What Flooring Is Best For This Kitchen?

I received a question from a reader recently asking about what flooring she should put in her kitchen, dining area, laundry and powder room.

She wanted to bring some gray into this space, but didn’t know what kind of gray flooring to select. Wood floors were existing and she did not want to go with wood again.

There were cherry cabinets, an olive green countertop and a creamy backsplash tile that had a bit of gold tint in the banding. While she could paint the walls, she didn’t want to do any more to the space to renovate it.

Kitchen and dining area with cherry cabinets and warm wood furnishings. What new flooring should be selected for this space?

Olive green countertops will stay in the kitchen with a creamy stone tile backsplash.

This is the very tightest set of parameters you can possibly give yourself to come up with a solution for your design dilemma……when everything is a given and you only are changing one or two things and want a whole new look.

However, this tends to be real life, doesn’t it? Not many of us have the luxury of throwing everything out and starting over.

Do you think she could have some gray in there with only changing the floors and wall color? Do you think that would make the space feel updated and well designed?

Nope. It wouldn’t.

Because there just aren’t enough places that gray would be used to build it successfully into the color scheme.

The cabinets and furniture have a pretty strong orange wood tone. You can use gray with that successfully, as I’ve mentioned in these two posts below.

However, having the olive green counters (another color statement) and then the creamy warm toned backsplash would confuse the issue too much to go with a gray / orange toned wood combination.

So, what did I recommend?

A melange look with a porcelain brick look tile floor

Porcelain brick look tile from Arizona Tile would make a great tile floor for this kitchen. I love the idea of doing a herringbone pattern in this multi colorway that marries terracotta, beige, gray and brown. This colorway is called Castle Brick Multi.

Can’t you just see it?

A brick look tile laid in a herringbone pattern, with the brown, terracotta, gray, beige multi-combination would relate very well to the style of the kitchen and eating area. It would be super durable and stylish (who doesn’t love a herringbone brick floor) AND bring a little gray in successfully too!

Add in a slightly creamier wall paint color that echoes the color of the backsplash and you have a space that is tied together and designed with intention.

This one really made me happy. It was like guiding that slipper onto Cinderella’s foot. It fit just right. :-)

For the next homeowner of this house who might want to paint the kitchen cabinets or update the counters, that brick look tile floor would still work. It would look great with white cabinets, white walls and a soapstone countertop, right?

So, we’re not just buying a new floor to go with the existing materials, we’re getting a product that would have flexibility in design on down the road.

Want to see more of my Q&A consultations done via email? I have a few linked below.