mud?

lol, our mud is on top of slate. We put the slate in when we purchased the house 20 years ago and I have never tired of it. It has worn well and it stayed put as we redid the kitchen and mudroom. We also have a wood floor in the kitchen (which was here long before we purchased the house.)

Thanks for the input--some people say slate chips. You haven't found that, I guess, since you love it??

I am considering a light colored travertine, brick, slate and even possibly ceramic. I think ceramic would show the most dirt with the light travertine being second. I am not a huge fan of tile and am having a hard time with this!

I was going to say Marmoleum, but it sounds like you're going a whole other direction.

It's not what you use as a floor, but what color it is. My kitchen (which you entered directly into) had white/light gray linoleum--it showed everything. I added a mudroom to the house and it will have denim blue ceramic tile with a few grayish tiles thrown in randomly to lighten things up a bit. I thought long and hard before I decided on the ceramic, but decided that by using a gray grout and the darker but not real dark color, I'm hoping that the dirt will not show as much. I was originally going to go with Marmoleum, but it was a little pricey.
HTH

Here's ours:

It's a tile by Cerdomus out of Italy from their Kairos collection and is commercial-grade (super durable) but everyone thinks it's natural stone because it looks much like a travertine. We love it and have had many friends drag their DH's in to see it so they could use it in their mudrooms and bathrooms.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cerdomus Tile

What is Maroleum? Is it like Linoleum? I was thinking real Linoleum might be interesting.

Thanks for the tile link. I will check it out. Do you get it a local shop??

Ok, I just looked at Marmoleum and it is linoleum. Will this handle moisture? I thought it would be fun to have this in the laundry room. I don't airdry many things and don't have a ton of excess water in the laundry room. What do you think? as for the mudroom, the same tile will run through the hall and into the half bath, so I think I should stick with something else.

Also, mistheatre, do you have a pix of your tile? Or a website?? Thanks.

We used this antiqued,tumbled travertine. It is called philadelphia series light. I love it. It is also in our kitchen. I think it is going to be great for not showing every spec of dirt. With 9 kids regularly using the mudroom door, thats important.

We have a black/ charcoal slate entry that is almost certainly original to this 30 something year old house. Wonderful stuff that has held up to all the abuse that we've thrown at it. Mud, snow, rain, sand tracked in. Furniture dragged across it...You name it. And it is not slippery at all when wet.

However, not all slate is created equal. I've read to be wary of stone from India or China---that much of it is little more than shale, flakes off easily, mop water comes up muddy, etc.

But a good quality slate is the perfect flooring material for a mudroom, IMO.

I would rec porcelain tile - Bill V helped me w/that decision for our mud area - it's bulletproof, easy maintenance, doesn't show dirt - looks nice too

We went w/Daltile Continental slate laid in a hopscotch pattern

Link below - does not show nearly as nice online as in person

Here is a link that might be useful: continental slate

Thanks to all of your for your responses.

Acountryfarm: your floor is similar to one I was thinking about.

Jevjtr: I like your porcelain tile. Which color is it?

MNhockeymom: thanks for the info. I also like your choice.

And, on the Marmoleum, thanks for the information. I may consider it for my laundry room b/c I could have fun with some color!

Jevjtr's picture looks similar to ours, but is not even close from the link. We have American Olean Earthscapes in Ocean.

{{!gwi}}

Marmoleum works well in our house. We put it in the mudroom/laundry 12 years ago. Now we're in the middle of a major remodel and are putting new marmoleum in that room again. The old marmoleum still looked quite good but we wanted to extend it out into the adjacent hall and exercise room.

The best of its many good qualities is that it's totally green--made from linseed oil.

Kelly, We are going with Esquire Chateau Lyon laid in a hopscotch pattern, much like jejvtr's floor, except ours will use 18" and 6" tiles. I'm hoping it hides the "mud". In fact, I have to give credit to jejvtr. I believe it was your picture that first inspired me and led me to this choice. I hope ours looks 1/2 as good as I think yours does... This will be right next to a quartersawn oak hardwood floor.

kell -
Color is brazilian green - really does look like slate - not that I wanted to, but it has fooled many a trained eye!

Jay thanks for the compliment - I have to ref back to Bill V he sold me on this - That pic is old & dark - 2yrs later the floor looks as if it was just laid - Funny dh was opposed to it and gave me a hard time abou the choice... Relatively recently he said "you know, this is really a nice floor"
Just makes sense for the high traffic/complicated area it's in

Our mudroom ceramic tile was just installed, and we chose it because of its "dirt hiding" capability. The grout is brown, and the tiles are a mixture of grayish blue, brown and rust. Resembles slate, but a lot cheaper! This picture shows the dust from sanding the drywall, but hopefully, regular dirt won't show as much.

{{!gwi}}

PennyLaney

HI Kelleg--I'm glad you asked this as this is the sort of "OT" question that people are so often trying to decide along with their kitchen choices.

I don't think you said where you live--it's important to consider because of the color of the dirt!! I am from GA originally and there the dirt is red. Now I am in MA and the dirt is dark brown/black. I want to do brick in our mudroom but I will definitely try to mix in a lot of the darker grey/black bricks along with the red ones.

I think the porcelain tile that looks like slate is also really nice.

We currently have a porcelain tile that is is a pretty light greenish-grey--don't recommend it at all as it shows all dirt, no matter what the color! Up here that would also be the case for a light travertine but if you were dealing more with sand the travertine would prob be great.

good luck!

I'm in Kansas City. I guess our dirt is red to dark brown. I'll look at soccer practice in a minute!

Hello kelleg--
I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the mudroom tile yet, it has yet to be layed and probably will have to wait until a long weekend as I am doing it myself. As far as Marmoleum standing up to water, it is one of the reasons I chose it for my bathroom as I am redoing it now. I thought I'd have some fun and chose Scarlet--a bright orangey red which I really couldn't find anywhere else. I just love all the colors of Marmoleum.

We have Daltile Continental Slate in Egyptian Beige, 12x12 on the diagonal (to contrast with the vertical lines of the beadboard). It is virtually indestructible and it doesn't show dirt (good or bad? I think good). If there is one thing those of us in Maine know, it's mud!

Our kitchen flooring is also hardwood with the mudroom directly adjacent. Like jejvtr, we also used porcelain tile that looks like slate. It's from Crossville, the Strong line, in the color Nero. We used 6"x12" tile in a running bond pattern with a med gray grout.

Here's a link to a blog entry re trimming out our mudroom. It has a photo that shows the tile floor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mudroom Pocelain Tile Floor

Solid body porcelain tile, with dark grout: the darker the grout, the easier the cleaning. Makes a HUGE difference.

And be sure to get a tile that offers good traction, even wet: look for a wet CoF [cofiecient of friction] number, or pour a little water on the samples, and see how slip reistant they are.

Hi, I'm not sure anyone will read this, but will try anyway.
I am very interested in the Continental slate Brazilian Green, but had a few questions first. I'm hoping someone can help me out!
I went to see the sample yesterday and it appeared to be more green than the pics I saw online. Don't get me wrong, I really love green, but was expecting to see more variation in color. the sample was all green so it is very hard to picture what the entire floor will look like. We are planning on doing all 12x12 tiles in our basement. Any feedback from those who have this tile would be great and super helpful! thanks!

Desiree