybe when I'm older though, we'll see.

I debated over this as well but in the end I just pictured this: You drop an egg/raw meat/juice/water/soup (I know I spill a lot : D) it gets into the wood plank crevices and soaks into the wood, you can only clean up so much, the rest just sits there fermenting….

For every person defending wood, you'll find other who hates it. I've been to houses whose wood floors def looked used and worn out, but the people are used to it and don't mind.

For me it was a no brainer, function over form.

I love the wood floors in our kitchen. No damage issues at all. I put tile in the little mud room off the kitchen only and have no regrets. Tile is just cold and hard feeling to me. If you have hardwood in the rest of the house I also like the consistent flooring to tie the rooms together.

I prefer hardwood too!

I just like hardwood more than tile - warmer feel and warmer look. In our old house - bamboo, in our current house, site-finished oak. We haven't had an issue with damage (although we did have a leak - more like a flood - from our dishwasher when a napkin got caught in a drainpipe I think, and I suppose if we hadn't been there to mop it up, it would have affected the floors; still, I'll take that chance).

I've been researching and going back and forth on this for 2 years now. After having the porcelain wood plank installed in our upstairs bathroom, the choice became clear. It's gorgeous! It solves every problem that we were worried about with wood, and has a nice clean solid look.

Here are some pictures. We are getting a quote today to install this in our entire downstairs. The only change I am considering making is to go with a darker (maybe even black) grout for our downstairs.

In our kitchen, we went with neither but luxury plank vinyl and we love it. So easy to care for, easy to stand on and good looking.

My apartment in NY from 2009 which I lived in until last year had wood floors in the kitchen. No problem! My kitchen now in NY has wood floors. No problem. My condo in FL has had wood floors we put in 6 years ago. We spend more than 1/2 a year here and no problems. Our new build we'll be putting in wood floors.

Tile is fine except it's very hard on your back and knees and it's cold. Plus grout eventually gets dirty. No contest in my book. All my wood floors looked great.

how about a wood laminate floor? we installed this in our kitchen and it has held up well for over 4 years. we debated about wood, but had a 50lb dog at the time and a cat and i just could not abide scratches on a new floor. in other people's home i have seen high heel marks (dings/dents) on their hardwoods. also, depending on finish, they could be a bear to clean and not looked streaked from cleaning. i would love to have them, maybe when we are empty nesters and not so hard on our floors....

we did a wood look porcelain tile in our FR and love it. its from mediterranea, boardwalk series, in venice beach and it came out fab.!!!

Function over form means no tile to me. I do the same volunteer duties at two different locations. One has vinyl floor and the other has tile floor. At the end of the day standing on the tile, my feet, ankles, knees and hips ache. I never get that feeling on the vinyl. Tile may be functional in ease of maintenance but it's not functional for day-to-day usage, imho. At least past a certain age of the user.

My sister built an expensive home and put in quality sheet vinyl flooring. I KNOW! But I had been to her home about a dozen times before she told me it was vinyl and I thought it was real wood. She said that everybody thinks it's wood. Just something else to consider.

I have good ole linoleum in my home. It was installed in 1949, covered with vinyl in 1971, and we removed the vinyl last year. So it has been in use for 22 + 1 year for 23 total and looks brand new. It is warm, comfortable to walk on, and is in a sheet so you only have a few seams. I would choose linoleum in a heartbeat if I had to start over. (ETA: I have an 85# dog. No problems.)

Just a couple other products to consider.

I love wood floors in the kitchen. Would not do tile. I even put wood in my laundry and powder rooms because I prefer over tile. I do have tile in mudroom. Wood is such a great classic look and feels better. Just don't let tons of water stand on it and you should be fine.

If I had my druthers, I'd have hardwood. However, our house is on a slab and it would be necessary to put in a plywood sub-floor. We did that in the dining room, living room and foyer and love it, but to do it throughout the house would be more than we were willing to allocate. Also, our KD didn't think the transition between hardwood and tile that looks like wood or even engineered hardwood would look good (too many wood/woulds in that sentence). Therefore, we have tile. And tile that I'm pretty happy with, I will say.

Installed and site finished Oak floor in our kitchen in 1986. Raised two boys and a dog, and by no means am I a tidy cook. Re-finished once about 10 years ago, and the finish is now just starting to show a little wear at my prep area, which I can easily spot refinish.

We have tile in our bathrooms and it is fine, but no way am I standing and working a cold hard floor for hours a day.

Wood floors. We just put them in our new kitchen, and we are totally happy with them.

I have had wood floors in our house for 30 years. I am not the neatest of cooks, we have had 40 to 60 pound dogs and they have been refinished twice. Love them and wouldn't consider tile for all of the reasons listed by previous posters

Another wood fan here! I do love the look of Spanish tile, but don't like the coldness/hardness of it. I figured I've lived in places with 100 year old wood floors in the kitchen - yes they were not perfect, but I still liked them better than most other options even once they had dings and watermarks. And you can always refinish them.

I was an isurance claims adjuster....replaced LOTS of damaged wood floors. Ice makers lines behind the frig can leak. My brothers Bosch dishwasher blew steam on the wood floor and ruined a 6'x6' piece of his kitchen floor. I never put wood in bathrooms or kitchens, I have 4 homes....all of them have granite kitchen counters tho. :0)

Planning our kitchen reno now and it's tile again for us. Wouldn't have it any other way, but this time we're going with much better grout.

Tile doesn't necessarily survive a flood either. The substrate can be ruined and necessitate complete replacement.

If flooding is a big concern, I would consider avoiding a refrigerator with water or an ice maker. And I believe there are auto shut off systems for flooding dishwashers.

Wow thanks everyone lots of great feedback! In my original post I forgot to mention that we have white oak hard wood floors already in the adjoining rooms to our kitchen. This is part of the reason I have been leaning more toward choosing wood {much to my Hubby's dismay}. I do very much also like the wood look tile {those photos of that bathroom were beautiful!} very much {we might use that in our bathroom reno someday} but if wood look tile is placed next to our real wood floor it wouldn't match with it & might look odd. Those 100 year old floors look fantastic & are the same as what we have throughout the level of the house which our kitchen is on except for the kitchen of course. I think everyone helped me make my decision! I was glad to hear so much positive feedback about wood floors, Looks like wood it most likely it will be!! --Thank you all!

Season Contreras, what brand are your wood look tiles, they look great.

Thank you! They are the Style Selections black walnut glazed porcelain tile from Lowes. 6x24. The bathroom was our trial run to see what we though of the tile vs. the hardwood we were considering. They stay mysteriously clean (bathroom is a Jack and Jill for our two tweens) and since I'm a sock/slipper girl I don't notice them being cold or hard at all.

Since 1990, I've lived in 4 homes with site-finished wood in the kitchen. Was never a problem and much warmer as well as easier on the feet. In my new kitchen addition at my 1939 house, I went with site-finished wood again.

In a perfect world, I'd go with wood. It looks great and feels warm underfoot, is more forgiving to the knees and hips, is less likely to break a dropped dish, and ties into the adjoining rooms in such a way that everything looks seamless.

In a perfect world, I'd go with tile. It just says "kitchen", is available in so many lovely renditions, cleans up more easily than any other kitchen flooring, and is almost impossible to destroy.

However, since we don't live in a perfect world, I'm thinking of plain old-fashioned sheet laminate. My kitchen is small enough that no seams will be necessary, and nothing is cheaper. It's warmer and more forgiving on the joints than tile. It's easier to clean and more durable than wood. I deem it the best compromise of all options.

Mrspete, have you considered linoleum? It's much better than vinyl from an environmental point of view.

I'd like to see these "no problem wood floors" Anyone have close up pics of their floors near the sink/range? The houses I've been in all look terrible- scratches and dings everywhere....To me that looks sloppy, but then again I'm OCD about that.

Monika- I think wood floors are like any other floor. You have to take care of the floor. I have throw rugs in front of the water dispenser to catch drips and in front of my sink for the same reason. I had rugs in those same places even when I hated the floor.

My dad cleans and seals his grout every year and his tile floor and grout look brand new after 25 years. If he wasn't as meticulous, his grout would be dirty and the floor would look terrible.

Wood floors need to be sanded and refinished every 10-20 years. It may be the floors you are mentioning are being abused and/or have never been refinished.

Monika2024, this is right in front of my sink. (Sorry for the dog, he insisted on being in the picture and I didn't feel putting him in his crate just to show my floor.)

I also have a throw rug between the sink and the island. Mine look like crl's -- I'll take a picture later.

haha I love the dog smiling! perfect shot! - CRL- when did you install them?

I'm in the same situation...don't know if will be wood floor or porcelain wood hard to decide.

monika2024, that part of the floor is original to the house--1925. It was refinished as part of the kitchen remodel about six months ago because we added the laundry room to the kitchen and had new hardwood installed in that section.