Why are the existing tiles hard to clean? Is it because they are light colored and you can see the dirt on them? Or are they one of those older generic matte ceramic tiles that stain easily?

What other flooring will be next to the wood-look tile?

I would not put wood look tiles, under natural wood cabinets. I like the contrast of what you have now. If you have issues with the grout, you can clean and paint the grout, or remove it and regrout.

LVP...comes in may wood colors...virtually no maintenance ..very comfy to walk on ..not slippery when wet

Thanks all. We are open to suggestions and will consider LVP. The existing tiles are porous. It is not just the grout but the surface itself. It has holes and stuff where dirt can easily sit and since it's uneven, its hard to clean. We are changing the kitchen floor and the stairs going down to the living room and up to the family room.

So we are hoping the floor type we will choose will transition nicely to the bamboo floor upstairs and the porous tiles downstairs (the same tiles are in the living room downstairs but we don't intend to change that since that floor is still nice and clean).

People have been predicting the end of wood-look tiles for quite some time. I doubt the sales of same support their arguments. The only better floor is terrazzo.

I would not put fake wood of any kind against wood cabinets, it will just accentuate the fact that it’s trying to be what it’s not.

If you won’t put down a real wood floor, pick a porcelain tile with more white in the pattern, to pick up the white of your backsplash...and, see about installing it in a staggered pattern, which is more current in style. Or, look into Marmoleum, which lots of folks on here love.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC...nobody is predicting the end of wood look tiles. In the proper location, they’re great...but not abutting wood cabinets. Imitation up against real, does not work.

Do the entire house/level in the wood look or you will limit yourself to stone or carpet in odd places.

Remember: warm comes from colour choice, for the 'look' of the picture. Your kitchen is filled with COLD tones. To get a floor to warm things up, you need something for it to play with. Like a new counter tops...New painted cabs (the pale Gray is super-cool in tone).

Just replacing the floor tiles at the kitchen level and the stairs. We are also changing the countertops and backsplash to solid white slabs with hint of gray. And inserting an island with the same white slab on top and gray cabinets similar in colour with our existing dining table. I thought by making the floors wood-look, it will achieve warmth since I have gray and brown cabinets and dining table. This was what I was thinking about the floors: https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-gray-north-albany-kitchen-contemporary-kitchen-portland-phvw-vp~1765642

darbuka:

Don'tcha hate it when the first post in a thread directly contradicts what you just posted? I'd watch my qualifiers ("nobody") were I you.

@Misyel Poli you will notice the REAL wood runs through the entire level. The *problem is having "wood" in a tile/stone area. The wood in wet areas (and nowhere else) means you CANNOT lay wood (the real stuff) anywhere else in that level. You will be painting yourself into a corner. Tomorrow's design decision HANG on today's oopsa.

That's why you either run the wood-look tile ALL through that level,OR you find another design to work with.

Please notice the MASSIVE amounts of warm lighting in the space in your inspiration photo. The walls are white/light. Your walls (hall and stairs) are cold medium gray. A wood COLOURED tile (like travertine in brown or gold tones) will do the same thing.

Remember: it's the colour that offers warmth, not the photo on the tile.

I would match the oak on the banister. If you don't, you are looking at New colours on the stairs...and then you will feel pressured into "fixing" things that were never an issue.

I think one thing to consider here is that your kitchen has a sort of an”identity crisis”....with mixed wood finishes...mixed cabinet styles( island..cabs....painted gray cabs)...unmatched wood finishes....contemporary furnishings..traditional built-ins ....mixed appliance finishes... very odd jutting fridge placement...cabinets recessed into the walls?...big art deco wall mirror ...more appropriate in a sleek dining room?...dominant arched and square openings...and adding more ceramic tiles in another wood tone wont “warm up” the kitchen it will just add another disconnected element....before flooring i would think on how to make the space match and flow together better....

Thanks everyone. All comments were helpful and made us re-think things. So now we're thinking:

1. floor will be porcelain tile (natural stone is too expensive and high maintenance)
2. quartz countertops with similar tone as the floor
3. I would have loved for the backsplash to be solid slab and similar with countertop but may be too expensive so just looking for tile with similar tone with countertop
4. gray cabinets in the island but top will be the same as the countertop
5. we will use wood in the stairs similar in colour with the banister
6. In the future, ref and dishwasher will be silver and will try to have counterdepth ref
7. arches will be converted to rectangle so straight line.
8. niche to cover the rectangle hole near the stairs. Will just put art work or mixtiles or spices??

Thoughts are welcome and thanks again.

^^^^Much better. Way to go about the 'hard stuff' which is the thinking and planning. I'm so pleased with what you have accomplished. All for the price of some blood-glucose levels (ie. energy). Way to go!

There's a SPC core product different from LVP. An example is Geowood. Waterproof like LVP but instead of a repeating printed image of wood grain it uses actual 1.2mm wood veneer.