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quincin

Suggestions for flooring transition between open rooms

quincin
13 years ago

Hi! I've recently found this forum and am amazed at the wealth of information and support!

We are fairly well along in our design phase of our kitchen, but we've recently made one change that is throwing off our original flooring plans.

We were originally going to keep an existing doorway between K & FR, have tile floors in K and HW floors in FR. At the end of the K, there was a banquette flanked by 2 bookcase-topped cabinets. The transition would have been easy - end the tile at the doorway.

We decided to open up that doorway and buried the header, leaving a smallish wall (8-10"...not done yet) wall on the FP end for light switches, etc. Now we have decided to put a built-in hutch between the window in the K and the slider in the FR (link below has basic layout drawing illustrating what I mean...)

Now, I can't come up with a good design for putting tile in the K and HW in the FR. If I run the tile into the FR, it breaks up the room in that direction....if I run the wood floor into the kitchen around the banquette area, it "shortens" the kitchen area and chops it up.

I'm not opposed to putting HW in the kitchen...have some durability concerns with kids, pets, water, etc., but I can live with it.

I just want to make sure that I've exhausted all of my ideas before committing to that change :)

Does anyone have any input?

(Additionally, anyone know how to embed images in your post? I'm not seeing an 'upload image' link as it says in the help file...)

Here is a link that might be useful: basic layout

Comments (9)

  • granite-girl
    13 years ago

    Why don't you do a diagonal break from the kitchen wall to the edge of the sliding glass door ?

  • jrueter
    13 years ago

    Welcome! Hope we can help.

    What about splitting the difference? Make the transition between the hutch and the banquette, parallel to the long axis of the kitchen. It looks like this will be even with (or very close to even with) the edge of the cabinet opposite.

    For the best info skip the help file and read the "new to GW thread" along with loads of other information kindly and exhaustively assembled by buehl and others it includes how to include pictures

    Here is a link that might be useful: read me thread

  • jem199
    13 years ago

    I think you could do tile and wood and have them transition nicely from one to the other. Here's some picts I found of transitions. The first one shows a nice way to transition tile from room to room by running in different directions:

    {{!gwi}}

    If you want to do it all tile, you can definitely find a tile designer to help you. Tiles don't have to be square, they can be brick, random, etc. And they can design the rooms to fit together nicely. If you really want tile in your kitchen, I'd start at the tile store and let them help you.

    I understand your concern. If you went to my relative's house, you'd wonder what they were thinking with their flooring. They have an open floor plan with 6'x 5' slate entryway, berber in the cove on the left, cherry in the dining area on the right, fancy embossed carpeting in the family room in front which flows into the white vinyl floor in the kitchen which meets a back hallway with ivory vinyl which meets the cherry dining area and then meets a mudroom with grey indoor/outdoor carpeting. Seven different floors in one big room! The home is only 10 years old and was designed this way. DH and I were amazed when they had five different floors and 'bout lost it when they added the cherry. The embossed carpet put us over the top. Every time we go there we're hoping there's a new floor to look at ;-) We're really not that snobby. The variety just really peaked our interest. My husband had me paged at work when he saw they had a #7. He was so excited to tell me about it. lol

    The link below is a wood transition, but I could see an inlaid wood design flowing nicely into tile too.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

  • Fori
    13 years ago

    Don't worry about flooring just yet! Get your other elements together and keep in mind that transitions are very doable and a little detail you can deal with satisfactorily later. Hopefully Jem's photos have convinced you it's gonna be okay!

    (psst--wood is tougher than you think!)

  • quincin
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thank you everyone, for your replies! Some good ideas :) I wouldn't have an issue with the transition if the hutch wasn't in the picture. I'd rather not have the transition bisect that piece of furniture....

    Running one flooring type up until the kitchen end of the hutch might work....I'll have to see how that looks from the far side of the kitchen. I was also thinking of some type of inlaid "carpet" type design in front of the hutch, and then have the rest of the floor just transition as usual between the rooms....but we're trying to keep it simple.

    Thanks, everyone, keep the great ideas coming!

  • willis13
    13 years ago

    I'd be tempted to keep the family room floor right into the banquette area, and put your transition at the end of the kitchen cabinets - it looks like that is almost level with the end of the opposite wall.

    I had this same dilemma, really wanted cork in my kitchen, but couldn't find any good transition point. I ended up with wood throughout. My personal feeling is that if there isn't a physical barrier between the two rooms, there shouldn't be a visual one (ie change in floor). Esp if you're trying for open concept. But that's me :)

  • rufinorox
    13 years ago

    we used a granite as the transition from tile to hardwood floor.

  • quincin
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks again for all of the ideas - I love wood and have it throughout the rest of the house...so we may just go with that. But now I have some alternatives to think about as well!

  • formerlyflorantha
    13 years ago

    I appreciate the uploads and links to transitions between floors. Thanks, all!

    Think hard about ceramic tile in kitchen. It's really hard on your back; if you work on a hard floor elsewhere during the day, you might be grateful NOT to stand on one at home as well. Also, tile offers zero resilience for breakable dropped items.

    Be sure to take a look at Marmoleum before you make your final plan. You can do some very attractive custom patterns, including the areas alongside the wood floor. Bands of color could be used to expand the narrow space visually, if planned skillfully.

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