Time for the fun part of our mudroom addition project! With the bones of the room in place, the pretty things started to come together. First up: FLOORING!
Knowing that this room is going to be all about function, I wanted to make some kind of a statement with the floor. The walls are largely reserved for functional pieces, so the floor is the largest swath of blank space to do anything fun.
We tossed around the idea of doing a brick floor, to play off of the exposed brick in our kitchen, but after some research, it appeared that brick floors are actually not as durable as one might expect. They are also hard to clean because they are so porous, which is not the best bet for a space so heavily trafficked. Hardwood was a viable option, but our whole house is hardwood, so I wanted a bit of variation from the rest of the house.
Tile really ticked all of the boxes for us.
I love the look of wood floors in a herringbone pattern, like something you’d find in an NYC pre-war apartment, so I became obsessed with the idea of herringbone tile for our laundry/mudroom.
Our contractor tried to talk me out of it and the hubs was initially hesitant that it wouldn’t be worth the extra $600 in labor, but I remained undeterred! This plan was definitely not something revolutionary, so I’m not sure why it was such a hard sell. I envisioned good-sized tiles, rather than a shorter or thinner tile that might be more typical for this pattern. I was also picturing something with a woodgrain texture, kind of reminiscent of my initial inspiration, but in a gray tone, with charcoal grout. I love this combination for being forgiving with all of the action that room gets.
I am able to picture a complete finished product, just by looking the individual elements, but sometimes I forget that not everyone works this way. {I guess this is part of the reason I am a wedding planner!} It took a little convincing, but the hubs was quickly on board. When you’re investing so much money in a home addition and transforming part of your garage into a new room in your home, at that point, $600 feels like a drop in the bucket! {Another parallel to planning a wedding…}
We didn’t want to make this process too complicated, so we just loaded up the boys and ran to Lowe’s to see what they had in stock. We figured we’d look into other options if we didn’t see anything we liked that was within our budget, but luckily, we found several options. This one was the clear winner for us!
It’s amazing that we actually agreed so quickly on this. We have a little window of overlap in what we each like with design, but when we’re making choices like this, there is usually some kind of heated debate involved. Being married to a lawyer, I have picked up some of his argument debate techniques to prove my case. But, he was the one who spotted this tile and it was exactly what I was looking for. Good find, honey!
Even after we had the tile delivered and I placed a few pieces herringbone style to demonstrate my idea, our contractor/family friend wasn’t fully convinced. Pretty sure he thought I was crazy. But once the tile was down, BOOM. Vindication.
Next up… cabinetry, paint and countertops! xoxo
Beautiful!
What color grout did you use? Or did you just but the tiles right up against each other?
Thanks!!
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Thanks! We used a charcoal grout. Best way to hide the sins of a mudroom!! =)
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I love that kind of flooring want to use that in living room and down hallway
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How big of grout lines did you use
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.5 cm
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How many sq feet did you do for $600? I’m looking to doing about 1200sqft
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The $600 was actually just the additional labor charge for the herringbone pattern. We have about 400 sq ft in that space.
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How long a go did you purchase this? And do you have the product #
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August or September of 2015. The link I included in the post to the tile is still live and the product appears to still be available.
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What color paint did you use on the walls?
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I’m actually writing about that for Monday’s post next week! Check back!
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Beautiful! Did this connect to a regular wood floor, and what you thought of that or if you had any pics? I love this but it would come up against a “real” wood floor in my house. Thanks!
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Great question! I’ll add it to my post that I’m working on for Monday! Check back!!
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I absolutely love your floor. After showing my husband your pics he agreed to re-do our floors. Sadly Lowe’s does not have this particular tile available in my area. I’m hoping to find something similar and will definitely be doing the herringbone pattern. Thanks for the inspiration.
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You did a fantastic job. Way to stick to your vision and not be deterred.
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The floor is beautiful. We’ve got a lot in common. I’m an event planner as well and can immediately see the vision for a project. It takes my husband a little time to ge there too (but it’s so cute to watch the evolution).
We also did a herringbone project in one of our children’s rooms. We used cedar planks in a herringbone pattern over an entire wall. He thought I was nuts. But he agrees that it is one of the best accent walls in our home.
I love the floors. I might steal this for our master bath renovation. I LOVE it!!
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This looks so beautiful! I love how it turned out especially the herringbone layout. We did wood looking tile in our home last year. It was tough to do it on our own but so worth it.
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Hello!
Great post! I shared it in my blog about why tile is awesome!
Feel free to check it out at http://www.hhlnorthwest.com/tile-floors-trend/
Great blog!
-Ashley
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Ooh, I love it! I am trying to decide between real wood or wood-patterned tile for the floor in my office renovation. I checked Lowe’s website and these tiles appear gray… your floors look like a warm brown, which color did you use?
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They definitely read more gray in person.
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Love, Love , Love this look! 😍😍
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Love it! Any idea how slippery this would be if some water got splashed on it? We have a few dogs and being elderly, some tile is very slippery when wet. (Water bowl slobber!)
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Absolutely beautiful, I’m trying to talk my best friend into doing this style ourselves in her home and mine,do you believe it can be done by some ametures?
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Absolutely beautiful! You have good taste and a good eye for design😍
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Love this! I noticed your washer dryer are up on a trim height box. Why did you choose to do this and did you tile the top of the box?
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It’s purely functional, actually. That’s where we had to put the ductwork for the dryer. It’s also kind of convenient because it puts the front loaders at a good height!
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