Discover Popular Kitchen Flooring Ideas
Before you renovate your kitchen, discover some of the more popular kitchen flooring ideas that are in demand with home owners today. Choosing the right style and type of flooring is very important because if you get it wrong you’ll have to live with the results and you will have ended up wasting money.
A lot of today’s modern flooring options are affordable and if installed properly, will make a great impact on the look of your kitchen.
You’ll want to make sure you choose the right flooring if you plan on still living in your home or plan on putting it up for sale in the future.
In this article we’ll cover 10 types of kitchen flooring, which are:
Hardwood Floors
Hardwood flooring is one of the most popular kitchen flooring choices because it comes in an array of colours which enable it to match the overall aesthetics of your new kitchen.
Hardwood has a soft feel to your feet—much softer than most other flooring types, and if it becomes damaged, it can be more easily repaired.
Hardwood floors are one of the more expensive options for flooring but last long, and really improve the look of your kitchen, or any other room that it is installed in within your home.
Laminate
Laminate flooring is a highly economical alternative to hardwood and comes in a wide variety of styles to choose from. It’s manufacture with several layers of resin and fibre-board, and home owners usually choose a style that looks quite similar to ceramic tiles or hardwood.
A positive side to laminate flooring is that it is extremely durable and is much cheaper to install than most other flooring options. If you’re looking for an affordable option explore the positives of laminate flooring and make sure to talk first with an interior designer to get some design tips.
Bamboo
Bamboo flooring is quite similar to cork flooring and is a highly sought out kitchen flooring option because it’s considered an environmentally friendly option.
Bamboo flooring has the look and feel of hardwood floors but is much easier to damage or stain. Some types of bamboo flooring can be stained and when there is more severe damage (e.g. cracks and major stains) it can be sanded back to its original state.
Stone
Stone flooring is also becoming quite popular, especially with home owners that are willing to spend the extra money to make their kitchen look more charming. Stone is not as elegant looking as hardwood floors but they definitely fit in perfectly into a kitchen renovation quite appropriately.
Stone is one of the more expensive flooring options and come in various styles including slate, limestone and marble. It provides for a natural look and is one of the more durable options. Stone flooring is considered a very suitable flooring option for kitchen use and has substantially increased in popularity over the past decade.
Vinyl
Vinyl is a reasonably priced synthetic flooring material and similar to the cheaper laminate flooring, Vinyl flooring is waterproof, maintains its appearance, economical, easy to install and extremely durable. It can imitate almost any flooring type and depending on where you look, you’ll have hundreds—if not thousands of style options to choose from including hardwood, ceramic cork, ceramic, and stone.
If at some point in the future you decide to install new—more expensive flooring, you’ll find laminate flooring is easy to remove and doesn’t take a lot to clear out the area.
Linoleum
Linoleum flooring is a much more traditional type of flooring and has lost a lot of popularity over the years. Although many home owners tend to stray away from linoleum, if they do explore their options they do find they have as many option styles as you will with vinyl flooring. It’s just as easy to install, there are hundreds of styles to choose from and it’s just as durable.
The bottom line is that linoleum can make a new kitchen look pretty and stylish and at a much cheaper cost then the more expensive options. Linoleum is manufactured using natural materials and is environmentally friendly. It feels comfortable on the feet and rarely gets damaged.
Ceramic
One of the best selling points for ceramic tile flooring is that they not only come in thousands of styles, but they can be easily cut to fit any space. Although they’re durable to most damage, one downside is that if they do get damaged, it’s a pain to fix them. That’s why tile installers usually leave behind a set of tiles for the home owner to store away in case there’s damage and for the contractor to use to replace the broken ones.
These days ceramic tiles are slightly old fashioned, and were very popular in the late 80s and early 90s, but people still chose them, and there’s still a strong market for them. They’re great for kitchens, but if you’re prone to spills you’ll have to regularly clean them and the grout. If you’re prone to dropping things, you may want to consider another flooring option.
Cork
Cork flooring is an extremely environmentally friendly material that has become a very popular kitchen flooring choice over the past decade. Like bamboo flooring, cork flooring need to similarly be sanded and finished to give it the desired look and feel. Cork is not one of the most common kitchen flooring choices but if it’s installed right by a professional, it can look really nice and attractive.
It feels gentle on the feet and is more durable than other flooring options like terra cotta and ceramic flooring. Cork flooring comes in tiles or slabs but can be fitted into various styles like checkerboards, side-by-side, cross-cross and even into diamond shapes. This is because it’s easy to cut and shape cork tiles into any shape you want them.
Concrete
Not everyone considered concrete to be an ideal flooring option for kitchens, but it’s not as uncommon as you would suspect it to be. Concrete flooring is extremely low-maintenance and highly durable but installing it into a kitchen can be quite a challenge. If you’re interested in concrete flooring, you will have to invest in hiring contractors that are experts at working with concrete and you have to find out if your house can take the load.
If you don’t have a basement or underground crawl-space, you don’t need to worry about the weight of the concrete or whether or not you home can support the extra weight. Concrete flooring isn’t one of the most popular flooring choices because it doesn’t have the same aesthetic appeal as other options like hardwood, bamboo and even stone flooring.
Terracotta
Terracotta is not too common for flooring because not many people are aware that it can be used that way. Terracotta is made from a claylike and high density material that resembles ceramic and come in various colours including dark red and charcoal grey.
Terracotta flooring tiles are not exactly the same as the Terracotta one would find on the roof of their home because a varnish is applied to the flooring so that it can withstand moisture and become more durable.
Terracotta is touted to be a long lasting flooring option and once installed provide a lot of joy to homeowners who appreciate the charm they bring.
The Take Home
If you’re looking for a reason to renovate your kitchen, read our recent article titled Top 10 Compelling Reasons To Renovate Your Kitchen which will help you make the decision to give your kitchen an upgrade!