ᐅ Open-Plan Living Area with Kitchen: Which Flooring Materials Are Suitable?
Created on: 28 Feb 2021 11:11
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Forsberg21
Hi,
For my new apartment (which will be rented out), I need to choose the floor materials. The living room floor will be brushed oak, finished with natural oil (similar to the second photo).
Nowadays, it is common for the entire living and dining area, including the kitchen, to be fitted with hardwood flooring. However, since I’m renting out the apartment and personally prefer tiles in the kitchen area (due to water exposure), I plan to have tiles installed in the kitchen. The first photo shows the kitchen layout.
Here are my questions:
1. Does this seem old-fashioned, or are there any disadvantages to this approach?
2. What size and color would you recommend? I was thinking of 30 x 60 cm (12 x 24 inches) cream-colored tiles. Would square tiles (50 x 50 cm, 20 x 20 inches) be better?
3. What else should I pay attention to? At the transition between tiles and hardwood flooring, it is important that no tile edge is visible, as that would look really unattractive.
For my new apartment (which will be rented out), I need to choose the floor materials. The living room floor will be brushed oak, finished with natural oil (similar to the second photo).
Nowadays, it is common for the entire living and dining area, including the kitchen, to be fitted with hardwood flooring. However, since I’m renting out the apartment and personally prefer tiles in the kitchen area (due to water exposure), I plan to have tiles installed in the kitchen. The first photo shows the kitchen layout.
Here are my questions:
1. Does this seem old-fashioned, or are there any disadvantages to this approach?
2. What size and color would you recommend? I was thinking of 30 x 60 cm (12 x 24 inches) cream-colored tiles. Would square tiles (50 x 50 cm, 20 x 20 inches) be better?
3. What else should I pay attention to? At the transition between tiles and hardwood flooring, it is important that no tile edge is visible, as that would look really unattractive.
netuser schrieb:
Is yours oiled or lacquered?Oiled 🙂
Winniefred18 Mar 2021 09:27In our previous rental apartment, we had an open-plan kitchen and parquet flooring throughout. It worked reasonably well, and there was no water damage when we moved out, even though the kids spilled liquids several times that ran under the cabinets, so we were never completely sure if we had wiped everything up. I would still always prefer tile flooring. Our parquet was probably not of very high quality, or perhaps it just wasn’t suitable for our situation, as within only 1.5 years after moving in, there were numerous small damages to the parquet. If it had been my own property, I would have been quite upset. We really took good care of it.
I’m going to be a bit controversial and say the word people don’t like to hear here: we chose VINYL. 😉
I know not everyone is a fan of the feel or the look, but so far we’re very happy with it.
We installed vinyl with an oak look throughout the living room and kitchen area, fully glued down. It’s really easy to keep clean, durable, can handle some moisture or grease if accidents happen, and looks seamless.
If vinyl is not an option, I would rather go for wood-look tiles. Personally, though, I find those a bit too cold for a living room. It’s a matter of taste.
Especially for rental properties, I wouldn’t choose hardwood flooring. We rented a house with hardwood floors for the past nine years. No one wanted to invest money in maintenance or refinishing, spills happened here and there with previous tenants, the floor was scratched beyond repair—no matter how much I cleaned, the living room floor was always an eyesore to me. :/
I know not everyone is a fan of the feel or the look, but so far we’re very happy with it.
We installed vinyl with an oak look throughout the living room and kitchen area, fully glued down. It’s really easy to keep clean, durable, can handle some moisture or grease if accidents happen, and looks seamless.
If vinyl is not an option, I would rather go for wood-look tiles. Personally, though, I find those a bit too cold for a living room. It’s a matter of taste.
Especially for rental properties, I wouldn’t choose hardwood flooring. We rented a house with hardwood floors for the past nine years. No one wanted to invest money in maintenance or refinishing, spills happened here and there with previous tenants, the floor was scratched beyond repair—no matter how much I cleaned, the living room floor was always an eyesore to me. :/
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Forsberg2119 Mar 2021 11:02Winniefred schrieb:
In our previous rented apartment, we had an open kitchen and parquet flooring everywhere. It worked fine, and there was no water damage when we moved out, even though the kids spilled things multiple times and it ran under the cabinets, so we were never sure if we had cleaned everything properly. Still, I would always prefer tiles. Our parquet was probably not very high quality or simply not durable, as only 1.5 years after moving in, we noticed several small damages... If it were my own property, I would have been upset. And we were really careful. Oiled or lacquered?
According to the building specifications, parquet flooring is required in the study, bedroom, and living room/kitchen area in my case. If you want to install tiles there instead, the builder charges an additional 35 € per m² (about 3.25 USD per square foot) because tile installation is more labor-intensive than parquet. Honestly, I don’t think tiles are suitable for bedrooms or living rooms, not even in a rental. Tiles are already installed in the hallway and kitchen area, which I would prefer as well if I were moving in myself. Especially in the hallway, parquet can be problematic because it’s easy to bring in dirt from outside, and sometimes that’s unavoidable.
Winniefred19 Mar 2021 11:03No idea, it was just a rental apartment^^.
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