Probably the biggest decision we made during this renovation was our flooring. Although this process has been a gigantic headache and inconvenience, we were happy that a kitchen flood meant our hideous orange floor sadly had to go. Now the world is our oyster when it comes to choosing a new floor. We knew immediately that we were going to choose either tile or the new darling of the flooring world – premium vinyl tile.
I did tons of research, we went to store, our contractors brought over samples, I did more research, we discussed a lot, and I did more research. My biggest gripe with having tile is that in the winter, it’s cold. My downstairs is freezing. I run the heater to warm it up, but the hot air rises (duh!) and my upstairs gets hot while my downstairs stays cold. This annoyance swayed me to vinyl. I know people who have vinyl and love it. It is durable, looks like real wood, and if you have a flood or mishap, you can simply pull up the pieces that need replacing and snap in new ones. Plus, vinyl is softer, warmer, and acoustically better than tile. All that sounds so appealing which is why I felt like the whole world wanted us to get vinyl.
After all this research and discussions, my conclusion is that although vinyl looks amazing and has really great pros, it has 2 downsides that held me back. First, it can scratch. Not necessarily from your dog’s nails, but say if you need to move your refrigerator or your sofa. Also, I read a few blogs that said the vinyl color can fade over time. I tried looking into this more and could not find any sort of timeline for fading. 2 years or 20 years? I only found articles saying luxury vinyl tile will not fade as fast as cheaper options. My downstairs is flooded with natural light the entire day so needless to say, this worried me.
I know it’s new and trendy, but there’s another hesitation. It’s trendy. My design style is modern but timeless. I know styles change and in 20 years I’ll be saying, “What was I thinking?” when I designed this house, but I didn’t want to have those same thoughts about my floor in let’s say 5 years. I couldn’t be convinced that vinyl is here to stay like tile and hardwood and I’m only redoing this floor once. In the end, we opted to stay with tile, albeit a major upgraded tile. We went with French Larkwood and we absolutely love it. Every day I admire my floor and it brings me joy.
Before 
After
Although tile is a hard material and not as acoustically pleasing, it’s durability and timelessness is what made our final decision. Vinyl is durable, but I knew there would be some part of me stressing and tensing up every time I saw my son drag is dump truck or push a chair across my floor.
This brings me to my final thoughts about picking out the right materials for your home. It’s important to pick the proper materials for the proper purpose. You wouldn’t put carpet in your kitchen, right? A great insight our contractor gave us was that if we were to choose vinyl, do not choose a vinyl with a cork backing. Those he told us are more prone to water damage and mold. An insider tip that helped us narrow down our flooring choices. But overall, pick what you love. We had many people giving us their opinion and yes, sometimes opinions are great. Is this too dark for the space? Does this clash with that? But when it comes to down to it, you are living in your house. Not your contractor, neighbor, friend, or mother. Styles come and go, (and let the fear of regret go) but if it’s something you truly love, then you’ll always be happy in your space.
