tiles or wood for kitchen/living/dining area

J

joshea

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Hi

have large open plan kitchen/living/dining area

I have chosen a matt porcelin base coloured tile called palladium avoria

There is underfloor heating and a standard height ceiling

There is a stove in corner of living

I cant decide whether to tile the entire area or only the kitchen with wooden floors in the living and dining

Has anyone advise on this
 
If underfloor heating is installed in both the living and dining area, then maybe go for the tiles throughout, especially if it's all open-plan. Even if you put wooden floors in living area, you're going to soften things by putting in a large rug, so why break up the floor ambience - let it flow throughout - also, same cleaning required throughout!
 
Hi Joshea. We're doing something similar to you - We will have an open plan kitchen and dining room but a high A ceiling and I have the same issue. I'm putting in a cream country kitchen and will put a matt oatmeal coloured tile with it. For continuity's sake it would look lovely to carry the tile throughout but I wonder if a tile will look a little cold in the dining room - and you'll also have a living area. To make it cosy and homely, we've decided to create a sort of natural divide between the kitchen and dining room by placing an island in the centre and laying a wood floor in the dining room half of the room.

We're not having underfloor heating so I can't make any suggestions to you based on that, but I imagine no builder would lay timber over underfloor heating if it were to cause any problems. The main thing would be to insure to get the timber well in advance of laying it and store it somewhere warm that it can dry out and swell to whatever size its meant to be at room temperature. If timber isn't totally dried out, it can shrink after its laid and you'll find the planks separating at the joins. If the opposite occurs, the timber will swell when it warms in the house and the floor can buckle - seen that happen twice. Once the builder/carpenter knows what he's doing, it'll be fine.

Don't know if this will be of any help to you but it's nice to know someone's in a similar boat!
 
Hi,

I live in a house with an open plan kitchen/dining/living room. I tiled the kitchen portion and put a lovely hardwood in the dining/living areas. I think it works very well as it mentally divides up the various functions of the area. I wouldn't recommend tiles throughout - the basic fact is that tiles are cold and we don't live in a mediterranean climate!
 
A friend of mine who is an interior designer has a very large open plan kitchen, dining, living room. She tiled throughout. they also have underfloor heating.
 
I would think about not just the visual element but also the acoustic element - tiles are very hard, so they create a very echoey, cold acoustic. In a large space you don't need the echo, and you may want the warmth in the living area, so personally I would go with a tile-less living area.
 
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