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Are you having trouble finding the right flooring for your new kitchen?

A lot goes into choosing the right kitchen flooring. You have to properly weigh your lifestyle, taste in design, and budget before settling on a selection. 

At Deslaurier, we have over 40 years of experience in the world of custom cabinets and kitchen design. While we don’t provide flooring or renovation services, our kitchen designers offer years of experience to their clients during the kitchen design process. 

With that, Deslaurier design consultant, Darien Wilson, provides her expertise on how to choose kitchen flooring for your home.

Let’s get started! 

Popular Kitchen Flooring Materials

One thing is for sure, you won’t be short on options when you’re looking for new kitchen flooring. 

Popular kitchen flooring materials include ceramic tile, natural stone, hardwood, vinyl, laminate, and even cork or bamboo! 

From there, every material will have a variety of options ranging in appearance, quality, and price. 

Check out the Deslaurier Learning Centre for an in-depth look at the 5 best materials for kitchen flooring.

Focus on Durability 

The kitchen is the most high-traffic room in the house, prone to spills and stains. It's important to take your household into account and consider what your floors will have to withstand in the coming years. 

If you have several kids or dogs, added durability and scratch resistance will be needed to protect your flooring from that heavy foot traffic. 

Conversely, nonslip floors would be an important feature if you have elderly residents or something like a backyard pool that could track water into the house.

“Many clients' first concern is whether they have a pool or hot tub and walking on the hardwood when they’re wet.” - Darien Wilson

Natural hardwood absorbs moisture, which can result in damage or warping when exposed to water. While you shouldn’t walk on it while wet anyway, tile is far more resistant to water damage.

While hardwood is not a weak material by any means, it doesn’t offer the strength and scratch resistance of tile. If you expect heavy foot traffic in your home, tile will more than suffice. 

Ease of Maintenance 

While tile may be harder and slightly more durable, hardwood is the easier flooring material to maintain.

Hardwood can take a fair amount of “damage” as scuffs and dents can often blend in with the natural variation of the wood grain. In that sense, hardwood flooring doesn’t require much maintenance at all. 

Tile flooring is a completely different beast, with a fair amount of maintenance regarding the grout. 

“Grout is always the first thing that everyone complains about with tile flooring.” - Wilson 

Most homeowners don’t like to deal with grout. Chipping can become commonplace with grout, as can fading or discolouration. 

Tile also typically has a slight texture to its surface, which results in it taking a bit of dust. Of course, that’s nothing a little routine cleaning can’t eradicate. You can also keep your tile flooring in tip-top shape with the occasional mopping or steam-cleaning. 

Sense of Style 

Hardwood is warm and contemporary, while tile is a colder, more modern choice. 

Whatever you prefer, you won't be short on choices when it comes to modern-day flooring. 

“There are so many options to choose from nowadays. You can do a grey hardwood – or a white oak – not just the orangish-tones hardwood flooring used to be” – Wilson

In short, the hardwood you’re ripping out definitely won’t look like the hardwood you’ll be installing afterwards. Both in the appearance and the style: 

“If they have old hardwood, it’s usually a size they don’t like. Homeowners usually want to rip it out and replace it with a more trendy wide plank.” - Wilson

When clients don’t want hardwood, they typically lean towards tile. 

Large tiles are great for smaller kitchens to make the room feel much larger and you can end up only needing 6 or 8 tiles to complete your entire floor! 

“I love using a big tile, as it looks completely seamless. Nowadays you can have tile as large as 48” by 48”  instead of smaller, more dated styles. ” - Wilson 

You'll typically want to try to match the grout when doing a tile floor, as opposed to going with a lighter or darker shade. This lets the grout blend in and create a seamless look, almost like poured concrete.

Consider the Rest of the House

What is the rest of your house like? 

Unless your reno is gutting the entire main floor, you need to have a feel for the rest of the house before deciding on your kitchen flooring.

Especially for kitchen renovations where the rest of the house is remaining the same. The final design needs to stay within the rest of the home and not stand out like a sore thumb.

Having the same continuous floor throughout makes a huge difference when harmonizing your space. Rather than have a hardwood flooring throughout the rest of the main floor broken up by a tile kitchen. Of course, if you make the right selections, tile and hardwood can be paired beautifully together.

That’s where hardwood typically wins out. It’s far more common to see a main floor with the same flooring be done in hardwood as opposed to tile. While hardwood is more popular, tile can also be utilized throughout an entire floor for a more modern look.  

Consider Your Budget 

As is the case with any other feature in the house, your budget plays a large role in narrowing down your kitchen flooring selection. 

On the whole, natural hardwood will be the most expensive flooring material. 

Of course, there are plenty of hardwood options and price ranges to choose from! Not to mention engineered hardwood as a more cost-effective alternative.

If you still want the hardwood aesthetic but not the cost of natural hardwood, go with engineered hardwood. Engineered hardwood doesn’t quite have the decades of longevity that you get with natural wood flooring, but it offers the same appearance at a much more affordable price.

Check out our article on Hardwood Flooring vs. Engineered Hardwood for a side-by-side comparison of the two! 

Tile and stone flooring can be expensive as well. 

But unless you’re going with an extremely high-end selection (something like a polished marble — which wouldn’t be the best choice for a high-traffic kitchen) then hardwood will be more expensive. 

For more budget-friendly options, consider vinyl or laminate. They have the ability to replicate hardwood, tile, and stone for a fraction of the price. 

Design with Deslaurier Custom Cabinets 

If you’re in need of kitchen cabinets to accompany your new flooring, Deslaurier Custom Cabinets has everything you need! 

With over 40 years of experience in our name, we provide our clients with a fully customized design process with our talented team of designers. 

Book a free consultation today with a Deslaurier kitchen expert at our Ottawa showroom!

Interested in becoming an authorized Deslaurier dealer? Visit our Become a Dealer page to learn more! Live outside the area? Find a Dealer to connect with a Deslaurier dealer near you!