ᐅ Who has experience with hardwood flooring in the kitchen?

We cook quite a lot and rather intensively. In our current (rental) apartment, there is hardwood flooring in the kitchen, and we were very skeptical about it. There are some dents, and you can see wear marks, etc.

Now, for the house, we faced the same choice.

What helped us was seeing the hardwood flooring in the neighboring apartment’s living room (with two children). With kids, it gets worn anyway, so a few dents in the kitchen from cooking don’t make a difference. And visually, it looks much better in the open-plan living area!

This is how it can look...

We want to do something like this in the kitchen area.

I would have more confidence in sealed hardwood flooring than in oiled. Sealed finishes are also available in matte, and in my opinion, the difference compared to oiled is hardly noticeable anymore.

Parquet flooring in the kitchen works perfectly fine. If something falls or spills, just clean it up immediately. If the parquet already has a textured surface, scratches are also less noticeable. Here, Weitzer oak parquet "Ice" with a heavily brushed finish is installed.

We also have hardwood flooring in the kitchen and have been using it for six months now; we previously had hardwood flooring in a rental property as well. Water drops generally do not damage the (oiled) hardwood as long as the water doesn't sit for hours. We also simply wipe away any grease splatters near the stove after cooking, just like we would with tiles. What I find more problematic for our hardwood flooring are things that actually fall onto it and chairs or similar furniture without felt pads, which cause dents or scratch marks. We try to avoid that as much as possible.