Our kitchen floor is being redone and possibly the cabinets. We had the same hardwood floor in the dining room as in the kitchen, the rooms are connected by a doorway. Well the kitchen floor got damaged and the construction workers cannot find the same floor. What color should we go with? Would it look too bizarre with different colors? If we get the cabinets replaced we're going for a darker stain, way dark and possibly a new countertop, if we go granite or that one that's a step below granite we'll get a splotchy brown to white one. Should we ask for a white tile?

What would look good in the kitchen and have a high resale value? I want dark cabinets but dont care about anything else. Hardware will be silver if I can get my way.

12/18/2007 6:58:10 PM

useless without pics

12/18/2007 7:04:59 PM

leave the wood in the dining room and go with ceramic in the kitchen. Starting with the cabinets you want, find countertop and floor tile that will match well with the cabinets

12/18/2007 7:13:46 PM

When we built our house, we started with our cabinets. I really had to have these beautiful light maple cabinets and to set off the cabinets, I went with a black slate floor, black granite counter tops, and black appliances. What you can really pull off is going to depend on the size of your kitchen an the amount of natural light in your kitchen.

I, personally, feel like your floor and your counter top should function together as a unit. Definitely, go with some sort of tile floor.

[Edited on December 18, 2007 at 7:26 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2007 7:24:41 PM

my house currently has dark wood in all the common areas and a more natural color in the bedrooms. it's not terrible since the rooms are broken up by doorways/doors, but it's not the best look either. you might be able to get away with it depending on what the transition is like from the kitchen to the dining room.

ideally, i would go with a ceramic tile instead like has been suggested. i personally don't think any kind of wood flooring belongs in a kitchen, but a lot of people do it.

[Edited on December 19, 2007 at 12:48 AM. Reason : .]

12/19/2007 12:48:11 AM

I'm not sure how many people on TWW are certified interior designers....

^^ that doesn't sound too bad to me... but whatever you do, I would not go with different stains on the floors, no matter what's dividing them. Just be consistent or as suggested, go with a diff material for the kitchen. (PS - I also, am not licensed int. designer ;-) But my parents and I just got done updating a home orig. built in the '60s and dealt with similar issues.) IIRC, ECU does have an int. des. program... try http://www.partyeastcarolina.com? (Although, I make NO disclaimer on the quality of suggestions you'll get there )

[Edited on December 20, 2007 at 12:03 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on December 20, 2007 at 12:04 AM. Reason : link]

12/19/2007 11:59:17 PM

My wife and I had ceramic tile installed in the kitchen when we bought our house. The plus was, we used the extra to do the small foyer and hearth for the fireplace (there wasn't one there before).

I just don't think wood is the right choice for a kitchen. Too prone to spills, etc.

12/20/2007 5:23:54 AM

Not an Interior Design comment but from an Engineer's standpoint: Make sure you have the correct floor joint spacing to handle ceramic tile. If not, the tile is subject to cracking over time.

12/20/2007 10:10:13 AM

or you could do TILE

i know a little something about it.

tile is durable and fairly cheap, especially if you know how to do it urself.

You can get awesome tile for 1-2 dollars a foot

don't buy the cheap shit at lowes/depot. Go to a tile distributor and ask to see what orders are dead in their warehouse. Take some dollar bucks and they will usually let the shit go for 1/2 cost.

[Edited on December 20, 2007 at 1:10 PM. Reason : ]

12/20/2007 1:07:33 PM

Lots of weird info going on in this thread.

First, why can't they find the same floor? 95% of the hardwoods in this area are either red or white oak in a few standard widths. If anything I'm guessing you have some prefinished flooring and they are having trouble finding one in a matching stain or a matching bevel? Really need more info here. I can suggest a good hardwood guy if you want to get a quote on matching site finished stuff.

Under no circumstances would I go with different colors. If they truly can't match it then they can replace the dining room too. If you want to switch to tile it might not be a bad idea, but be aware of price differences. I've done ceramic and porcelain tiles. The materials are pretty damn cheap by comparison to hardwoods. A nice slate or travertine can be much more expensive. I'm just warning you not to get burned by letting them replace a $6 sq/ft flooring with a $1.25 sq/ft flooring. I'm sure beergolftile can advise you on your options.

Quote :

"Not an Interior Design comment but from an Engineer's standpoint: Make sure you have the correct floor joint spacing to handle ceramic tile. If not, the tile is subject to cracking over time."

That's what concrete backerboard is used for. It's pretty much standard on most tile jobs. You just have to be aware of height changes and transitions (subfloor + backerboard + tile = ???)

Wood is fine for a kitchen. Site finished hardwoods should be completely sealed and pre-finished hardwoods are almost impervious to spills as long as you clean them up quickly. If you have a major water problem such as a busted pipe that isn't shut off quickly you're probably going to be calling the insurance company regardless of your flooring choice. It's not like you can fix a water-damaged subfloor without ripping out all that pretty tile anyway.

[Edited on December 20, 2007 at 1:25 PM. Reason : s]

12/20/2007 1:22:14 PM

Quote :

"First, why can't they find the same floor?"

because there are thousands of combinations of brands, stains, grains, grades, shades, etc
A workmate of mine bought a 3 year old townhouse this summer and the floor was damaged during the move. I heard him on the phone for several weeks just trying to find out what kind of floors he had so he could match it perfectly. He talked to the HOA, the builders, the contractors, flooring stores, tons of people, but nobody could definitively point him to a product to do the replacement with. That showed me that when I do wood floors in my house next month, I'm going to hold on to all the paperwork and product details in case I need any repair, and to leave that info r for the next owner.

12/20/2007 1:31:17 PM

^ That is the pre-finished dilemma. I'd suggest that if you are doing a prefinished floor you should just go ahead and pick up an extra box of the flooring and stick it in the attic. I think a box has ~20 square feet, so you're talking about ~$80 for the piece of mind to be able to do repairs in the future. I have no idea how you repair a tongue and groove floor without noticeable seams though. I'm guessing the pieces just sit in there loose.

But I still wouldn't just take their word for it that they can't find a suitable replacement. Most tongue and groove stuff is probably compatible from a physical perspective and if it's not it would just take some massaging on the first row's groove to find a way to make it fit. The trouble is just finding a matching stain and bevel. Worst comes to worst, take a piece to lumber liquidators, home depot, or a reputable flooring company and see if they have something that is a 98% match.

But this is all still assuming it is a pre-finished floor. If it's site finished just match the wood and have them refinish the whole floor.

12/20/2007 1:44:16 PM

I'm not big on ceramic tile in the kitchen. Don't know why. Makes me happy that in all the houses we build we put hardwood in the kitchen as well (and apparently most all of our buyers like it as well)

12/20/2007 4:27:37 PM

^

Hardwood Pros: Warmer, cheaper, easier to install, easy to extend to other rooms

Hardwood Cons: Easily damaged by water, easy to scratch, not very durable, subject to bowing due to temp changes,etc, uniform color throughout, can warp as house settles

Tile Pros: Durable, relatively cheap, lots of variety, can coordinate with backsplash and/or granite tops, can be installed over any subfloor, can do both a field and accent tile, can use borders, etc

Tile Cons: Cold on feet, mortar set, requires wet saw for proper installation, grout joints

Stone tile Pros: Durable, classic look (easily the best-looking floor available), great selling point, can use accents and borders, minimizes grout joint width

Stone tile Cons: Can stain if not properly sealed (especially marble), usually expensive, can chip or crack if not installed properly

hope this helps



[Edited on December 20, 2007 at 4:41 PM. Reason : ]

12/20/2007 4:40:40 PM

Quote :

"not very durable, subject to bowing due to temp changes,etc, uniform color throughout"

Depends on what kind of wood you use. As was mentioned earlier, most people have red oak in their house. We use Brazillian Cherry in ours. Roughly 2.5 times the strength of oak, shrinks/bows less than 1/2 as much as oak does, and has a variety of colors in its natural grain. Very pretty to look at. A pain in the ass to putty anything though. You just about need a different color putty for every board.

12/20/2007 11:59:57 PM

^ For the most part Brazilian Cherry is just a trade name. It is actually wood from the Jatobá tree which is in no way related to the Black Cherry tree used for cherry hardwoods. They just name it "Brazilian Cherry" so that people will think they are buying real cherry hardwood.

It is usually a very nice looking floor though. I really like it.

12/21/2007 12:40:44 AM

True, it doesn't come from the Black Cherry tree, which is why its different. It just happens to kinda be in the "shade" of Cherry (at least depending on the board) hence the name. Just make sure you don't get that laminate crap that calls itself Brazillian Cherry. It doesn't look anything like the real stuff.

12/21/2007 1:42:06 PM

Our insurance said they'll redo the dining room too so it all matches without cost to us. So SWEET. I'M THINKING light shade on countertop and floor with darker cabinets and silver hardware

12/21/2007 10:41:00 PM

http://www.daltileproducts.com/home.cfm?s=1

When we were building our house, I played around with some of the tools on this site to see how different combinations may look. It's not great, but it does give you a bit of an idea.

12/21/2007 10:48:22 PM