Thanks Patricia. My concern with putting hardwood in the kitchen is water damage to the hardwood.

We had a hardwood kitchen floor. Water won't be a problem unless you experience a burst pipe. You might be able to find a tile that looks like the hardwood you have. A pretty tile that has grey and white in it would look good too.

They have been putting hardwood floors in kitchens for 25-30 years now. I used to prefer tile kitchen floors, but 2+ years ago we moved into a house with wood floors in the kitchen. The way they finish them, water isn't an issue unless your dishwasher hose breaks and gallons of water empty onto the floor. I have a rug in front of the sink to capture any drops of water, and if I see any drops elsewhere I wipe them up, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I am planning on remodeling my kitchen in 2025. Two years ago I was thinking I would put in tile, but now I think I will stick with wood. It is advantageous to be able to refinish wood. If you don't like tile it's an ordeal to replace it. And you can refinish wood in your kitchen without removing your cabinets.

If you plan on replacing your cabinets at some point, I suggest you don't change your floor until then. What you have now is pretty inoffensive. If you put another layer of flooing on top of the tile you will have an issue with the threshold with the wood floors, and you are in danger of trapping your dishwasher (and possibly also your frig) such that it can't be removed without taking off the counter. The previous owners of our house did that, and it also happened to a friend of mine.

I agree with the above. I'd wait until you change your cabs as we usually instal the flooring partially under the cabs as it helps with leveling, especially under islands. If you're worried about excessive water damage, I find mot of that comes from a leaking or burst supply to a DW, or ice maker. Get auto shutoff/alarm such as a Flood Stop. Real inexpensive insurance ( used to make a lot of money replacing floors that had burst pipes, nw we install Flood Stops as SOP for all our kitchens, and upstairs laundries.

Its an insurance claim so floor has to go in first.

I am totally against wood floors in the kitchen. Look at Mannington Adura LVT. We did a floating floor (no grout) in a white/grey/beige pattern (very subtle) that blends in perfectly to the red oak floors elsewhere on the first floor. We have stainless appliances and cabinets are maple with chestnut stain. Washes with just warm water, doesn't need waxing.

FYI, wood floors don't need waxing in this day and age. Our 1920's house has original oak flooring throughout that was refinished 20 years ago with an oil based finish and still looks great despite dogs walking/running all over them for two decades. Believe me, I have never waxed the floors. Our kitchen has VG Douglas Fir, which was probably originally the subfloor. The previous homeowner (bless him) stripped off the old linoleum and SORT OF refinished them. The species is too soft and has not held up well as a primary floor. When I redo my kitchen, I am looking to put coordinating oak flooring in the kitchen. I will not worry for one second about water damage.

@User thank you for your feedback. Would you mind sharing which floor you choose? i would love to see what it looks like.

My concern with putting hardwood in the kitchen is water damage to the hardwood.

Do you dump pans of water on the floor and leave it for days? Then don't worry about wood in the kitchen! They've been doing wood in kitchen for 100 years.

if you have that much water flooding to ruin hardwood, it's going to also ruin LVP or tile.

My husband is a contractor who does insurance claims. who told you the floor has to go in first? are they going under the cabinets? Were you cabinets ruined too or are you just getting new ones?

Regardless, you can still pick out your cabinet colors FIRST. If not, you're going to have to pick cabinet colors that go w/whatever you choose for flooring. That's a bit harder to do.

Do not get gray anything for your flooring. Do a neutral wood tone, maybe a white oak, french oak, or something in that selection.

I put french oak engineered wood in my kitchen. I've spilled quite a bit. cleans up beautifully. The glue they use now is also a waterproof type. the top of the wood planks is sealed.

Calif Classics-Mediterranean . they have about 14 colors.

Monarch floors. Tableau latour

If you want a tile, try a porcelain that looks like a limestone. This is a warmer beige tone.

gray cabinets can be a cool gray or a warm gray. any ideas?

HU - I'm pretty sure we used Mannington Adura LVT 18X18 tiles in "Athena" in Maiden Veil's color. Unfortunately, we threw out the box that had some extra tiles in it so I can't confirm the name but that looks like it on the website. We did not use grout, the tiles are floating/interlocking.

Glad cathi brought up interlocking lvt - I'm curious if it's worth the extra feature of the waterproofing they offer.

Not posting another discussion because I think you're not getting enough here, but there seems good info. Also the before and after with medium neutral tile. Maybe as pro's said, tile could be good 'seen against' your wood floor.... is that correct?

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3313854/1980-s-kitchen-update-help-needed-choosing-new-floor

HU - I lied! Sorry about that!!! The tile is Mannington Adura LVT "Manhattan" in the "White Iron" color. The Athena seems pretty similar in pictures. You can Google the Manhattan pattern and there are multiple pictures of it installed with and without grout.

Everdebz, I am not a grout fan so the interlocking was a great option. I remember watching them just click them all together, it was pretty wild! I don't think they offered the waterproofing back in 2016 when we installed it, but I will say that just mopping with a damp microfiber mop works great and we haven't had any issues with other types of water spills.

Good, but I'm messy and watery, going from sink to stove across the room, etc. I don't like grout either, but think easy floating not for me. Thanks.

Keep your current floor but lighten the grout color, and replace the heavy furniture in your dining area. Also, move the desk out of this area. This is your least expensive fix for this room.

Thank you all for your comments. Could i ask for your opinion on these floor samples. i am trying to find flooring to match future white cupboards and to blend with my hardwood in livingroom. i added two pics of each. You can see my hardwood in a couple of the pics but i couldnt get it to show in the others. The white floor is my original floor. Thanks for your help.

Do NOT put wood-look next to real wood. this would be huge mistake.

So, NO to all of those sample pics.

Either match the wood you already have,

redo everything in the new LVP

Or, do some sort of tile (that doesn't look like wood planks) in that part of the kitchen.

for example, I think a charcoal large hex tile would look great w/your existing wood floor, and your soon to be white cabs?

you could even transition the two by 'blending' them together

or, how about a white, gray or black herringbone layout?

The other thing you can do until you can unify all of the flooring, is to paint your white tiles, and add a stencil design

paint it white or black, and try something like these with the stencil over a base color. (lots of tutorials on this)

before

you could do a simple design or whatever you like.

you could also go for a deep steam cleaning and paint over your grout to lighten it. Grout Renew.

I'm also going to say, never choose an LVP tile that is busy like the one you posted. Once it's laid out, not only does it look fake, but it looks extremely chaotic.

you want a calm floor that blends, not one that stands out.

I mean, is this the look you want??? No? then stay away from any type of samples like you have

when it comes time to do the entire room w/one flooring, pick one that is actual wood, or at least a nicer option that looks like a real wood

@Beth H. : Thank you so much for all of your feedback. It is really helpful. After reading your comments and seeing the photos, I agree calm floor is definitely more my style. I really love the charcoal grey hexagon floor picture that you posted and I also like the herringbone look as well. What size do you recommend for the large hexagon tile? Do you recommend ceramic, porcelain or LVT for this style? As I mentioned, I would like to have white cupboards and I plan to add some gray and wood in some cupboards for contrast. Do you think grey is the best colour for floor? You mentioned for the herringbone, white, gray or black. I won't do white as I already have white floors and want a colour to blend with white cupboards. Are you an interior decorator and do you provide these services? Thanks for your help!

I just know my way around tile!

for floors, a larger hex would be best. 10" to 14" would be a good size.

Porcelain is best.

I think this is a 10" or so. Dal-Tile Gray hex w/driftwood color grout. It's more of a matte tile.

This is a 9" x 10" porcelain hex. Annata.

Tilebar has these under Paige hex tiles. 10x10. But, Home Depot and Wayfair carry a lot of their tiles under the IvyHill line. over there it's Langston. they have these in a nice light gray color too. grab samples.

Basalt (natural stone) comes in many finishes and colors from light gray to black. also comes in every shape and size. if you like this, pick anything larger than 18"

if you like a herringbone (it will cost more to get this layout done), you could do a slate tile or a porcelain tile that looks like slate. this is about a 4x16 size.

head over to Tilebar (5 samples for $5) and over to Bedrosians. take a look. get samples.

This is tilebar Cavatina Corda, 24x24 size, minimal grout lines. I really like this. it's a warmer gray

Tilebar also has these, which I really like. they come in many colors w/diff 'wood' accents, and diff ways to lay them.

They're under the Pergola line. (and IvyHill over at HD also carries these)

Tilebar. Marbella-griege, 24x24".

I could post 100 diff options.

you're going to have to come up w/a plan of what you want, what you can spend.

start getting ideas, pictures.

decide what you want the kitchen to look like.

pick your flooring. then pick colors for cabinets/countertop/wall color

@Beth H. : You're amazing!! Thank you so much for all of these great ideas. I greatly appreciate your time. I'm going to look into each of them and see about getting some samples.