my flooring dilemma

16 years ago

I am worried about my choice of flooring, and I need either reassurance or some great ideas of what to do instead.

We are getting Shaker style cabinets in a natural finish, stainless appliances, and soapstone countertops. I have always wanted terra cotta tile (squares, probably 12 x 12, in either a Saltillo or Italian look). The more I think about it, though, the less sure I am about this choice. I absolutely love the look of it, but I'm not sure whether it will go with the Shaker cabinets--is the style too different? Also, I'm concerned whether the color is too close to the color of the cabinets. We have wood floors in most of the house and brick floors in the sunroom that is adjacent to the kitchen.

I would have gone with wood floors in the kitchen, too, but our house just has too much wood for that. It's a 1942 ranch style house that was designed to look almost like a hunting lodge inside. There are pecky cypress walls in almost every room (including the kitchen), oak floors throughout, and even pecky cypress ceilings in the living room (which is next to the kitchen).

My only real colors are blue and a little bit of green. I'll have the soapstone countertops (black) and stainless appliances, a blue and green stained glass light over the kitchen table, blue and green Polish pottery displayed on shelves, and cobalt blue bottles displayed.

I need something that will blend with all that without looking too bland. Blend. Not bland.

Any thoughts about the terra cotta or other ideas??

This is the floor "look" I have been lusting over for years:

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Comments (6)

holligator
Original Author
16 years ago
I should have said "Shaker style cabinets in a natural cherry finish..."
holligator
Original Author
16 years ago
Sorry to bump my own post here...but I could really, really, really use some input. I need to put in an order soon for my flooring, and I'm just seriously second guessing myself. The only option besides terra cotta that has really appealed to me is stained concrete. Ideas? Thoughts?

Anyone have this combo (natural cherry Shaker cabs, soapstone counters, and terracotta floors) that you could share some pics of??
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shezzy_in_sj
16 years ago
I like the idea of the tile floor. Whether the color of them works with your cabinets depends on what you want.

Associated warm tones sometimes compete and clash, and sometimes blend and pull together. If you have a sample of your cabinet material, I'd take it around with you on tile shopping excursions.

Also, do you want your cherry cabinets to be the star, to really stand out? Do you want its reds to come out, or its browns? For me, I wanted the red in the stain on my alder cabinets to punch, and I found that with a yellow wall paint the redder they looked. But I had always thought I'd have red walls in my "dream" kitchen - but red brought out the golds and browns in the stain which I didn't like.

If you want to pull out the red in the natural cherry, try to find a yellower tile. If you stay more orange, then I think the cabinets will blend more than punch - but you have to becareful they don't clash.

You know what would be stunning, imo, is if you intermixed some bluish and greenish accent tiles (mexican hand painted??) in with the saltillo flooring to "cool" down the floor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Some saltillo pictures
holligator
Original Author
16 years ago
Oooh! That's very helpful about the reds/yellows. I never would have thought about it that way.

Do you think something like this would work?
shezzy_in_sj
16 years ago
Yeah, just so long as if they pop out the red in your natural cherry, that is what you want. I think it would be not only stunning, but it would kind of put a personality tweak into your other elements that sound very traditional.

Those are beautiful tiles. You could, if possible, get the grout on the floor to be less brown and more brown gray, to approach the soapstone element. A cool colored grout would warm up the yellow in the above tile - BUT it would add more contrast and that might not be worth the "warming" of the yellow.
holligator
Original Author
16 years ago
I'll start getting some yellower tile samples and see how it looks. Thanks so much!

Any thoughts about stained concrete with this combo? I'll be doing some major plumbing work (tearing up some of the slab) to get the prep sink into the island. Also, the floor will have to be raised somewhat to align with the adjoining rooms (long story), so concrete seems reasonably doable.

If I did concrete, would you still suggest going with a yellowish tint? Another completely different option would be to go with a "green lawn" stain. Before settling on soapstone, I toyed with the idea of concrete countertops in in the "green lawn" stain. A little different color might be nice.