Porcelain tiles for our modern country home

What is your ideal kitchen floor? Hardwood, bamboo, linoleum, marble, stone, ceramic/porcelain tiles, cork….? The list is almost endless and we considered all types of flooring before settling on porcelain tiles.   We weighed the advantages and disadvantages of them all, agonizing over each floor type for months. We considered their cost, maintenance, environment/health impact, look and feel. 

In the end we settled on porcelain tiles. Tiles are great. They are 0-VOC, require no maintenance or  no toxic sealers, are great for wet areas, easy to clean, very affordable and you can get them in almost any colour/style you want.  The only disadvantage that I feel they have is that they are cold to the touch. We did consider electric floor heating, but we are trying to reduce our energy usage and not increase it, so we abandoned the idea quickly. As I like walking around barefoot I might have to ask for some slippers from Santa :) Hope Misha is reading this.

Once decided on porcelain tiles, the search began. We searched for the old fashioned, stone looking tiles, but they all seemed too fake for us. We wanted the low-maintenance of porcelain tile and the look of slate tile in a modern country home. Do they exist? We weren't sure. After bringing home and trying out 5 different sample tiles from big box stores, we almost gave up on finding a tile that actually looks like real stone.

Then we came across the ONE at Classic Ceramic Tile and Marble Inc. When we walked in, we noticed the large slate/stone looking tiles with a sign underneath that said NEW ARRIVALS. It was love at first sight! We immediately knew this was it. They looked just like stone tiles. I must admit we weren’t that happy with the price, as we found them a bit expensive but given that the tiles will cover half of our living space, we splurged. No regrets!

Mia

Choosing our tiles