Tile Choices

Today I plan to visit The Tile Shop in Grand Rapids to look over floor tile options for the house.  The primary flooring through most of the ground floor will be the white oak that Kyle and Dave found in R.J.'s garage.  It is now being dried and milled into tongue-and-groove boards.  The upstairs bedrooms and hall will be carpeted.

However, that leaves the entry foyer, mud room and laundry, and the bathrooms to be floored.  These spaces need a water-resistant surface.  In addition, in the living room we have to build a heat-resistant pad for the wood stove.  Tile would make a good surface in all these areas.  But the options are nearly endless, and the per-square-foot price range is roughly from $4.00 to something close to the national debt.

The least expensive choice would be porcelain tile.  Strong and durable, porcelain tile has been used as a construction material for centuries.  There are lots of manufacturers and hundreds of colors and patterns to choose from.  Some sellers boast that Italy is their tile source — thereby giving their stock a little European flavor — but they don't point out that Italy is the world's leading manufacturer of porcelain tile.  When I've looked at porcelain products before, I've found that some are very hard to distinguish from natural stone, while others look like a bad photocopy of a rock from somebody's back yard.  Looking at the Shop's web site, a few have caught my eye:

Comet Metallo

Canyon Musk

Delhi Nature

Amalfi Noce

Another option is quartzite, a metamorphic rock created when sandstone is subjected to heat and pressure in the earth's crust.  It is usually light colored, white or gray, but may include colors which result from mineral impurities.  Quartzite is tough, durable, and not slippery.  But it costs about twice as much as porcelain.  Some options are:

Green Mica

Copper Polished

Silver Grey

And, of course, there's slate, another metamorphic rock derived from a shale-like sedimentary rock.  When properly cut in the quarry, it tends to split into large sheets.  Slate is another traditional building material, and is especially favored for roofs in the UK.  It, too, is durable, attractive, and a bit pricey.

Copper Rust

Jack Multi

As for wall colors, I've decided to take my cue from the surrounding landscape.  Therefore, I've settled on some shade of very light brown for the downstairs walls, and probably a very light blue (or maybe light green) upstairs.  So I need something that works with that scheme, provides a contrast, and doesn't bankrupt me.  Choices, choices. •••